Choose your words wisely.

    Something struck me while being out and about over the weekend. I've experienced this before at times, but one can only take so much before taking to the blogosphere and posting.
    I believe it is important for people with disabilities to be all they can be, and to use their capabilities to their fullest potential. Then again, I believe it's important for anyone to do this, regardless of disability/ability. We all have our strongpoints, areas of expertise that we like to talk about. Whether these are from an occupation, side hobby, or just from plain reading, we all gain information that we are seeking from sources such as television shows, movies, books, the internet, etc. However, I've at times heard some words used describing people with disabilities demonstrating their knowledge about any subject. I've seen some people think it's quite "amazing" when we answer questions requiring us to demonstrate knowledge, to think. "Amazing" is jut one word, and other words I can think of can be "astonishing" or "incredible" or "special" or just plain "wow." I particularly dislike the word "cute." So...it's "cute" when a person with a disability gives advice regarding something - whether it is a restaurant, movie, mall, health food, etc. - to another person (who asked for the advice in the first place) with or without a disability? Really? Surely one's tone of voice when using these words can add to it, and although the tone of voice is something I find grating, I find these words even moreso. It's not "amazing" or "cute" when someone without a disability gives advice, is it?  It's normal. People ask opinions a lot, and if it's normal for people to respond, then surely it's normal for a person with (and whithout) a disability to respond as well. We are not "special" as we are just like everyone else. I wonder what it has to do with? Do some people not take people with disabilities seriously?
   Fortunately, I don't see this too often anymore, which means maybe a message is getting around. But I wanted to blog about this, as I still see people occasionally do this.