Respect Is A 14 Letter Word (Representation)

As always, all questions in this article are rhetorical unless I state otherwise

I had a realization recently: to me, representation comes down to respect.

If you’re not actively trying to include and show wheelchair users, I believe you don’t respect us. No matter if you’re a wheelchair user, able-bodied, or nondisabled.

Let’s first establish the definition of respect.

Respect is a noun and a verb. In the way I’m talking about in this article, Merriam-Webster defines the noun version as “an act of giving particular attention : consideration” and “high or special regard”. Merriam-Webster defines the verb as “to consider worthy of high regard”.

In other words, respect, to me, is seeing us as and acknowledging we are human beings.

Also, gathering these definitions, I discovered the definitions of consideration are also what I mean. “Continuous and careful thought”, “a matter weighed or taken into account when formulating an opinion or plan”, “thoughtful and sympathetic regard”, and “an opinion obtained by reflection” all come to mind when I say and/or think about respect.

Whether you’re a romantic and/or sexual partner, a platonic friend, a family member, or a complete stranger to a wheelchair user, why not show us? If you respect someone or a group of people, why wouldn’t you want to include them?

If your company posts photos and/or videos of different human beings but doesn’t include wheelchair users, that's exclusion.

If you’re a music artist and you include different human beings in your music videos but not/except wheelchair users, you are excluding us.

If you’re a filmmaker and you aren’t including wheelchair users in front of and behind the camera you are completely excluding us.

If you’re in a team or company meeting and don’t see a single wheelchair user, we’re being excluded.

Etc.

You may not have the intention of disrespecting or excluding us, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. If you’re not actively trying to include us, you’re actively excluding us. That’s just a fact.

Excluding us doesn’t automatically mean you’re a bad person or an asshole or anything like that by any means. You could be acting out of ignorance. To me, what really shows me what kind of person you are is what you do after you receive the/this knowledge/education. If you do nothing knowing you’re hurting people, that tells me what I need to know. If you do something (and things) to include us, that goes a long way to me.

There are so many people who exclude wheelchair users (Harry Styles, Hayley Kiyoko, Pink - to name a few). None of them are bad people or assholes in my book. They/you are ignorant to this.

Wheelchair users are human beings. We deserve our presence to be acknowledged. We deserve to be respected.