My friend Leo who manufactures and sells eccentric toys and is a leader in the fight to cure blindness in our lifetimes once spoke to a toy maker in the far east and pointed out that the toys under discussion were defective–as I remember it, the heds were on backwards. “Ah, Mr. Hauser,” said the toy man. “Problem is just opportunity in drag!”
I rarely let a day go by without thinking of this story.
Once upon a time my father told me that in his view I seemed unable to learn from my mistakes. My father was very angry at me because I’d walked out of an exam in an English class and accordingly I’d failed the course. I should point out that I’d never done that kind of thing before. My father was painting me with a broad brush to say the least. Nevertheless I told him that failing the exam was a good thing. It would be some thirty years before I’d meet Leo.
“What in the Hell do you mean?” my father sputtered. He was the president of the college where I had just failed the course. He was taking the matter rather personally I thought.
“Look,” I said. “I’m legally blind and frankly I don’t have enough help to read and study. I get head aches. Has it ever occurred to you that in my efforts to seem entirely independent and perfect that I might be genuinely in need of help and support?”
My father was a good guy but he was not very mindful of my disability. He had a “mind over matter”view of the human condition. This quite likely had to do with the fact that his father was a Finnish Lutheran minister who had a very strict view of our responsibilities regarding divine will. A simpler way to say this is: “Just get on with it.”
Disability requires a different language than that. One doesn’t say to a person who travels with a wheelchair: “Well just squeeze and crawl into the inaccessible bathroom my friend , for we at the University haven’t had the time to make this building accessible and right now we have bigger problems than your obvious character problem.”
The problem however is also an opportunity.
The person who says I need access is the one who opens the doors for others who will be coming.
The administrator who says that providing an accommodation for a student with a disability is really a burden is failing to see the opportunity in drag. When you bring true diversity and accessibility to a college campus you also bring more friends to the parents and alumni communities. This means more donors and even more opportunities.
Disabled people are not a burden.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 
I like your posts on disability in higher education. Actually, I’ve had very similar statements to your fictive example made to me. The tone toward me was often hostile. Yes, I kept pushing and some of the changes were made.
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good post!
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