Sorry, there's no room for people in a wheelchair. The rest of you can come in, but not her." The doorman at the club pointing at me, clearly annoyed. "Come on, I'm not going to take up a lot of space, and we can leave the wheelchair outside?" I asked and tried to look for a solution. "If you can't walk, you can't come in, he answered.
Yuck! Look at those scars?! Why doesn't she hide them?" the teenage girls at the beach blurted out loudly. They didn't even try to hide what they were thinking.
Someone in a wheelchair on the catwalk? Who wants to see that? Wheelchair users should be hidden away!. It is apparently provoking to some that a paraplegic catwalks clothes, even the paralympic clothing collection.
So many incidents show I'm not the only one experiencing this. We have to keep telling these stories, to see our similarities over differences. Therefore, this feature, cover photos and photo series are important.
I want to show off the scars. I want to show that we all can come forward with both our strengths and our weaknesses. And I want to show that despite all differences, we are part of the same community.
Maybe next time a person in a wheelchair is on the front page, the paralysis isn't even a topic. The goal is to get there. Cover of KK-Magazine er kanskje ikke lammelsen tema en gang. Målet er å komme dit.