So it's the Christmas and new year season and as always, families meet up to update each other on what they don't post online and do some low level body shaming to children 'na umenona' only for the children to smile back before they ask you if your phone has games. If it has, best of buddies..if it doesn't, well, wanajipea shughuli. It is during this season that I answer most questions related to my throne (read wheelchair) like Tanga Tanga politicians explaining bottom up. The questions from children are simple but yet complicated..like why my chair is different from the rest and what is the cause of my condition..When I feel like its too hard to explain, I normally let the child be and let the kid run the show. Give them my phone to play games or just chat with them. If that doesn't work, I carry them or let them push me around much to their enjoyment.
Sometime back my friend told me disability is a hush hush topic in the family setting unless there's someone disabled in the family or in the neighbourhood. With such a precedence, it becomes hard to explain what disability is and the result is that the stigma around disability is entrenched. When you let a kid play with a wheelchair they become empathetic to people with disabilities and they become very resourceful in finding simple solutions to every day problems..I have been made to play games with children who don't see any problem with my disability despite them having a thousand questions as to how I became disabled. In future such children become advocates of equality and inclusion which the world is so much grappling with. Once a lecturer changed the exam venue just for me and on inquiry, the lecturer told me his sister is disabled so inclusion comes first in his order of priorities.
The next time a child asks about disability, don't shush the kid off the question. Explain what's a wheelchair in positive terms instead of telling the child wheelchair ni ya mtu mgonjwa. Let the kid push it if or she wants to. Let the kid understand that disability is a manageable condition not a sickness.