More Than One Thing
Why disability should never erase everything else that makes someone who they are.
As Pride Month begins in the UK each June, we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and the ongoing push for equality, visibility and joy.
It felt like a good moment to ask a simple question.
When someone hears that you are disabled, what comes next in their mind?
If your answer is “nothing,” you are not alone.
Too often, disabled becomes the full stop.
Not a comma.
Not part of a longer sentence.
Just the end of it.
And that is where the problem begins.
One label to rule them all
Disability is one of the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
Alongside it sit age, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.
On paper, we recognise that people have multiple identities.
In practice, something strange happens.
As soon as disability enters the conversation, it often takes up all the space.
You are no longer seen as a person who might also be Black, gay, Muslim, trans, a parent, or in your twenties.
You are simply disabled.
A single story. A single label. A simplified version of a much more interesting reality.
Can you be disabled and something else
Of course you can.
The real question is whether society allows you to be.
You might be a disabled woman, but people forget the woman part.
You might be a disabled person of colour, but conversations focus on access and ignore race.
You might be a disabled trans person, and systems struggle to move beyond one box on a form.
It can feel like there is an unspoken rule that says one identity at a time, please.
The danger of the single story
The idea of the single story is a powerful one.
When we reduce people to one defining feature, we lose everything else that makes them who they are.
With disability, that story often swings between two extremes.
Pity or inspiration.
Neither leaves much room for real life.
Where is the space for humour, frustration, ambition, boredom, creativity or joy?
Where is the space for someone to be complicated?
Because people are complicated.
That is the point.
Being seen as whole is quietly radical
In a world that likes neat categories, being recognised as a whole person is surprisingly radical.
It is the moment someone asks you about your work rather than your condition.
It is being invited to speak about something other than disability.
It is a conversation that does not begin and end with access.
It is also the small, everyday things.
A dating profile that starts with music and interests, not mobility aids.
A workplace conversation that focuses on skills before adjustments.
A social setting where you are simply part of the group, not the exception within it.
Disability is part of the story, not the whole story
Disability matters. It shapes experiences. It can influence how someone moves through the world.
But it is not a personality.
It sits alongside everything else that makes someone who they are.
Preferences.
Beliefs.
Relationships.
Interests.
The strong opinions about tea that somehow always appear in conversation.
It intersects with identity. It does not erase it.
What can we do differently
This is not about complicated theory. It is about small shifts in thinking.
Recognise that people have multiple identities.
Do not assume disability is the only thing that defines someone.
Avoid flattening people into one dimension.
Ask questions that explore who someone is, not just what they need.
Widen representation.
Make space for disabled voices in conversations that are not only about disability.
A simple truth
People are not categories.
They are layered, complex, occasionally contradictory and often far more interesting than the labels we assign to them.
You can be disabled and joyful.
Disabled and frustrated.
Disabled and ambitious.
Disabled and quietly getting on with your day.
You can be many things at once.
In the end
The goal is not to remove the word disabled.
The goal is to stop letting it erase everything else.
Because no one is a single label.
You are not a tick box.
You are the whole spreadsheet.
Probably with colour coding, a few hidden columns, and a note somewhere that says “no, I am not just one thing.”