1/ Social workers talking about disability thread in @socialworktutor group. What do people with diabetes think about the word disability?
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2/This is an interesting thread.

Language is important - really important.

I am a type 1 diabetic, which is classed as a disability. This legally requires reasonable adjustments at work. But do I see myself as disabled? It’s hard to say.... 3/

3/ I don’t have an issue with talking about being type 1 diabetic, the impact it has, how it makes me feel to make 100s of tiny decisions every day including :

- weighing food so I can calculate carb content
.... 4/

4/ - calculating my insulin to carbohydrate ratio so I can take the correct amount of insulin
- correcting a high or low level
- trying to account for stress or illness which is impossible
... /5

What I take issue with is peoples assumptions and judgments about how diabetes occurs and what it means and the impact it has on my day to day living. Somehow the judgements make it appear I am somehow less. This could be about what I can or can’t eat or that I ate too much sugar

6/ to begin with and it’s my fault. Which isn’t how it happens.

It could be about my ability to work or do the same things that other people do. Or thinking that when I’m having a extreme low blood sugar people may mistake me for being drunk or under the influence of drugs..

7/I think asking the person their views is important - how do they view their own experience? That can be empowering.
Sometimes the condition itself, it does make me feel disempowered and sometimes it’s other people. It’s a balancing act
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