Disabled Reasons Are Not Excuses: Broadening Our Perspectives

What Is The Difference Between A Reason And An Excuse?

A reason is an explanation for why you cannot do something. If you are unable to do the thing or do it without some unacceptable consequence then you have a reason to not do it.

An excuse is a false justification for not doing something that you made an active choice not to do.

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Basic Example

If your alarm clock did not go off, that is a reason for you to be late to class.

If you heard your alarm clock go off but decided to sleep in anyways saying your alarm didn't wake you is an excuse for being late to class.

In other words a reason is a true fact that explains a failure to meet an expection. An excuse is a lie given to justify not meeting an expectation.

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When Reasons Are Seen As Excuses

The problem with reasons and excuses is that only the person who is making the statement knows if it is a true reason or an excuse.

Therefore other people have to guess whether your reason is an excuse or not. People generally do this based on the assumption of an able-bodied person with relatively simular priviledge to themselves.

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Disabled "Excuses"

It is for this reason that disabled people often have no way to avoid being believed to be making excuses. For example, it is common for someone with ME to be physically unable to get out of bed for an activity. But if they say this reason to a friend or boss who judges it based on their able bodied expectations it will be seen as an excuse.

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True Disabled Excuses

Because disabled people are often in the position of their true reason being so unbelievable to able bodied people unaware of the realities of chronic pain or fatigue they may choose to make an excuse that sounds more believable. For example, they may say they slept through their alarm when the reality is they were too fatigued to function.

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Why Disabled People Get Labeled With Making "Excuses"

You only need to make an "excuse" when you

1.) Fail to meet an expectation

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2.) Have a reason that is not respected by society

Disabled people constantly fail to meet the expectations of able bodied people because we are literally unable to do so. Our reasons for not meeting these expectations are not respected by society because invisible and even visible disabilities are not respected by society.

Thus, whether we give our true reason or an excuse we will be labeled as "making excuses."

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Learn To Respect Reasons Outside Of Your Personal Experience

We tend to dismiss someones reason as an excuse when it does not feel believable to us. But what seems believable is based on our past experiences.

So if you have never experienced poverty, racism, disability, sexism etc. Then reasons based on these forms of system discrimination may not feel believable to you and you may be temped to dismiss them as "excuses."

It is important to remember that just because you haven't experienced an obstacle doesn't make that obstacle any less real or valid.

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Excuses Vs Reasons Summarized

A reason is a fact that explains a failure to meet expectations.

An excuse is a lie used to explain a failure to meet expectations.

Because the obstacles faced by disabled people are not understood by society, our reasons may be seen as "making excuses."

In order to respect people's reasons, we must learn to better understand obstacles we do not have personal experience with.

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Disabled reasons are not excuses. They are explanations.

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A reason is a true story for why you couldn't do something, an explanation.

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An excuse is a lie to get out of doing something you do not want to do.

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Disabled reasons get labeled excuses because disabled people

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1.) Fail to meet societal expectations

2.) Have reasons for failing to meet expectations that are not respected by society.

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We tend to assume that everyone else is working under the same constraints we are. If a reason doesn't fall within the bounds of our normal expectations we are fast to label it an excuse. But when dealing with people who are marginalized in ways we are not this leads to mischaracterization of reasons as excuses.

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It is essential that we broaden our perspective and see all reasons as valid, even those we do not have personal experience with.