2024 Airing of Grievances: Sharing our Secret Lives

We're trying something different this episode: our first ever anonymous "airing of grievances."

Many of us exist in our own information bubbles, completely ignorant of what those around us might be going through. This is especially true for people with disabilities and the family, friends, and professionals who love and support them. 

When The Odyssey's creator and host Erin Croyle asked, "What is something you wish others understood about your experience that you don't (or can't) talk about publicly?" - folks did NOT hold back. 

What about you? What secrets do you wish you could share?

 

The Odyssey: Parenting. Caregiving. Disability. 

The Center for Family Involvement at VCU School of Education's Partnership for People with Disabilities provides informational and emotional support to people with disabilities and their families. All of our services are free. We just want to help. We know how hard this can be because we're in it with you. 

 

TRANSCRIPTION:

01:00:06:19 - 01:00:36:11

Erin Croyle

Welcome to The Odyssey. Parenting, Caregiving, Disability. I'm Erin Croyle, the creator and host of the Odyssey podcast explores how our lives change when a loved one has a disability. I was lucky enough to join the club, so to speak, when my first child was born with Down's syndrome in 2010. Now I work with the Center for Family Involvement at VCU's Partnership for People with Disabilities.

 

01:00:36:13 - 01:01:03:16

Erin Croyle

One of the mantras often shared in the Down's Syndrome community is more alike than different. While that is absolutely true for humans across the board, disabled or not, we do ourselves a disservice by not acknowledging how different our life experiences are. I've felt this deeply over the years. The society we live in, not just in the United States but globally, fails at understanding and accepting disability.

 

01:01:03:18 - 01:01:35:14

Erin Croyle

It's often viewed as something to fix or overcome, which is often impossible, usually unnecessary and frankly, ridiculous and insulting. Disability is one of the many things that makes us who we are. It is natural and normal. The daily struggle that people with disabilities and their families face is exhausting. It's not just about those shopping carts we see left in accessible spaces or having someone drop the R word and mixed company as if it's as innocuous as talking about the weather.

 

01:01:35:16 - 01:02:04:18

Erin Croyle

It's that loneliness we feel because many of the hardships we face are so private and painful that we don't speak o