Jocelyn- Reclaiming Disability & Reclaiming Myself

Hi, there, I’m Jocelyn! Jocy, for short.
I go by @jocyofthedragons on Instagram, where I talk about my experiences as a disabled Latinx. Like Marna, I have Arthrogryposis. And like many others, I grew up hearing things like “you’re normal” and “you can do anything!”, and while I agree with those statements to a certain extent, it was those very things that held me back and left me in denial. I would set high expectations for myself only to be dragged back down because my body wasn’t capable of doing the things I wanted it to do. On top of that, I didn’t have access to all the things my abled peers had and was constantly being pushed down and torn by the unnecessary remarks and stares of my own local community.

I didn’t understand why I was facing these things when I had been told all my life by teachers, doctors, friends, and family that I was “normal” and “could do anything”.
It wasn’t until my late teens where I started telling myself that, “Hey, you’re not normal, and it’s okay.” This mindset really validated and changed my entire being. I had realized that “normal” wasn’t what I was after, it was to be abled.

Understanding why I wanted to be abled made me look deeper into what it is to be disabled, and that’s where the seed in my activism was planted. I never had a problem with me or Arthrogryposis, I had a problem with the inequalities surrounding it. Not only that, but to ensure I would be born in a place where I would have all of my medical care needs met, my mother migrated from Mexico to the U.S along with my big sis. So the fact that there are people, even people that I know personally, who don’t have access to all these resources or care because of where they were born, well it would not have made sense for me not to talk about that, when it hits so close to home. I mean, my mom literally left her family and crossed borders for me. That is why I started #peopletoo, a movement focused on addressing the international and intersectional injustices done to disabled people.

I’m disabled. I’m crippled. I can’t do everything. And guess what? That’s all okay. Being disabled isn’t bad and to say the word doesn’t define me would be a lie. I’m proud of the things I can do, and I’m proud of all the things I’m accomplishing and working on WITH, not despite, my disability. Crippled is beautiful, and like Marna, I’m here fighting for that.