Divided Portraits: Identity And Disability By Hilary Cooper

Divided Portraits: Identity and Disability is an extremely moving story about a women who fights to prove to the world that a person’s disability should not be the first thing that we see. She believes that the head always seems to come first in human communication. Different from this belief, for people in wheel chairs or people with any physical disability, what comes first and sets all of the priorities, is the wheel chair. This book is made up of multiple picture, divided portraits, which were painted to right the wrong perception in a profoundly visual and emotional way. The portraits are divided so that in the first picture, all you see in the head shot, which the author, Hilary Cooper, believes is what is seen first in human communication. …show more content…
I know understand the difficulties and struggles that people with disabilities go through each day. I can more clearly understand how it may seem that they have to work twice as hard as everybody else to get the same result. This story also taught me many things about myself. For example, I do take life for granted more often than I should. Sometimes I feel as though I have it worse than everyone when in reality, I am extremely lucky to have the life that I do. Also, I find myself feeling better than others when I should never feel this way. I should however, live my life to the fullest and be proud of my accomplishments, but I should never feel like I am better than anyone else. I do not know other people’s stories, backgrounds, or where they come from, I have no right to say “I am better than you.” This story differs from mine because I am not a person who suffers from a disability. I do not and cannot relate to the hardships that they must go through each and every day. After reading this story, I can now understand that everyone is different and even those who are disabled or even mentally ill can live a very successful life if given the opportunity. I feel as though The Perils of Color Blindness represents these types of teachings as well. In this reading, we were taught that it is important to recognize people for who they are even if they have a disability, and it is our job as human beings to not judge those who are different from us. We need to understand that even if someone is different from you whether it be race, culture, or disability, they still have so much potential to be great. Another reading that we talked about in class was the Red Shoe article. It emphasized that everyone learns differently. I think that it relates to this story as well because we need to understand that those who are different from us may not learn and understand the world like we do. It is very important to take into