Why the focus should be on abilities, rather than disabilities

Close your eyes on this important day for a moment and picture a person with a disability. Did you envision a family member in a wheelchair, a classmate with an intellectual/developmental disability or perhaps your neighbour with a chronic disease? More than likely you envisioned somebody that you personally know, as individuals living with a disability represent the single largest minority group worldwide.

For me, personally, this is a special day where I celebrate every single achievement of the past 12 months – both in personal and professional life. In 1986, I was born profoundly deaf in a world that was long silent to me. 13 years later, I was only able to regain my hearing after being fitted with a cochlear implant on the left ear.

Following this, I underwent intensive auditory and speech training for several years in three different languages, enabling me to communicate with others effectively, to be a keynote speaker or panellist at various events, and leading an award-winning aviation boutique consultancy with an external pool of 35 consultants and subject-matter experts across the globe to disrupt the aviation consulting industry.

As a child and teenager, I had to cope with people’s negative perceptions and pre-judgements towards my disability. To be able to communicate with people and prove them wrong, I had to improve and apply my lip-reading skills during my childhood since I did not use the sign language.

The local education authority back home in Germany refused multiple requests from my parents to send me to a primary school. I would have gone to a special school for people with disabilities, but after a long legal battle, I was able to join the primary school like all the other kids. Even then, the principal of the secondary school doubted that I would be able to finish. 

My childhood struggles and experiences have played a role in shaping the warrior in me. At the end of the day, I was able to leave the school with a high school diploma, attending Yale University and City University of London and graduating from there with distinction. Additionally, I was able and fortunate to live on four different continents on my own for educational and work purposes. 

I am a firm believer in the importance of perseverance to achieve success. Focusing on abilities, rather than disabilities, has helped me to scale greater heights. My motto in life has always been to work twice as hard and to never give up in the face of setbacks – both in personal and professional life.

In 2019, I received the City University of London’s Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in Air Transport Management in Dubai – personally presented by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and chairman & chief executive officer of the Emirates Group. Receiving such an award was another acknowledgement that perseverance and hard work always pay off someday.

It is very important that individuals who have a disability should not simply let that affect their daily living in a negative way. Instead, they should concentrate on living their lives to the best of their abilities. There is no shame in having a disability, whether it is intellectual/developmental, a mental illness, or a physical. Nobody should allow their disability to define them.

Once again, close your eyes and picture a person with a disability. Hopefully, your vision of your family member in a wheelchair, the classmate with an intellectual/developmental disability, or your neighbuor with a chronic disease has changed in a positive way. 

Ultimately, as a strong advocate for enhancing the lives of people with disabilities, we need better policies to promote work and income security for disabled people worldwide. It is our common duty to encourage and empower people with disabilities to participate as fully as possible in both economic and social life, and to engage in gainful employment, and that they’re not ousted from the labour market too easily or too quickly.

Linus Benjamin Bauer, managing director at Bauer Aviation Advisory and visiting lecturer in Air Transport Management at City University of London