Have you ever stopped to think why your friendship is strong why it makes you feel like you belong? As humans we all have a need that I feel is often over looked, the need to belong. When you are faced with something that makes you visibly different that sense of belonging. that need to belong that in my opinion is one of the hardest parts of having a visible, physical disability.
So, how do we make the disability secondary to the person. How do we help our children understand their peers and classmates that may have limitations different from their own? I don’t expect to have the answers, or claim that I do. I just hope that some of the issues surrounding social exclusion that I faced, whether perceived or otherwise can be avoided for someone in similar situations now. The goal of this blog is to educate but it is also my hope that if something I say can make someone’s life that much easier then I have succeeded The need for friendship and to belong is important for all so how do we over come this? I only speak from my experiences of life I have always had one close friendship often someone who was able bodied which helped with my sense of belonging despite my disability This was the reason that in high school I decided to make that documentary about my life with cerebral palsy a disability that I feel gave me a unique perspective of the social fabric that makes up ones sense of belonging and contributed to how I perceived my peers and therefore probably changed how I went about forming my friendships
This is the first part in a series about ways to create social inclusion for people with a disability because we all have a need for belonging and the ability to form friendship. I know that for me though my close friendship throughout life although the number of them may be considered small they were strong and many of them are still in my life today

Now for todays poll [poll id="7"]