Beware the Super Senior Myth

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In the disability rights movement overachievers are derisively called “supercrips,” Shapiro explains. “There’s nothing wrong with celebrating extraordinary achievement,” he says. “But the challenge for most people with disabilities is far more ordinary. People in wheelchairs can’t work if they can’t get into their office buildings. Society ignores these everyday challenges and gets excited about disabled people who do something extraordinary.”

Similarly, people gravitate toward images of older superheroes because they fear aging, Shapiro says. This ignores the ordinary challenges that older people encounter in daily life. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than half—52.5 percent—of Americans over 65 have some disability; a third—33.4 percent—have a severe disability. As people age, the likelihood increases that they’ll have trouble seeing, walking, or hearing.

“The debate about aging presents the erroneous impression that you’re either vigorous or disabled,” he says. “People think that when you’re old, you’re either disabled and in a nursing home or a superhero.

“Disabled people teach America that aging doesn’t mean an end to independence,” he adds. “They teach us that aging and disability are a normal part of life.”

Indeed, as Duncan Wyeth, a customer relations specialist with Michigan Rehabilitation Services, notes, “People with disabilities are a resource for an aging society. We know about living with limitations. We know what it’s like to have to hunt for accessible transportation or housing.”

Coping with retirement? “People with disabilities are leisure-time experts,” says Wyeth, who has cerebral palsy. “Seventy percent of us are unemployed. We’ve already learned to define ourselves by something other than a business identity. We see leisure time as an opportunity for personal growth, not as a failure.”

But, he adds, “We’re just ordinary people—not superheroes.”

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