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Rewriting the Narrative:     13-year-old Braydon Harrington Exemplifies How Peer Support Can Encourage Those with Disabilities Page Image

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Rewriting the Narrative: 13-year-old Braydon Harrington Exemplifies How Peer Support Can Encourage Those with Disabilities

‘Pure, unvarnished, courage’: A 13-year-old ‘regular kid’ with a stutter gave a must-watch Democratic convention speech.

That was the headline on an article for The Washington Post detailing a 13-year-old, Braydon Harrington who delivered a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The speech, meant to be a great example of how peer support can encourage one with a disability, ultimately was overshadowed with headlines and comments, praising this young boy’s courage, ability to overcome his hurdles despite all of the odds, and deeming him an inspiration to those around the nation with speech impediments.

If that sounds like a lot of weight on one young child’s shoulders, it is. But, the greater issue here is the missed message that through peer support and sharing our “triumphant” hurdles, we can learn to use new tools to accomplish new goals. And THAT is the real motivating story here.

Welcome to a new series called ‘Rewriting The Narrative.’ Here, we hope to address some of the media’s ableism (discrimination in favor of able-bodied people) as they paint over topics, such as disability, with a heightened inspirational message, and blindly—maybe even ignorantly—diminishing persons with disabilities world-wide. 

Let’s discuss a little further.

Many times in media, and most definitely within recent headlines regarding young Braydon’s DNC speech, we see those who speak about their disabilities as deemed heroic. As though overcoming a challenge based on a “flaw” is un-normal. However, people overcome challenges every day. Also, those with disabilities are not magically abled just because they found new ways to navigate life. But, startling and tantalizing headlines such as the one above provokes this feeling within others. This can be dangerous, because when someone overcomes their own personal hurdle, they will want to feel heroic and inspiring, too. And, though they may be in their own right, they may not be received with the messages of millions of onlookers, and ultimately there will always be hurdles to overcome.

So, we look to Joe Biden as a representation. Joe Biden represents a person with a speech impediment, who has found a way to achieve his goals, guiding him to have the ability to run for President of the United States. He took the tools he has learned and implemented along his journey to reach out and help another, so that Braydon, too, could find ways to achieve his own dreams without feeling as though his disability will prevent him from attaining those goals in the future. That is the real inspiration, not that when both Joe and Braydon go to bed at night they are newly fixed beings; but, that they feel more encouraged every day to go out into the world and conquer their next challenge or obstacle with the understanding that they are not limited by what they can do.

Note to readers: Though this article is based on a speech given during the Democratic National Convention, Walton Options is a bi-partisan organization and does not look to endorse any candidates.