Everyone wants to hear a story, a sad story, where the protagonist goes through a lot of difficulties and hardships. At the end of the story, we all expect the protagonist to emerge as the victor.
Such is the case with the lives of people with disabilities. Everyone wants to hear their stories, be sympathetic with them and say “Oh, yes, you have really been through a difficult time!”
If our ideas and opinions matter so much, then I think that we have a right to get something out of it. Our voices are being heard and our ideologies are being applied. Everyone wants us to speak out, write, share our stories with the rest of the world. So why is that we are not getting any financial benefit out of it?
As a writer with a disability, even I want to earn my livelihood and be financially independent. Being financially independent is a dream of each one of us. For a person with a disability, it is really much more than that. Demanding remuneration for our writing work, photography, or anything that we are good at is not a crime.
If I am a writer and I am really good at it then it is my right to ask for the remuneration for my work. It is nothing to feel guilty about it. I think that we all have the right to earn bread for ourselves as that is the only thing I demand.
It is really wrong to expect that a person with a disability would write for you without any expectation of remuneration? It is hard for us to write an article, it requires both physical and mental strength for us. Sometimes, for writing a single article, we need creativity and researching skills too.
That is why I believe that if someone wants us to write for their platform, we are in a need of good remuneration. Even if it’s just about sharing our personal experiences in our articles. We do demand remuneration because the voice of a person with disability matters.