Before I go any further, let me write a little disclaimer: I am 110 percent NOT TELLING YOU that you should aim to find and make fun of disabled individuals that you don't know. There is a huge difference between joking around with someone and hurting their feelings. Are we clear? Good.

What I'm saying is that just because someone has special health care needs or is disabled, it doesn't mean they you should walk on eggshells to try to avoid talking about it (unless they specifically ask you to). I've been disabled for 27 years now (my personal best) with no plans of stopping anytime soon and I absolutely love making fun of my own shortcomings.

I'm completely okay with the cards that I've been dealt by this thing called "life." In fact, I seem to laugh hardest at jokes that are made at my own expense. I know that I'm a flawed individual and that I was born with issues that others don't have and, honestly, making fun of these things is going to make me a lot happier than pretending they don't exist or, even worse, crying about them at night, regretting everything I never got to do. It's no difference than someone making fun of their own glasses, inability to dance or crippling Steven Universe addiction (which I may or may not have....).

So if you happen to come across a friend in the future who has a disability or special health care need, just joke around with them like you would with anyone else. I'm sure they just want to be treated like a human being instead of a mutant. You need to remember that people are people, regardless of their strange speech patterns, the fact that they walk slower than most people or the fact that they need wheels to get around from place to place. If it speaks like a human and sounds like a human than, like it or not, it's a human and you need to respect that. Treat people like people.