A Day Worth Having

“Have a nice day!” “Hope you have a great day!” “Stay safe!”

We hear all these things often. Young adults with disabilities, however, may be lonely and be hard-pressed to say what a nice day would be. Time with a friend? Time alone with a parent? Going shopping at a favorite place? Traveling the paved path at the nature center?

Lately I’ve heard the phrase “meaningful day” used in the disability context. Search it yourself on your favorite search engine. (I use Duck Duck Go.) There are agencies and trainings and services that use the phrase meaningful day to describe a day worth having for a person with developmental disabilities.

A day worth having is a day that is secure and hopeful, not necessarily doing something great or interesting, but knowing that great and interesting things are out there.

A day worth having, to me, would be a day that is secure and hopeful, not necessarily doing something great or interesting, but knowing that great and interesting things are out there, accessible, and inclusive for people with disabilities. Covid has made it a bit harder to have a meaningful day, a day worth having. We all stay home more, have many fewer visitors, and can’t see when it will all end.

If there’s a person with a disability in your life, or if you have a disability yourself, think about this: with or without Covid, what makes a day meaningful, a day worth having? Tell us below and we’ll publish your answers. And have a day, some kind of day, today.