Asthma as a disability

I don't know about you but I don't treat or even talk about asthma as a disability.

Even though many asthmatic patients don't live life as normal as other people without asthma do, this is not enough to treatment their asthma as a disability.

Even though asthmatic patients have to always be around their medications in case of an attack, it is not enough reason to treat asthma as a disability.

Don't believe me?

With the power of the new asthma medications, asthma can now be effectively managed and kept at bay for as long as possible.

With these asthma management medications you can't even tell the difference between some asthmatic patients and others who don't have asthma. Why then should you treat asthma as a disability.

Even in the arena of sports and athletics, there have been and there are still excellent sports people and athletes who have performed incredibly well... despite their asthmatic condition.

Note that they were not given special consideration because they were asthmatic. If asthma was a disability, these sports people and athletics wouldn't have been allowed to perform alongside the other people without asthma.

Examples of athletes who have distinguished themselves in their various callings include:

- Renn Critchlow (1991 world champion kayaker from Ontario)

- Peter Maher (Olympic Marathoner)

- Curt Harnett (Olympic cyclist and silver medalist from Ontario)

- Charmain Crooks (Olympic runner and silver medalist from Vancouver)

- Joan Benoit (women’s marathon champion)
 
- Susan Auch (Canadian Speed Skater)

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Olympic double gold medalist in track and field - heptathlon in the 1988 Olympics won 7,291 points and set a world record)

- Bill Koch (first American to win World Cup in cross-country skiing)

- Rick Demont (gold medalist swimmer)

- Paul Bennett (Blue Bombers football Hall of Fame)

All these athletics show that people shouldn't treat asthma as a disability. If they had treated it as a disability, the wouldn't have all excelled in their chosen sports and athletics.