When people hear the word disability, they often think first about limitations. But disability is simply one part of the human experience. Millions of people live with physical, intellectual, sensory, or invisible disabilities, contributing to their families, workplaces, schools, and communities every day.
Unfortunately, stigma continues to create barriers that are often more challenging than the disability itself. Misunderstandings, stereotypes, and assumptions can lead to exclusion, discrimination, or the belief that someone with a disability is less capable. These attitudes can affect opportunities for employment, education, healthcare, and social connection.
The truth is that disability does not define a person’s worth, intelligence, or potential. Every individual has unique strengths, talents, and perspectives. Many innovations, works of art, scientific discoveries, and acts of leadership have come from people who live with disabilities. Their success reminds us that ability comes in many forms.
When we replace stigma with understanding, we create a community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Instead of seeing disability as a weakness, we can recognize it as one of the many ways people experience the world. By embracing differences and focusing on shared humanity, we build stronger, kinder, and more welcoming communities for all.
Here in Eastern Montana, Living Independently for Today and Tomorrow (LIFTT) is helping turn those opportunities into reality. With offices in Glendive and Billings, LIFTT empowers people with disabilities and older adults to live independently by providing information and referrals, advocacy, independent living skills training, peer support, and assistance in accessing housing, transportation, employment, and other community resources. LIFTT serves residents across southeastern Montana while working to remove the physical, social, and attitudinal barriers that stand in the way of full community participation.
Creating a more inclusive community begins with each of us. By challenging stereotypes, using respectful language, and recognizing the strengths and abilities of every individual, we help build a community where everyone belongs. Organizations like LIFTT remind us that independence, dignity, and opportunity should be available to all. When we replace stigma with understanding, we create a stronger, more welcoming Glendive and Eastern Montana for everyone.
Thomas Wilker is an Independent Living Specialist based out of LIFTT’s Glendive Office.
About Living Independently for Today & Tomorrow (LIFTT): LIFTT is a Montana 501(c)3 corporation organized as a Center for Independent Living (CIL). With team members based in Billings and Glendive, LIFTT provides people with disabilites and aging indivduals with programs, services, resources and advocacy that help empower them to break down the physical, bureaucratic, and cultural barriers that prevent them from being fully independent participants in their lives and communities throughout 18 counties in southeastern and south-central Montana: Big Horn, Carbon, Carter, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, Golden Valley, McCone, Musselshell, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Rosebud, Stillwater, Treasure, Wibaux, and Yellowstone. For more information, please visit liftt.org
Our Vision: Empowering aging individuals and people with disabilities to LIFTT themselves above the barriers of life.
Our Mission: Living Independently for Today and Tomorrow’s (LIFTT’s) mission as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Center for Independent Living serving Southeastern Montana is to empower aging individuals and people with disabilities to live independently through education, support, and opportunities.