In February, we hear a lot about love. Cards, flowers, and big gestures get most of the attention. But for people with disabilities, real love isn’t about sentiment. It’’s about access and choice.
Love looks like accessible environments, clear information, and systems that respect autonomy. It means listening to people about what they need instead of assuming you know best. It means honoring someone’s right to make their own decisions, even when those decisions don’t look like what others expect.
Too often, people with disabilities are treated as problems to be solved rather than people with full lives, goals, and preferences. That mindset can show up as overhelping, speaking for someone instead of to them, or limiting choices “for their own good.” But real care doesn’t take control away. It creates conditions where people can decide for themselves.
Access is a form of love. So is choice. When transportation, housing, healthcare, employment, and community spaces are accessible, people aren’t forced to depend on others or navigate unnecessary barriers. When people are supported in understanding their rights and advocating for themselves, they gain power over their own lives.
At Southern Nevada Center for Independent Living, we see love in action every day through peer support, benefits counseling, independent living skills training, and advocacy. These services aren’t extras or acts of charity. They’re tools that help people live independently, participate fully in their communities, and make informed choices about their own futures.
When we build communities around access and choice, we’re not just being kind, we’re being just. We’re saying that people with disabilities deserve the same freedom, dignity, and respect as everyone else.
That’s what real love looks like.
