Isn't being Normal Overrated?

I have continued to think about David Sedaris' story, "Go Carolina," long after we ended our class discussion. It reminded me of a movie I watched last semester in Dr. Wenger's class about deaf culture called, The Sound and The Fury. In the movie, a deaf family is in the process of letting their daughter make the decision of whether or not to recieve a cochlear implant, a device that would allow her to hear and be able to communicate more effectively with the hearing world. The film showed their daughter's struggles away from the deaf community as she attempted to communicate with other "hearing" children her age--they knew verbal speech while she knew only sign language--a feat that proved to be nearly impossible because of the language barrier. However, the major basis of the movie was to recognize that there was nothing wrong with being deaf. Normal people see deafness as a debilitation, while the deaf see their culture as simply being another method of communication, like having their own language.

That same basis seems to be what Sedaris is trying to get across to the reader. While not deaf, Sedaris' ability of communication is not seen as "normal" because he has a lisp. The lisp is seen as his debilitation, something that is holding him back from being defined as "normal" amongst everyone else. After Sedaris tells Miss Samson that State and Carolina are colleges or universities, she replies, "Yes, you're right. Your answers are correct, but you're saying them incorrectly. You're telling me that they're collegeth and univerthitieth, when actually they're colleges and universities" (6). Sedaris also mentions that she considered "my speech impediment as a personal assult" (8). The adult attitude in the piece is that the lisp needs to be changed, it needs to be made normal, otherwise it will inevitably prevent Sedaris from living a happy, healthy life, right? He responds to this entire situation by trying to "avoid an s sound whenever possible," (11) suggesting to anyone with any sort of "disability" that he or she needs to be changed to fit an overall "normal" standard in a "normal" world. If they fail, then they will become outcasts destined to struggle with acceptance their entire life and become another societal statistic. Why is it so hard for people to accept difference, to create an unlimited definition of acceptance? Why is it so unethical for people to accept difference into normal culture? Is there ever a point when we can think that those we consider "disabled" can teach us something?