There’s an important difference and distinction between the objective medical fact of my being an amputee and the subjective societal opinion of whether or not I’m disabled. Truthfully, the only real and consistent disability I’ve had to confront is the world ever thinking that I could be described by those definitions.

Mullins separates a clinical description (amputation) from the socially constructed label of “disability,” arguing that limitation is often imposed less by bodies than by expectations. The quote reframes disability as a relationship between an individual and a world designed around narrow norms—where stigma, pity, and reductive definitions can become the most persistent barriers. By insisting she cannot be “described” by those terms, she asserts identity beyond medical categories and challenges audiences to examine how language and social attitudes can disable. The statement aligns with the social model of disability: impairment may be factual, but disability is frequently produced by environment, design, and prejudice.