Without Limits: Vietnam (BBC1) is a programme about six people with physical disabilities embarking on a 900-mile journey. There journey and the story behind it is to break the common notion of treating people with any disability differently. Most of us do not realize it but we talk with pity or sympathy which is absolutely loathed by many disabled people as it makes them aware of their disability.

Yes, most of the disabled group have learnt in a wonderful way to move on with their life and do the daily tasks without any hindrances, but the number one hindrance? WE. We try to sympathize with them which gives the whole world the idea that ‘they are different’. On the contrary all they want to be associated with is equality. They want to be included like a homogenous group of people.

Vicky, Charlie, Lou, Steve, Andy and Mary, all suffer from some kind of physical disability. As they trek the Ho Chi Minh trail, it is proven that the only physical disability people talk about is mentally constructed. For someone who doesn’t know what it is to be physically disabled, it becomes slightly tough to react to such situations. Studies suggest a person only behaves sympathetic towards physically disabled because they are not aware of an appropriate reaction.

U.S. might be the most progressive country to deal with disability fairly. They have the most number of physically disabled employees compared to other countries, they are also researching and developing assistive technology to make lives easier for them.

Coming back to Without Limits: Vietnam, this programme celebrates physical disability instead of shunning it. Vicky lost her leg two years ago in a rollercoaster accident, and the shock of it has been as much a life-changer as having a leg amputated. Charlie, set for life as a rugby pro until he broke his leg so badly he chose to have part of it amputated to free him from continued pain. Lou faces the complications that come from having an “invisible” disability – a degenerative condition that’s making her increasingly deaf. Steve is a wheelchair user paralyzed from the chest down since he broke his neck in a fall. While Charlie feels like a fraud for leading an unaffected life, Steve’s main worry is being the weak link for the group.

Biker Andy lost his arm in a work accident, but it is the phantom limb pain that most constrains him. Mary has dwarfism, though she identifies depression as her main problem in life, and at first feels alienated from the group because she has not been through a life-changing event, she was born this way.

While they travel the trail of Ho Chi Minh, children look as a result of simple curiosity, strangers stare because of ignorance.

It is altogether a rather beautiful, respectful and moving thing.