![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Since I've been writing about this issue of Disability on a regular basis, I've become more conscious of how it effects me, and the feelings it has engendered throughout the years, and in the last couple of weeks, I've begun to put my finger on one particular aspect of it that makes the very talking about it uncomfortable for me, and makes me squirm a bit inside when someone asks why I don't write an autobiographical story, someday. It may be a bit of paranoia, but talking about the personal, intimate, aspects of "Living with a Disability" makes me feel like I'm being studied as an 'exotic specimen,' for other peoples' enlightenment.
It's a sister to the fear that some able-bodied people have of saying something wrong to a disabled person. It's a cousin (I have a hunch) to the fear some able-bodied people have of offering help to a disabled person, lest they do something wrong.
It's the notion that The Impaired are Fundamentally Other from the Able-Bodied and -Minded, so that even those who are sympathetic and supportive might feel like they have nothing to say on the topic, because it doesn't effect them directly (at the moment), and it's not "their" issue, so they sit back and politely listen and learn (or, at least, I hope that's what they're doing). But here's the thing:
"Disability" is unique among minority groups, because it's the only one you will join -- and when you least expect it.
[Edited to clarify (May 24, 2009, 13:24)]** Most of the time, being a "privileged ally" of those who suffer the consequences of various -isms (Racism, Sexism, Cissexism, etc.) is a tricky business, because the privileged person has never felt the consequences themselves, and, what's more, never will. Someone who grew up straight and white (for one example) is not going to take one ill-fated step, somewhere, and suddenly become a person of color, or gay. No one is ever going to go to bed as a man and wake up as a woman. Being a person of privilege, on whatever spectrum of priviledge that is, gives you the dubious superpower to define the nature of reality -- or rather, it gives you the illusion that your definition of reality is universal. So it is far too easy for an ally to hijack any conversation and not even realize it: like Godzilla trampling through a city, and never having to go back and deal with the consequences.
But "Disability" strikes everyone as it struck poor, (proverbial) Teddy McGrath in the Napoleonic Wars:
Even for the people who are born disabled, like I was, the disability strikes the family with the unexpected force of a cannon ball.
And you can't outrun that cannon ball. You're only hope is to die before it hits you. If you are human, it will hit you, one way or another. If you are human, this is your issue.
"Disability Rights" are Civil Rights. "Disability Rights" are Human Rights.
Yes, there is a time and a place for "safe spaces," where the temporarily-able-bodied (TABs) need to "Shut up and listen" (or simply stay away altogether). Yes, the Disabled need to be allowed the opportunity and freedom to fight for ourselves (Nothing About Us Without Us!).
But the very same ableist practices and policies that we need to fight are the things that silence and separate us. We're already shuffled off into "Special rooms" in school, given "Special entrances," into museums, churches and restraunts, and offerered employment by special, "Charitable organizations" (in jobs behind the scenes, where we don't have contact with the "general public"). We're already (far too often) kept to speaking only amongst ourselves.
And "Out of sight, out of mind," and therefore, unimportant. In my not-so-humble opinion, as long as we are perceived as "fundamentally Other," we will be counted as the smallest, and least important of the minority groups. Our rights will be the last to be considered, and the first to be discarded.
So, my temporarily-able-bodied friends, join in the conversation. Educate yourselves. If you are out on business, or out on the town, and see barriers to equality, speak up. Let the business owner or the government bureaucrat know that it's not okay with you. You might not need accommodation today, but you could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
**( This 'Edited to Clarify' paragraph replaces the bullet-pointed list behind the cut. )
It's a sister to the fear that some able-bodied people have of saying something wrong to a disabled person. It's a cousin (I have a hunch) to the fear some able-bodied people have of offering help to a disabled person, lest they do something wrong.
It's the notion that The Impaired are Fundamentally Other from the Able-Bodied and -Minded, so that even those who are sympathetic and supportive might feel like they have nothing to say on the topic, because it doesn't effect them directly (at the moment), and it's not "their" issue, so they sit back and politely listen and learn (or, at least, I hope that's what they're doing). But here's the thing:
"Disability" is unique among minority groups, because it's the only one you will join -- and when you least expect it.
[Edited to clarify (May 24, 2009, 13:24)]** Most of the time, being a "privileged ally" of those who suffer the consequences of various -isms (Racism, Sexism, Cissexism, etc.) is a tricky business, because the privileged person has never felt the consequences themselves, and, what's more, never will. Someone who grew up straight and white (for one example) is not going to take one ill-fated step, somewhere, and suddenly become a person of color, or gay. No one is ever going to go to bed as a man and wake up as a woman. Being a person of privilege, on whatever spectrum of priviledge that is, gives you the dubious superpower to define the nature of reality -- or rather, it gives you the illusion that your definition of reality is universal. So it is far too easy for an ally to hijack any conversation and not even realize it: like Godzilla trampling through a city, and never having to go back and deal with the consequences.
But "Disability" strikes everyone as it struck poor, (proverbial) Teddy McGrath in the Napoleonic Wars:
Oh, I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind
But I left my two fine legs behind.
For a cannon ball, on the fifth of May,
Took my two fine legs from the knees away.Wid yer too-ri-aa, fol de diddle aa
Too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa.
Even for the people who are born disabled, like I was, the disability strikes the family with the unexpected force of a cannon ball.
And you can't outrun that cannon ball. You're only hope is to die before it hits you. If you are human, it will hit you, one way or another. If you are human, this is your issue.
"Disability Rights" are Civil Rights. "Disability Rights" are Human Rights.
Yes, there is a time and a place for "safe spaces," where the temporarily-able-bodied (TABs) need to "Shut up and listen" (or simply stay away altogether). Yes, the Disabled need to be allowed the opportunity and freedom to fight for ourselves (Nothing About Us Without Us!).
But the very same ableist practices and policies that we need to fight are the things that silence and separate us. We're already shuffled off into "Special rooms" in school, given "Special entrances," into museums, churches and restraunts, and offerered employment by special, "Charitable organizations" (in jobs behind the scenes, where we don't have contact with the "general public"). We're already (far too often) kept to speaking only amongst ourselves.
And "Out of sight, out of mind," and therefore, unimportant. In my not-so-humble opinion, as long as we are perceived as "fundamentally Other," we will be counted as the smallest, and least important of the minority groups. Our rights will be the last to be considered, and the first to be discarded.
So, my temporarily-able-bodied friends, join in the conversation. Educate yourselves. If you are out on business, or out on the town, and see barriers to equality, speak up. Let the business owner or the government bureaucrat know that it's not okay with you. You might not need accommodation today, but you could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
**( This 'Edited to Clarify' paragraph replaces the bullet-pointed list behind the cut. )
