ableism

Once again, the local news has their own focus on a story that leads to more worry than good.  I saw this news story on Facebook and couldn’t stop myself from sharing it with my friends, with a short commentary on inspiration porn and people with disabilities overcoming obstacles created by others.  Reading things like this are suppose to motivate the average person to ask, “what is your excuse?” Then we start generalizing people with disabilities for not trying hard enough to overcome actual limitations. Instead of allowing people to arrive at the same destination with different routes, we tell them there is only one way to do things. We reinforce that there is a difference in worldviews between people with disabilities and people without disabilities. We champion people who try their hardest to return to the majority group’s version of living without accommodations.

There are two excellent resources I have been following which at first glance may seem overly PC but that assumption goes away with awareness of the complex issues being addressed.  Autism Wars on Facebook and realsocialskills on Tumblr.  Both focus on autism or neurodiversity/neurodivergence.  Just remember that labels are for people that need them, and a specific label may be offensive to one person and identifiable to another.  There is also a need to be aware that there is a growing number of parents that exploit their children’s disabilities all over the internet without their permission or without thinking about how permanent the internet is and what long term damage it creates for individuals.  My parents were always aware of keeping me out of a spotlight.  Keeping me off the talk shows and off the stage of the ADA signing with President HW Bush in Washington.

I spent my entire childhood rejecting accommodations and pleading with people to be treated like normal with the rest of my peers.  However, I had many accommodations.  I had my very own nurse who was regarded as a teacher’s assistant in Kindergarten through second grade. The real issue was that accommodations were not explained to my peers and kids with special needs were often separated from their peers and lumped together.  Also, integration was often seen as a negative because you needed school wide awareness and you needed specialized staff and social policies in place for service delivery.  Only once do I remember having an accommodation introduced to my peers with the level of awareness it required for them to understand why it was needed.  That was 4th grade and I was supposed to have jaw surgery, so I was learning how to use an alternative communication device which resembled a label maker.

I also remember being in freshman gym outside the pool riding an exercise bike all alone, watching my peers swim through the glass doors and having an alternate gym class that I never attended show up as a grade on my report card each quarter.

Be aware of ableism and how disability rights organizations are still leaving people on the fringes of society.  Educate yourself on the issues of parental exploitation of their differently-abled children.  Stop using disability as something that can be overcome or needs to be overcome.  Educate people on the purposes of accommodations and make those accommodations available to people, as an awareness that they are indeed available.

http://wbay.com/2016/01/02/inspiration-for-a-new-years-resolution/?cid=facebook_WBAY_TV-2