Blogging Against Disablism
May. 1st, 2011 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susanreadsToday is Blogging Against Disablism Day. Follow the link for more posts than you can shake a stick at! It's going to take a long time to catch up ...
Here is a bit of personal history:
I've suffered from lower-back pain and problems with my joints for decades. My current doctor calls it "your arthritis"; I don't know whether that's an actual diagnosis, or just shorthand. I used to get out of breath going uphill, which I thought was just because I was out of condition; then about 9 years ago I had a couple of asthma attacks and got diagnosed. With the medication I'm on now, the asthma is effectively controlled, but it has side effects, especially on my voice, which varies from OK through painful (to use, if not to listen to) to unintelligible (especially on the phone).
All this happened and I didn't identify as disabled. When I set up this account and wrote my bio, I referred to my impairments as "health problems". Disability-discrimination legislation, and Jobcentre programmes targetted at disabled people, weren't for me; they were for people with "real" disabilities: you know, bits missing, sensory impairments, people who can't X (walk, read, whatever) or use assistive technology to do X (glasses, orthotics, medication and bespoke furniture don't count). Not for people who can do things, only it's harder.
This is both denial (Hey, it's not that bad!) and ableism of the internalised variety. It's true that people on buses and in waiting-rooms usually don't recognise invisible impairments as a reason to avoid standing up, or conversation. That's because of their privilege (it's not only ableism: I'm sure that, other things being equal, men have less trouble being left alone to read). It's true that the government don't want to recognise people as disabled even when they obviously are*; that doesn't mean that if I manage to get services, I'm taking them away from someone in greater need.
It's hanging out on Dreamwidth, and in places that people on my reading list link to, especially FWD/Forward, that's moved me from identifying as a TAB person with health issues, to saying Yes to disability. "I could refer you to the DEA": "Yes, that's a good idea!" (thinx: instead of going back on bloody useless workfare? double yes!) When I'm filling in a form and it says "Are you disabled?" or equivalent: "Is it to my advantage to say yes? Will it make it harder to get the job, or will it just save me wasting my time if I'm not going to get it anyway?"
I'd already heard of the social model of disability, but it was people online who brought it alive for me. I'm disabled more by the lack of basic consideration in designing public buildings and the inflexibility of employment arrangements than by my asthma and joint problems. Make a fuss, because the facilities I'm asking for should be there for everybody!
*The ConDem government, continuing on the same path as the previous bunch of hypocrites, are determined to redefine disability in ever-narrower ways, so as to claim people are capable of work when they're not, and penalise them for not being able to get work in a recession. You can read more about this at the Broken of Britain blog.
Here is a bit of personal history:
I've suffered from lower-back pain and problems with my joints for decades. My current doctor calls it "your arthritis"; I don't know whether that's an actual diagnosis, or just shorthand. I used to get out of breath going uphill, which I thought was just because I was out of condition; then about 9 years ago I had a couple of asthma attacks and got diagnosed. With the medication I'm on now, the asthma is effectively controlled, but it has side effects, especially on my voice, which varies from OK through painful (to use, if not to listen to) to unintelligible (especially on the phone).
All this happened and I didn't identify as disabled. When I set up this account and wrote my bio, I referred to my impairments as "health problems". Disability-discrimination legislation, and Jobcentre programmes targetted at disabled people, weren't for me; they were for people with "real" disabilities: you know, bits missing, sensory impairments, people who can't X (walk, read, whatever) or use assistive technology to do X (glasses, orthotics, medication and bespoke furniture don't count). Not for people who can do things, only it's harder.
This is both denial (Hey, it's not that bad!) and ableism of the internalised variety. It's true that people on buses and in waiting-rooms usually don't recognise invisible impairments as a reason to avoid standing up, or conversation. That's because of their privilege (it's not only ableism: I'm sure that, other things being equal, men have less trouble being left alone to read). It's true that the government don't want to recognise people as disabled even when they obviously are*; that doesn't mean that if I manage to get services, I'm taking them away from someone in greater need.
It's hanging out on Dreamwidth, and in places that people on my reading list link to, especially FWD/Forward, that's moved me from identifying as a TAB person with health issues, to saying Yes to disability. "I could refer you to the DEA": "Yes, that's a good idea!" (thinx: instead of going back on bloody useless workfare? double yes!) When I'm filling in a form and it says "Are you disabled?" or equivalent: "Is it to my advantage to say yes? Will it make it harder to get the job, or will it just save me wasting my time if I'm not going to get it anyway?"
I'd already heard of the social model of disability, but it was people online who brought it alive for me. I'm disabled more by the lack of basic consideration in designing public buildings and the inflexibility of employment arrangements than by my asthma and joint problems. Make a fuss, because the facilities I'm asking for should be there for everybody!
*The ConDem government, continuing on the same path as the previous bunch of hypocrites, are determined to redefine disability in ever-narrower ways, so as to claim people are capable of work when they're not, and penalise them for not being able to get work in a recession. You can read more about this at the Broken of Britain blog.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 02:32 pm (UTC)