Blogging Against (Dis?)Ablism
652€ disability cheque: How am I supposed to live?
I've been thinking and talking about disability quite a lot these past couple of days, so it's a happy coincidence that today is Blogging Against Disablism Day (or should that be Ableism?). I wish I had more time to do one coherent post based on the discussion that I had following my post on the deaf kid storyline in House, especially since a lot is in French.
I'm not extremely familiar with ableism (which is defined as "discriminatory, oppressive or abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people are inferior to others"), but from having worked on other forms of discrimination and privilege, I think I would rather use and think about able-bodied privilege than ableism. The difference is important to me.
Ableism, like homophobia/heterosexism or racism, tends to refer to specific actions or thoughts, and assumes that disability is a clearly-defined state, an objective fact if you will. Ableism may be unconscious, but it is still the result of what an individual person did or said.
Abled privilege, on the other hand, invites us to think about the context that makes ableist behavior possible. It challenges not individuals who -unconsciously or not - engage in abileism, but in a system that favors and rewards being able-bodied (in the larger sense, including mental disabilities). Focusing on the consequences of living in a world that privileges the able-bodied is not unimportant, it is a very practical concern. We need to think about how our world and assumptions constantly silence, marginalize and inferiorize the disabled, and to think about the practical and very real changes we can make the world more welcoming for people with a disability. But it's even more important that, as we make efforts to enact changes, we think of the framework that we are working with. If we don't, we run the risk of supporting changes that are in fact still embedded in a way of thinking that posits that being able-bodied is better. And while that might still make the world more physically accessible to people with disability, it doesn't change how we make them feel in this world. Trying to address the consequences (ableism) without thinking about the context (abled privilege) runs the risk of having the very presumptuous and conceited attitude of thinking we know better, and thinking we are doing disabled people a favor, instead of correcting something that is our fault.
Because I've been mostly reading up and talking about deafness and deaf culture in the past few days, I want to finish by focusing on this particular "disability" here. I'd like to invite you to read on controversial issues within the deaf community, for example why attempts to integrate deaf students in general-education might not serve deaf students as much as ourselves and what we like to believe about our culture of "inclusion".
Also, this really only works for French people, but here is a visual lexicon for LSF (French Sign Language) for people who are interested in learning more than the alphabet. It doesn't replace actually taking classes, of course, but it's an interesting resource. Maybe we could at very least learn to say "hi", "sorry" and "bye" - bare minimum to say the least, but it's a first small step.
I'd also like to take advantage of this post to highlight some links that lounalune shared with me. I haven't had time to read them but I already know they will be good food for thought. :)
And to finish, a poem that I found here and really liked, and lyrics from a song I've been listening to too much and seemed appropriate.
Thoughts of a Deaf Child
My family knew that I was deaf
When I was only three, and since then fifteen years ago
Have never signed to me.
I know when I'm around the house,
I try and use my voice,
It makes them feel more comfortable;
For me, I have no choice.
I try, communicate their way-
Uncomfortable for me.
My parents wouldn't learn sign
Ashamed or apathy?
I never cared about the sound of radios and bands;
What hurts me most is, I never heard
My parents' signing hands.
-Stephen J. Bellitz
Reprinted from Senior News, July 1991
This one's for the lonely
The ones that seek and find
Only to be let down
Time after time
This one's for the faithless
The ones that are surprised
They are only where they are now
Regardless of their fight
This is for the ones who stand
For the ones who try again
For the ones who need a hand
For the ones who think they can
- Greg Laswell, Comes and Goes in Waves