Disability Participation Can Be Boring

Today we have another guest post from Carl Thompson who writes the blog Working at Perfect. I first got chatting with Carl after he commented on the Weddings and Wheelchairs blog post, agreeing that it's great to see images of people with disability doing "normal" things. This post has kept me thinking on that point... Enjoy!

Carl Thompson

 

This post is about the concept of participation, and I am writing it for February's Disability Blog Carnival, held on the 25th. In its simplest form, participation means undertaking activities, often with others. This isn't an English lesson though, so instead I want to talk about what participation means for me in the context of my disability.

This is an extremely important topic for people with disabilities, as all too often doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and the media focus far more attention on what we can't participate in or do, as opposed to what we can. On the rare occasions where people with disabilities are portrayed in the media, it is almost always an inspirational story telling of someone rising to the insurmountable challenges they face, or overcoming great adversity - you know the stuff, the brave disabled doctor with six PhD’s, or the mountain climber with no arms who has scaled Everest solo.

So this is going to be a bit of a letdown, but what I participate in is pretty boring. Maybe boring is not quite the correct term, but definitely nothing out of the ordinary. I go to work, come home and sit at the computer for far too long. I also eat and drink, occasionally in places outside my own home! I have friends, they visit me and I visit them. We talk about movies and TV shows. Get drunk, play games and drink coffee.

 

Are you bored yet? I know I am, but I'm trying to prove a point. People with disabilities can be amazing, and can participate in activities which most people would think were impossible. But these utterly interesting people, like everyone else in the world, are the exception and not the rule.

Unfortunately, in addition to the pedestal that disabled people are often placed upon with regards to achieving amazing things, the opposite is also true. For instance, many people are amazed that I have a bachelor degree from University. Others are also genuinely impressed that I go to work, and shock horror, that I actually get paid for it! This is a revelation to these people, as they finally realise that I'm not a token disabled volunteer, and that I actually like money and higher education.

Why do people think this about disabled people? Is it really that amazing? What about the tens of thousands of able-bodied people who earn their degrees every year? Or the millions of Australians who work every day? What I'm saying is that many people mistakenly perceive my participation in everyday activities to be something out of the ordinary, when really, there isn't all that much people my age participate in other than going to university, drinking beer and starting work.

I'm not an inspiration - I'm not a prodigy, a miracle, or a Paralympian. I'm just a dude who rants on the Internet who happens to be disabled.

 

One Month Before Heartbreak

Today’s post is written by Carl Thompson who is the man behind the fantastic blog Working At Perfect. Carl is from Victoria, Australia, and describes himself as “Wheelchair User (Cripple), Writer, Student, Music/Audio Nerd, Gamer and Cricket Tragic”. He writes regularly for the new ABC Ramp Up site and for DiVine Victoria.

I first came upon Working at Perfect a few weeks ago and since then I’ve enjoyed reading Carl’s thoughtful and humorous posts, and I am really happy that he will be contributing to DisCo over the coming months.

A little background to today’s post... Have you heard about One Month Before Heartbreak? It’s a Broken of Britain event organised by some UK bloggers including Emma Crees who as you will remember has guest posted here before. One Month Before Heartbreak is a “blogswarm” event, similar to Blogging Against Disablism Day, involving people getting together to blog about a subject or theme during a specified time period. The “swarm” of blog posts should attract attention and raise awareness.

So why is it called One Month Before Heartbreak? On Emma Crees’ blog A Writer in a Wheelchair, in the United Kingdom there is an ongoing discussion about DLA reform ends on 14th February 2011. Emma explains that 14 February is “Valentine’s Day, traditionally a day for love but which could severely affect disabled people if DLA reforms aren’t handled correctly. We need to ensure that our voices are heard. We’re holding this event a month before the consultation ends in order to raise awareness of the consultation and give people to chance to respond to it if they wish. Bendy Girl came up with the name of this event.”

I hope you enjoy Carl's post. It's fantastic to see how much unity One Month Before Heartbreak is demonstrating both in the UK and across the world. (Thanks Carl!)

Carl Thompson

Luckily for me, I'm not an English citizen, and I'm not facing drastic transformational change in every facet of my life in the coming months. I have stability, I know that I am eligible for my much-needed disability support pension payments, I know when I will be paid and how much I will receive. For me this is clear. Unfortunately, for English citizens under the Conservative government led by David Cameron, all people with a disability, their carers, families and friends will be profoundly affected by a proposed drastic change in the degree of financial support they will receive.

As mentioned prior, I'm not an English citizen. I don't claim to know the ins and outs of their welfare system or their political structure. Here I will not waste words trying to explain to the letter what the changes will be - it would be much wiser to read the ‘One Month Before Heartbreak’ entries written by actual British citizens if this information is what you seek. What I do know however, is that English men, women and children are facing the repercussions of the implementation of multiple government policy changes that aim to pull their country out of a recession - seemingly a noble cause.


The question is how should this be done? Well, according to many governments around the world, the answer is by introducing spending cuts. Cutting wasteful spending and cutting discretionary services are two common methods of tightening a nation's budget. So let's think about that for a moment, and try to relate it to be problem this whole piece is about. In what conceivable way can money that is directed to supporting millions of Britons living with a disability be deemed wasteful or discretionary? This money is used for these people to survive, and survive being the operative word - This money is not surplus to their needs, it's barely enough for them to live day by day. So why is the government even considering making regressive changes in this ever so important area? I don't know the answer, if you do, please tell me.

So let's assume the money has to be cut from somewhere and inevitably someone has to lose out - we can't all be winners now can we? But doesn't it make sense that the government should implement cuts, or perhaps raise taxes on those who can actually afford to cope with the changes? Admittedly, I'm not an economist, but I'm also definitely not a socialist. I do believe in commonsense though, and the slashing of payments that are vital for keeping people with a disability afloat does not make any sense in my mind - none at all.

But wait! On the other hand, it does make sense – if you have to disadvantage someone, if you have to cut money from an interest group somehow, why not cut it from those that the government perceives will make the least amount of noise? How about we make spending cuts affecting those who won't be able to fight back or make a fuss? People in the deaf community won't hear about the cuts on the radio and those with a vision impairment may not be able to read about them in the morning newspaper. Users of electric wheelchairs would not be able to climb the steps of Parliament house to protest their governments' changes and the bedridden are of no risk of protesting in the streets. Now perhaps, the cruel motives behind these cuts are starting to become clear.

There is hope however, and that is the Internet. To be honest, if their archaic policies are anything to go by I'm not sure the Conservative party in Britain quite have a grasp on how the Internet works just yet, but hopefully they will find out soon enough. I'm told that I personally spend too much time online, and many of my online friends with a disability have similar Internet habits. So what does this mean? People with a disability can protest, we can type - be it via Voice recognition or otherwise. We need to use our strengths and rally together as one.

The Conservative party of Britain will realise that people with a disability do indeed have a voice, an opinion, and maybe more importantly, a vote