I think Laurence's contribution on 20th December about Podiums, accolades
and access is very relevant to the discussion about why many disabled people
who are in quite high social positions do not speak out on unequal
treatment. It is something I have noticed in quite a few situations in the
U.K. and elsewhere. For example few people knew that Franklin D. Roosevelt
was a disabled person during his presidency of the USA it was deliberately
hidden.
It takes a lot of guts to refuse to collude with exclusion and being
patronising, of course the guest speaker Laurence wrote about was not
thanked. If he had gone up and said what a terrible thing it is that there
was no ramp and still went ahead with his speech he would have been thanked
and been told "next time" we will do it. Yeah! heard that before.
It would be interesting to research the reasons for people's reluctance to
speak out and take action as above - but I think there are a few reasons
that may account for some of it.
Firstly British people do not like to make a fuss - we like to blend into
the background. We do not like to think we are being a nuisance - so
whatever social position we are in we will apologise even when we are not
wrong!
Secondly many of us do not want to be thought of as different in a negative
way. In many societies it is generally thought to be a bad thing to have an
impairment and we are expected to make every effort to "overcome" it. It is
viewed as a weakness to "give in" to impairment - "give in" meaning saying
something like 'well I actually do manage better using a wheelchair than
trying to walk'. Or by insisting that a meeting is made accessible rather
than not attending the meeting whilst others carry on without you. If you do
insist on an accessible meeting you can be labelled as being unrealistic,
having a "chip on you shoulder" or being bitter about your impairment.
I think this leads to some people pretending or denying they have an
impairment and rather than insist that their access needs are met they will
struggle or opt out. Put briefly people internalise the oppression.
I think the way people react to discrimination against them has links with
other oppressions. I think that those people who could identify with any of
the oppressed groups in westernised society - such as women, black people,
people from ethnic minorities, lesbians, gay men and disabled people seem to
have a commonality of denial of their oppression.
Speaking out and insisting on equality - be it access or other issues does
not seem to be conducive with "success" in an oppressive society. Those that
do speak out never seem to get there.
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