Dear All,
I thought long and hard before sending this message. I was however quite
incensed when I read the marketing blurb about the 'awareness' training
delivered by RNC. I thought therefore, on balance, I would put the
alternative point of view here so that you can consider both perspectives.
I do this primarily as it is my experience that the sort of training being
sold and recommended by RNC, is often not merely a waste of time - aside
from its income generating aspects - but more worryingly can be
counter-productive and even quite negative in its impact, not least because
of its reinforcement of stereotypes about impairment. This is because it
starts from an individual/medical model of disability rather than from a
social perspective, thereby replicating the false notion that you can
firstly understand what it is 'like' to have a specific impairment and
secondly, that this is in some way desirable or valuable: both concepts
which I would fundamentally wish to challenge from the standpoint of seeking
to advocate mutual respect, a social understanding of diversity issues and
the promotion of change to remove barriers to people with impairment labels.
As a totally blind person who is an experienced trainer using the social
model of disability, I would like to discourage people from attending or
commissioning courses which reinforce a medical model and associated
prescribed assumptions about impairment - including the 'correct guiding
method' for example! My belief is that RNC is a segregated college and as
such is a business which is arguably not best placed to talk about - let
alone promote - the 'inclusion' of visually impaired Disabled People.
This is a personal but nonetheless professional opinion for all that. I
wish to point out that this should not be interpreted as a personal attack
upon anyone, least of all the person who sent the message to this list
promoting RNC's training. This is a personal reflection upon the value of
equality and diversity training which is based upon a social approach and
focuses upon the practical removal of barriers which discriminate against
Disabled and other marginalised people, rather than 'awareness' training,
which focuses upon impairment and tries, falsely in my view, to replicate
conditions, , promote an 'empathy' with that area of impairment/s and
"demystify" (whilst in fact reinforcing) the fear of impairment.
Best Wishes,
Mike Higgins,
Email [log in to unmask]
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