> For many of us, the common-thread that links disabled people with vastly
> different impairments and social situations, across the globe, is the
> experience of exclusion. I apologise if your contact with the wider
> disabled community has produced yet more exclusion because, as a disabled
> person myself, I must share responsibility for that experience, but please
> do not write the 'movement' off when individuals may have been the problem.
To All
Forgive me picking on one point I don't want to detract from the
argument too much, but the point (be it small) I am about to raise
has been nagging for a long time and a lot recently. I do not
disagree with Richard here as such but I have a problem. The Social
Model (one version anyway) sees disability or disabled people as
coming into existence as a result of oppression. Who WANTS to be seen
as being something which is the result of oppression. I certainly
don't. One of the reasons I remain ambivalent towards disability
politics is because to enter into disability politics would me
aligning myself with "the oppressed". That is exteremely negative. I
for one have never experienced oppression, I belong to an oppressed
group but that does not make me oppresed. I have had this argument
before on this list.
To contribute towards this particular discussion I would like to say
one thing. For years I hated being around disabled like myself -
people thought that since I was disabled (disability as a physical
characteristic) that I must feel some affinity with them them. I did
not. This was because looking at a PWD was like looking in the mirror
and I did not like what I saw when I look in the mirror (still don't
sometimes. It was not until I was about 16 that I got over this
anxiety.
Thank you for your time
Michael
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