--- at 11:43 AM 1/6/03, Jim Davis wrote ---
>When you're in a situation which calls for you to do the thing you
>cannot do, or can only do in a different or assisted way, then your
>invisible disability is "outed".
And if one is invested in passing as typical, one begins to limit the
things one's called on to do. It's amazing how effectively one can
create disability from one's impairment through the process of
concealing it.
--- at 11:43 AM 1/6/03, Jim Davis wrote ---
>Two different peers, architects, asked me, both in those exact six
>words ["Why Do You Care About This?"] -- when in two separate
>introductory conversations I mentioned to them that I am currently
>studying & advocating universal design -- which made no sense to
>them because at the moment my mobiliby disability was still
>invisible to them. This experience of being told in effect that the
>group is so
>stigmatised that it's inconceivable that anyone outside the group would
>give a damn about disabled rights in the built environment -- this
>ableism was actuallly quite SIMILAR to the homophobia I encountered when
>I took a sociology course "Social Deviance". Only after I "came out" to
>them as a person with a mobility disability relating to steps, did my
>interest in applying disabled rights to the designed environment, make
>any sense to them.
I've been interested in disability as long as I can remember. I
worked with blind and deaf people before I claimed a disability
identity; in fact the clearly articulated disability identities I
encountered in Deaf and blind communities taught me the value of
naming my reality accurately. I no longer face the reveal/conceal
dilemma since I began to use a wheelchair. Yet when I speak up on
access issues that are not obviously related to mobility impairment,
I still encounter that "why do *you* care about this?" attitude from
non-disabled people. (In my day-to-day work, I'm pleased to run with
a truly cross-disability crowd, where all sorts of folks look out for
all sorts.)
--
Jesse the K -- Madison, WI USA -- mailto:[log in to unmask]
I prefer to remain anomalous.
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