Dear Harriet,
I am not sure if I have said this but am sure it could have been me!
People who claim to speak for others often present opinion as fact. Also a person with experience of one type of disability has no more credibility when speaking for people with different disabilities than a non disabled person.
People with intellectual disabilities are vastly under represented, and mostly rely on representation through family and carers. Much the same applies to people with mental disorders.
Advocacy bodies and particularly 'peakbodies', usually funded by government have a problem convincing us that they are independent, and will bite the hand that feeds them without fear nor favour.
There is also a tendency to present the 'disability community' as homogenous, with shared values and objectives. This is no more true than saying that all white people have blue eyes, or like apple pie. The over simplification takes place because the easily measured gets presented, where the more difficult to define abstracts, which make up the essence of any 'community' are ignored.
I'll no retreat into my foxhole and wait for the flak!
rgds John
----- Original Message -----
From: Harriet Radermacher
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 2:04 AM
Subject: Source search - Is the disability movement unrepresentative of the majority?
I'm trying to track down a specific source - I suppose there might be several - that stated that the people involved in the disability movement only comprise 5% of the disabled population - it went on to discuss the prospect that the disability movement is in danger of creating the very system that it has been fighting to abolish - that is, a system that does not listen to the voices of the people/consumers themselves and consequently is unrepresentative of disabled people.
Please forgive me if this information is inaccurate - hence the reason for questioning the source! If anyone could enlighten me about this, or a similar source, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Harriet
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