Laurence said:
> There is another Mitzi, and as a student, I am sure you are aware that
> there's also the denial of impairment or its trivialisation and
> minimisation. Surely you must have come across people who claim
> that you are
> not really sick: its just a scam to get out of putting in as much
> effort as
> other people and to seek benefits that you don't really need?
>
Sure, I've seen this in action as a parent (one child
with autism, one child with bipolar disorder), as a
lecturer who acts as a disability support tutor, in
my own life, and as the partner of a man with severe
dyslexia. In some ways it's worse than hearing
whatever soft version of "we don't want your kind
here" that the school/jobsite/programme is putting
out, because at least in that case the affected
person can see that the problem is mostly or entirely
in the discriminatory organisation. When the
impairment is denied/minimised, it's hard not to take
a lot of that judgement on board yourself. In my
husband's case, he was told so often that he was lazy
and thick that he dropped out of secondary school--
what's the point if you're lazy and thick, right?--
and spent years floating from dangerous low-paying
job to demeaning low-paying job. My daughter was
excluded from secondary school at age 13, following
her diagnosis, as they didn't feel like accomodating
her. My son was first excluded from school at age 5,
and most recently last fall. In all 3 of these close-
to-home cases, the organisations involved had
adequate information on the existance and effect of
the disability, but chose to minimise or ignore it.
"Yes, we know he's autistic and has a hard time
communicating distress verbally, but that doesn't
excuse biting the aide who's holding him down on the
floor; Yes, we know she's just been released from
hospital and is experiencing severe mental
difficulties, but our only option for kids who can't
handle a full day of mainstream classes is the
behaviour class with the gang members just released
from jail." Been there, heard that! In each case, the
impairment was real, but it was the harmful social
context that made it painful and disabling. Had the
impairment been recognised and adjustments made to
the programme, or extra help given--just a little
flexibility will usually do it--I think the outcome
would have been quite different.
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