MY BIRTHDAY WISH(ES)

I TURN 54 TODAY

1.     I want the world designed for all -- so folks aged 8 to 80 can get around without obstructions, restrictions, threats of injury, or damage to their dignity.

2.     I want folks who use assistive mobility devices, who have hearing loss, who have vision impairments, who have cognitive issues -- to be known as people with disabilities. Because the person part matters more than disability.

3.     I want every writer and editor to stop saying “wheelchair bound” and “confined to a wheelchair.” First it is inaccurate. My wife sleeps, bathes and does tons of things without her mobility device. Second, it is pejorative. We hear the dog whistle. Nothing good comes out of being confined or bound to something, so we know these modifiers are code words for “devalued” or “less than human.”

4.     I want assistive mobility devices -- wheelchairs (power and push), scooters, rolling walkers, crutches, etc. -- to be looked at simply as what they are: devices that enable mobility. Most people live five miles or more from work. They jump in a sedan to make it in on time, because it would take an hour to walk it. Why do I never hear them described as poor souls that are Toyota-bound, or confined to a Chevy?

5.     I would like the media to really cover strong, global, prevailing issues in the disability community. Far too often -- when I worked in a newsroom and right up through today when folks are as likely to get their news via tweet or website as TV, radio or printed paper -- the editor's idea of covering an issue on disability is to do the "super gimp" profile. A person in a wheelchair has been elected to the city council, or they are chair of the library board or the new VP for student affairs at the local university. The story could detail what knowledge and experience they will bring, as someone who likely had to struggle for accommodations in grade school, at college, in the work place, etc.

Instead, they all but say the "normal" people, the able bodied, should be shocked and amazed that a "pathetic cripple" can someone sob story their way into a position of respect and power. How many editors would say this of a person of color? That it is amazing they could "overcome" their blackness and be something more than a shoe shine guy or maid? If a modern story fell into the Jim Crow time machine and came out inaccurately labeling African Americans this way, it would be correctly judged as racist and the bigoted writer/editor/publisher would be justifiably fired. Yet negative stereotyping of people with disabilities in all modern media is the rule, not the exception.

Is it relevant to write about the first African American fire chief, or the first person who uses a wheelchair for mobility to be elected to the city commission? Yes. Should the story focus on the unique insights their minority status gave them and how they plan to use that to make the organization they serve more inclusive? You bet.  But I would hope in the year 2018 that a news story would not fawn over the fact that someone "overcame the impossibly long odds" of becoming a community leader despite the confines (and implied inferiority) of being black, female, Hispanic, etc.

Sadly, virtually every story of achievement about a person with a disability perpetuates medieval stereotypes by building a portrayal that implies we able bodied (who should thank every deity know that we're not a pathetic cripple) are still far superior to the person with a disability who lucked into the job, got the sympathy vote, and rose above half-human status.