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.
