Today is International Persons with Disabilities Day (UN), and it’s been a long time since my last blog post, so I thought it would be fitting to share some thoughts I’ve had for quite some time now.
As a social work student, I have been inundated with messages of ofthe importance of diversity, “cultural competency”, and social equality for the past six years of my life. Given this, you would think my courses would have covered various populations who experience marginaliization due to race, ethnicity, culture, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and disability. However, the term “diversity”has seemed to encompass race and culture (with some reference to the LGBTQ community at times) and typically only addresses class in conjunction with race. Very rarely has disability or ability come into conversation without me bringing it up myself, and if it does, it is in the context of mental illness. Just recently, a friend Identifying as a racialized woman living with a disability shared that she feels overwhelmed with the focus placed on race within the classroom and as though the intersectionality of having a disability is completely ignored. Now, I am not trying to advocate that any of these groups are more important or marginalized than the others, but I do strongly feel it is almost impossible for a social worker to never serve at least one individual living with some type of disability. So why is this topic not included in our curriculum?
Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a Deliberative Dialogue with many insightful Individuals. One such person, Dr. Peter Rosenbaum, happened to bring up this question of mine. He asked, “Why do we not discuss matters of disability more often and openly?”In the same breath, he provided this simple answer, people are afraid of becoming disabled themselves. This made so much sense to me since anyone can develop or acquire a “disabling” condition at any point in their lifetime. With the exception of class, this cannot be said of any other marginalized group of people. Regardless,I am not content with this answer because it highlights an even bigger problem.
Why are people so afraid of acquiring a disability? Put simply, many have the perception that our lives are not worth living. Who could ever be happy being unable to dress themselves, communicate verbally, or understand social conventions? Honestly, millions of people. So many of us around the world live with such limitations (and way more) and we are happier and more fulfilled than many “able-bodied” people i know.This being said, there are plenty of individuals with disabilities who are not happy, but I believe this has much more to do with the conditions in which they live and their personal perspectives than their limitations. For those who identify with this group of people, and those of us who are content but still have really bad days because of disabling social conditions such as physical, technological, financial, and attitudinal barriers; quality of life could be improved greatly if the rest of society would just Just engage in conversations about disability with us. Imagine how much ignorance and discrimination could be eradicated through simple conversations and knowledge sharing.
I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I am a very happy person who is leading an extremely meaningful and fulfilling life. Yes, I need help with many tasks most people take for granted, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I have met so many amazing people and developed invaluable friendships, and these wouldn’t be in my life if I hadn’t needed help with something. So stop being afraid and start talking regardless of your background or area of study. You won’t only improve the lives of those of us with disabilities, but you could be saving yourself from a lot of pain and turmoil in the future.
