I want to believe that with education people can change how they feel about disability. They might not want to change, of course, but I believe they can. I have to believe education makes a difference -- that even though people feel what they feel; they can change if not what they feel but how they deal with that surge of emotion.
I'm learning that feelings are not just feelings, emotions that come and go. They are, in fact, dangerous. I and other disabled people have to live the consequences of other people's feelings. Untrammeled feelings are the biggest source of my daily oppression.
Let me say that again. Dealing with my impairment is not the worst part of my daily life -- other people's feelings are. Emotional outrage, disgust, fear, etc. are not limited to the person alone; they become public policy. They become cultural stereotypes, attitudinal commonplaces, words of wisdom. What people feel about disability and the disabled can deny me a ramp into a restaurant, a job, companionship... They can isolate me, terrorize me, lead to violence against me. They aren't just feelings; they are impediments to my full participation in the world. If everyone kept their feelings to themselves, well,.....
Well.
very enlightening and deep thank you for sharing it really moved me you sound like a very strong person:)
ReplyDeleteEducation? Not an academic kind. Those feelings live deep down in the body. I think people have to go through those reactions in their bodies first. Like having face time with actual PWD's. and then they have to like those PWDs at least a little too. It's a conflict in the guts and gut A says Ugh you are a PWD and different is bad, and gut B, Gee U seem like a nice person. So one wants to tighten up and close and the other wants to loosen up and open. Working that stuff out is the only kind of education that can do it. ––Zha (ArtesiaW73@yahoo.com)
ReplyDeleteYou sound really afraid of people's reactions. I thought maybe you were a newbie to crip world but your profile says you've been doing this blog for seven years. I think people change one at a time. When people give me one of __those__ looks, I look them in the eye. I give them, "I'm just as equal as you are in every other way. Deal with it. Deal with me."
ReplyDeleteI think people are scared of my disability like they're going to catch it from me. If they look like that I wheel closer toward them like I'm going to actually touch them and they mini freak! try it, you'll like it, and it's more fun.---Zha
It's like how Bad Cripple (http://badcripple.blogspot.com) says, disability is a social problem more than a physical problem.
ReplyDeleteI've long been saying that if everyone was educated and learned about disability issues, it would make the transition into a life with disability so much easier.
Because it can happen to anyone at any time it is the duty of every human being to be educated about it. Disability is something that effects all of us! Disability rights matter to all of us! (or should anyway)
How to get people to see? That is my daily question.