As Disability Becomes More Known Why it’s Society That Needs to Change. Over the past of years as disability has become more public in the mainstream within today’s society, however, as problems with Ablism continue why it’s society that has to be the one to change.
Let me give you an example, in a paper I read last month there was a woman who had a physical disability, her problem affected other bodily functions. Now this woman was in a shop and because of her condition she needed the toilet, the staff would not let her use the staff toilets. The unfortunate outcome was that she ended up wetting herself. To add further insult to injury non of the staff at any point went to see if she was alright, but what they did do was put a wet floor sign next to her.
Now what I found completely unacceptable about this was the lack of understanding and training on how to support someone with a problem, be it a disability or condition.
And to put a Wet Floor sign next to her, I mean where is the humility for her?
A woman is refused help because of lack of support and understanding and then she is completely humiliated. For someone who has faced humiliation and isolation from a lack of understanding and support when it comes to disability I can definitely understand the upset and embarrassment that this can cause.
Many years ago, during the earlier parts of my student days, me and my course mates were informed that a girl who was hard of hearing was to be joining us. Now when she joined us a lot of us realised that we would have to alter the way in which we vocalised with her. Basically whenever we spoke with her we would open our mouths more and spoke at a steadier dictation pace.
Even another female student commented on this.
Now what it was about this that I found a bit disappointing was that not everyone was willing at first to play ball so easily.
I’ll just give you an example of a situation where for another student within the peer group met up with a brief moment of some deserved embarrassment;
A small group of us were having a general conversation, what it was I can’t even remember, but anyways conversation soon turned to the new girl on our course. A girl from within our group basically made one or two snide remarks and about her being completely deaf. I said in response that the girl in question wasn’t deaf but just hard of hearing. For additional humiliation I pointed out that the girl was actually right behind her (she’d been standing there a good few moments). The climax of the situation was that she turned around and saw the very girl she’d been making snide remarks about standing right behind her.
Needless to say, the girl in question was shocked and embarrassed.
The only thought on my mind was ‘serves you right’. It was her attitude towards the girl in question that I found disappointing as she was in the typical mindset where just because she was hard of hearing that she could make bitchy remarks and think nothing of it.
Changes were needed but it wasn’t the deaf girl but rather the attitude of the other girl and her lack of understanding
Ironically it’s a similar sort of attitude that is faced by many in the workplace. My own experience is that when I found myself in certain situations HR would seem to go into theories as to whether it was my Aspergers was an issue. My attitude was more one of ‘it’s not my Aspergers that’s the problem, but rather your attitude towards it’.
As we go further into the 21st Century I have often found myself asking just how much society’s views and attitudes towards disability has actually moved on. Now I know a great many of you will be reading this and thinking to yourself that we have but as someone who’s faced Ablism first-hand head on I have found myself believing otherwise.
A lot of people in various roles will have put themselves through various training programmes or held talks about it but to be honest I do have to question the integrity behind it.
Is it being done because it helps create an even playing field for all or is it being done just to tick a few boxes and say that you’re up to date?
Disability charity group Scope put together a televised advertising campaign to raise awareness of Ablism and society’s need for change but in the workplace and in social gatherings. I genuinely think it needs to be revived and made entirely for the mainstream masses along with other groups such as Autism Awareness.
Just saying but either way further change us needed whether you like it or not.
