Hey folks! This newsletter is about all things disability and allyship, to give you a fresh perspective and advice that you can implement immediately to make your world more inclusive of disabled people. As a disabled woman myself, I am on my own allyship journey and I am excited to have you come along with me.
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Action of the Week: what is the right terminology to describe those NOT disabled?
[Image: a Black man wheelchair user is wearing an orange and white striped shirt and tan trousers. He is facing the camera and grinning as he holds a car door open. The car is silver and parked next to yellow lines.]
There is a lot of confusion in the non-disabled and disabled world about what we call you non-disabled folk. (You will note that I refer to non-disabled people as non-disabled, there is a reason for this and this is what this whole action of the week is about). At the moment there are two terminologies that often get bandied about - non-disabled and able-bodied… but which one do we use? And what is the difference and can we use both?
Able-bodied - is used to refer to someone who doesn’t have a physical disability. It implies that disabled people don’t have able bodies or the ability to use their bodies. And whilst this may be accurate to describe some people’s experiences of their impairments and conditions, it certainly doesn’t describe all disabled people’s experiences. For example, I have missing limbs and I was a Paralympic swimmer, meaning I’m very able to swim; compared to some non-disabled people who can’t or don’t know how to swim. In this case I am more able than the non-disabled individual.
Non-disabled - is used to refer to a person who is the opposite of disabled. This means anyone who isn’t impacted in their day-to-day life by any impairment or condition, or the barriers that society creates to exclude disabled people. Ability doesn’t come into this terminology - it is a simple, elegant statement of fact about who is or isn’t disabled.
Many disabled and non-disabled people still use the term able-bodied. I used the term able-bodied up until a couple of years ago, when my disability studies hero, Tom Shakespeare and I had a twitter discussion about the above terminology and he explained to me why able-bodied can be a misleading and problematic term. And whilst it is the more common term still, it is through understanding the nuance of language and meaning that we can change the way that disability is viewed. Disability doesn’t always mean “not able to,” and in that sense, most of us human beings are able-bodied, but only some of us (over 15% of the global population) are disabled.
So my action for you this week is to consider the terminology you use to describe non-disabled people. Do you use able-bodied or non-disabled? Let us know in the comments.
Thought of the Week: Ugly Laws.
(Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash)
[Image: a young white person, with blonde wavy hair, is wearing a blue shirt that they are pulling up around their face, as though trying to hide. They are standing in a run down building.]
Not too long ago, if I had been on the streets of New York, or New Orleans, or Chicago, I could’ve been arrested and carted away simply because of my physical disability. This would’ve been because of a set of laws that discriminated overtly against a number of marginalised people. Called the “Ugly Laws,” they targeted the overlapping categories of the poor, the homeless, vagrants, and those with visible disabilities. Essentially these laws outlawed people who were, in the words of one of these laws, “diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object” (Chicago City Code 1881).
Yes, I would’ve been classed as ‘an unsightly or disgusting object,’ the ultimate in dehumanising of disabled people (amongst others mentions above, such as poor and homeless people), and encapsulating the eugenics and ableist based attitudes that still negatively impact disabled people today.
It is only as recently as the 1970’s that the “Ugly Laws” have been repealed, but the legacy of such laws are to be seen across current disability legislation around the globe, in education, in the workplace, and in the media. Disabled people are still hidden from society. To look at schools, workplaces, our communities, and the media (in the past ten years only 2.5% of movie characters have been disabled, compared to the 15% of disabled people globally) disabled people seemingly don’t exist for many non-disabled people.
This is why disabled people continue to be ‘othered,’ we are seen as outliers, people that live in the margins, when in actual fact we are threaded through your life, sometimes visibly, sometimes hidden, but implicitly there. We are an integral part of human history. We are an integral part of human future. Many of you reading this newsletter will join the community, whether through illness, accident, or old age. None of us deserve to be ‘othered.’
If we want to eradicate ‘othering,’ create a world where disabled people aren’t considered ugly and hidden away on account of their impairment/condition, we need a world where disabled people are included, celebrated, and lauded even, for their talents and skills and successes. We need a world that doesn’t assume about ability or appearance, but a world that sees all humans as the bundles of potential that they are. A world that will lift up those that are deemed most vulnerable, as opposed to hiding them away to be forgotten.
I don’t want to be forgotten. I don’t want my disabled friends and family to be seen as disposable. We are just as worthy as non-disabled people and deserve the same chances and opportunities in life to flourish.
Wrap up of the week: Articles and Youtube.
(Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash)
[Image: a green Olympia typewriter sits on a marble desk top. In the typewriter is a piece of paper with News typed on it.]
For many people with hidden disabilities it can be a struggle to decide whether to disclose about their disabilities of not. And especially difficult if you are struggling to find a diagnosis for your conditions in the first place. This is a brilliant article about one woman’s experience acquiring a condition, struggling to find answers, and managing all of this whilst working a corporate job - I Hid My Disability At Work For 6 Years. When I Stopped, My Entire Life Changed.
Actor, Peter Dinklage, has criticised the remaking of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by Disney. His worry is that stories like this continue to stereotype people of short stature, meaning that instead of moving the disability discussion forward, we are, still, taking the discussion backwards. We have seen a few movies over the past few years get disability horrifically wrong. Disney has said they are addressing the representation issue, but read here to find out more - Disney responds to Peter Dinklage's criticism of Snow White remake
On some personal news, I am moving back to Australia at the end of February - don’t worry, Disability Allyship will continue! I am taking on a role with the ABC and I am really excited to be expanding my knowledge and skills around disability activism and advocacy through the media. In refreshing my knowledge about where disability rights and justice are at in Australia, I came across this snippet of a video that talks about the still ongoing need for inclusive recruitment in Australia (and dare I say it, globally) - Disability advocates pleas for more meaningful jobs.
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin. Also, if you would like to book a speaker or consultant on all things disability allyship pop me a line here: elizabeth@elizabethwright.net
*remember, for subscribers, I am offering a 15% off my speaker fees if you book me for a virtual session in January, February and March.
Magazines I edit that might also be useful to you - Disability Review Magazine, Not Your Monolith, and Conscious Being.
Liz x