Blogging Against (Dis?)Ablism

[greenie_breizh]

652€ disability cheque: How am I supposed to live?

I've been thinking and talking about disability quite a lot these past couple of days, so it's a happy coincidence that today is Blogging Against Disablism Day (or should that be Ableism?). I wish I had more time to do one coherent post based on the discussion that I had following my post on the deaf kid storyline in House, especially since a lot is in French.

I'm not extremely familiar with ableism (which is defined as "discriminatory, oppressive or abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people are inferior to others"), but from having worked on other forms of discrimination and privilege, I think I would rather use and think about able-bodied privilege than ableism. The difference is important to me.

Ableism, like homophobia/heterosexism or racism, tends to refer to specific actions or thoughts, and assumes that disability is a clearly-defined state, an objective fact if you will. Ableism may be unconscious, but it is still the result of what an individual person did or said.

Abled privilege, on the other hand, invites us to think about the context that makes ableist behavior possible. It challenges not individuals who -unconsciously or not - engage in abileism, but in a system that favors and rewards being able-bodied (in the larger sense, including mental disabilities). Focusing on the consequences of living in a world that privileges the able-bodied is not unimportant, it is a very practical concern. We need to think about how our world and assumptions constantly silence, marginalize and inferiorize the disabled, and to think about the practical and very real changes we can make the world more welcoming for people with a disability. But it's even more important that, as we make efforts to enact changes, we think of the framework that we are working with. If we don't, we run the risk of supporting changes that are in fact still embedded in a way of thinking that posits that being able-bodied is better. And while that might still make the world more physically accessible to people with disability, it doesn't change how we make them feel in this world. Trying to address the consequences (ableism) without thinking about the context (abled privilege) runs the risk of having the very presumptuous and conceited attitude of thinking we know better, and thinking we are doing disabled people a favor, instead of correcting something that is our fault.


Because I've been mostly reading up and talking about deafness and deaf culture in the past few days, I want to finish by focusing on this particular "disability" here. I'd like to invite you to read on controversial issues within the deaf community, for example why attempts to integrate deaf students in general-education might not serve deaf students as much as ourselves and what we like to believe about our culture of "inclusion".

Also, this really only works for French people, but here is a visual lexicon for LSF (French Sign Language) for people who are interested in learning more than the alphabet. It doesn't replace actually taking classes, of course, but it's an interesting resource. Maybe we could at very least learn to say "hi", "sorry" and "bye" - bare minimum to say the least, but it's a first small step.

I'd also like to take advantage of this post to highlight some links that lounalune shared with me. I haven't had time to read them but I already know they will be good food for thought. :)

And to finish, a poem that I found here and really liked, and lyrics from a song I've been listening to too much and seemed appropriate.


Thoughts of a Deaf Child

My family knew that I was deaf
When I was only three, and since then fifteen years ago
Have never signed to me.
I know when I'm around the house,
I try and use my voice,
It makes them feel more comfortable;
For me, I have no choice.
I try, communicate their way-
Uncomfortable for me.
My parents wouldn't learn sign
Ashamed or apathy?
I never cared about the sound of radios and bands;
What hurts me most is, I never heard
My parents' signing hands.

-Stephen J. Bellitz
Reprinted from Senior News, July 1991




This one's for the lonely
The ones that seek and find
Only to be let down
Time after time

This one's for the faithless
The ones that are surprised
They are only where they are now
Regardless of their fight

This is for the ones who stand
For the ones who try again
For the ones who need a hand
For the ones who think they can


- Greg Laswell, Comes and Goes in Waves

Comments

[gizmometer.livejournal.com]

oh, "inclusion" (especially re: deaf issues), you fail so hard sometimes. i have had fights with people (special ed majors, notably) about why inclusion is not the One True Doctrine and why its dogma can seriously fail/hurt people.

also: is "disableism" a european thing/term? i've never heard it before. we talk (in my activist circles and in the literature i've read) about ableism - inherent assumption of ability, and ability-motivated bias - but not disableism.

[greenie-breizh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not surprised. Like I said, it's all good intentions, but if you don't think about the systemic issues (and I think most Ed programs don't), you're entirely too likely to come up with problematic solutions. Not that inclusion in necessarily a bad idea in all cases, but generalizing it definitely is.

I have to admit I have no idea - I don't know too much about these issues and I can't remember which one I've seen used the most. I went with disablism because that's what the site referred. Interesting. I prefer able-bodied privilege anyway, but I'd be curious to know more about disableism vs. ableism? The meaning seems to be the same, at least?

[gizmometer.livejournal.com]

i dunno, i have a very strong gut reaction about the terms. i think "disableism" (or "disablism", i can never decide what to do about the e) doesn't fit right. look at the other -isms; we've got racism and sexism and classism (quality of interest/problem + ism, which would support ability + ism) and also heterosexism (which calls out the privileged group for its ism-ness, also supporting the ableness+ism construction). i guess i think "disablism" points to DISability as the problem, when... it's not. it's the abled privilege/mindset/assumption that's the problem (and really that creates dis/ability).

(and i don't like the term able-bodied, either, as someone who has not just a physical disability but a mental illness; i feel like it marginalises even further the folks whose disability is not necessarily bodily. yeah, the brain is part of the body, but that's not the sense that's generally evoked by the term(s). i don't have a great solution for it, but i try to avoid "-bodied" when i can.)

[greenie-breizh.livejournal.com]

No, you're absolutely right, which makes me wonder why and how the term disableism came up? Since it seems to be used in this context not only similarly to ableism but also by people within the community, not outsiders. I'll edit my post, though, because your reasoning makes the most sense to me.

You're also right about the second point, and it's not at all my intention to exclude disabilities that don't have to do with the body in the way that we usually understand it. Abled privilege it is. :)

[lounalune.livejournal.com]

Did you check out the link I gave on my post? Because Goldfish, who organizes BADD, also publishes a list of all the contributions, and I haven't seen you there. So in case you haven't done it yet, you should go on Diary of a Goldfish and comment. Don't forget to mention it if you didn't sign up.

About the ableism vs. disableism, I'm pretty sure one is American and the other one British. I agree that ableism makes more sense.

[lounalune.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot the most important: great post.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

The article by Leah Hager Cohen was, I think, the most enlightening out of the ones I got a chance to read on the topic of inclusion, but I think they all make a good point..."separate" might be more equal than some educators seem to think, if those schools for the deaf or blind can offer programs that speak directly to those with disabilities as opposed to programs directed towards "able" students that simply deign to include those who may not be able to follow at the same pace.