Disability Does Not Discriminate

Discrimination and Disability are two words that we often hear in the same sentence. Those words are great mates and seem to go hand-in-hand with each other, like salt and pepper or bacon and eggs.

We are used to it at schools, in the workplaces, and even society in general. Places without wheelchair access or disabled toilets are a wonderful example. There is no need to make room for the seemingly "few" who need it, compared to all of "normal people". Mama Lewis can tell you a story or two about discrimination: from shopping trolleys to child care.

Because having a physical disability is also about competing in death-defying stunts to get places.
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Discrimination is as ugly as prejudice, and seems to happen simply because someone is different from you and what you expect all people to be. It can be for many reasons: race, religion, sexuality, age, gender or, yes, disability.

But the weird thing is how much society discriminates against disability, when disability does not discriminate.

I am not talking about people with disabilities. They can surely discriminate, because people can suck. Having a disability is no exception to this, as I talked about in my previous post. But disability itself does not discriminate.

I have heard the expression before, but never fully understood it until recently. I work with a lot of different people who have different disabilities. Of my 5 regular clients, only one has Australian heritage. The rest have heritage from all over the world: Africa, Asia, Europe...

My clients range from children to fully-grown adults. I have male and female clients. I have clients of all different religions and faiths.

Disability does not discriminate. Disability cannot discriminate.

Nobody chooses to have a disability. Disability does not go around and choose people. There are many reasons why people have disabilities, but neither of those are true.

Why do we,as a society, discriminate against disability, when disability is discriminates against nobody?

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My Special Students are not Sweethearts

I work with a lot of different people in disability services, so in turn I see a lot of different disabilities. I am interested in all of my work really, and try not to limit myself. But I never forget where it started, and continues to this day, with one day a week at Special School.

At Special School, in my particular classroom, I have students who have severe physical impairments but who also have brains much brighter than their bodies. I sometimes classify this as the cruelest turns of fate, to be in a body and you want it to work but you know it doesn't and it won't. It is different from Autism, which I heard beautifully put as 'seeing life through a different window, not understanding what you see, and nobody understands it either' (a generalization, but holds true for many people I know). It is different from intellectual impairment.

I know my students well. They are getting older, so I like to refer to them as my friends. They are all clever - much cleverer than people give them credit for. They can be lovely, but not always. They are teenagers and I remember my moodiness as a teenager all too well.

What I cannot stand is upon a minute of meeting them, someone who says "Oh bless them, what sweethearts!"

One of my students is, I'll give you that much. She is a sweetie, and she is often happy, and she is quick to smile and laugh. She is sweet. I'll even let you say she is a sweetheart.

But one of my other students that I can think of? Sweetheart is not the first word I would think to describe her. Bright, vivacious and bitter. I know her. She is currently limited as we unlock a key for an effective communication device, and this can make her angry. Would you call any other high-school aged student a "sweetheart" moments after meeting them?

One day, a friend of mine who is studying to be a social worker wrote this on Facebook

"It never ceases to amaze me how much people with disabilities despite all the discrimination they face on a daily basis are still some of the kindest and friendliest people I know."

That's coming from a social worker. A mass generalization on all people with disabilities.

I work with many different people. Guess what? I get bitten. I get spat on - purposefully, too. I am often covered with bodily fluids (nobody's fault). I get yelled at, by other carers. I try and stop self-injurious behaviours. I listen to a lot of squealing. I sometimes have to run a lot.

Sometimes I work with sweethearts. Sometimes I work with real cool cats. Sometimes I work with a mate or a buddy, and everything in between.

It's not glamorous. There is nothing romantic about this.

My Special Students are not Sweethearts, simply because they have a disability.
I've gotten it before too. I know my friend Emily from Words I Wheel By gets it too, as does her mum.

Any assumption about a person with a disability: that they will be sweethearts or not is a massive and unfair overgeneralization. We should be seeing a person before a disability. When we judge or assume that someone will be one way or another because of their disability, no matter what the disability, we are not being person-first.

And clearly, sometimes even social workers need a reminder on that.