International Day of Disabled People

Today is the United Nations International Day of Disabled People which aims to promote an understanding disability issues, the rights of disabled people and the benefits that inclusion of disabled people in all aspects of life may have on our society.

Important facts to remember are:-

1. Almost one in ten people are disabled
2. 20 per cent of the world population living in poverty are disabled
3. Exclusion of disabled people is still prevalent in the world denying many
the basic rights of food, education, employment and access to health
services.

The United Nations International Day of Disabled People was originally instigated to commemorate the anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the World Programme of Action in 1982 regarding disabled people.

The theme for this year’s International Day of Disabled People is “Making the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) inclusive”

Social change can be achieved through various means but adopting the Social Model of Disability is paramount as this is a more modern approach to viewing disability than the Medical Model.

I ask three things of you today:-

1. You help celebrate the achievements of disabled people across the globe.
Disabled people make a rich and diverse contribution to the communities in
which they live and work;

2. You consider whether you are doing enough to support an inclusive society;
and

3. You reflect on how far the disability movement has come and yet how far we
still have to go in making long lasting changes.

Happy United Nations International Day of Disabled People to you all!

Understanding Disability

As highlighted in my earlier blog, it is concerning to note that 53% of society view disabled people in a negative way. From my own personal experiences and through my work, it is clear that many people have misconceptions about disabled people and particular conditions. These misconceptions are usually formed from ignorance, fear, the traditional medical model and, most importantly, the media (at times they have a lot to answer for).

I truly believe that highlighting the positives of disability and re-educating people can, and will, make a huge difference to the lives of disabled people.

Over the next few blogs, I will take a look at several areas of disability and highlight the myths and misconceptions generally held within society. My hope is that this will help readers to understand these areas more and take a new look at their own misjudgements.

Often, when thinking of disabled people, society thinks firstly of those with a physical disability i.e. a wheelchair user but many fail to realise the broad context of disabled people and the conditions that they live their lives with. It is imperative that we first understand what the definition of “disability” is. This word that we hear so much about and which society bases judgements on seems to mean different things to different people.

So how do we define a disabled person?

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

However, defining a person by a condition/impairment is based on the Medical Model of Disability. Although this is the traditional way of defining disability, it is not very helpful and does not answer what we need to know i.e. how do we assist the person. The definition that I use is based on the Social Model of Disability which states that it is a person who has the loss of opportunity due to the barriers put up by society. There is a slight difference between the two definitions in that the former focuses on the individual’s inability to do things as opposed to the later which focuses on the barriers that are put in the way.

Arguably there is a need to group various disabled people together and the general groups would be people with physical impairments (including wheelchair users), people with visual impairments, people with hearing impairments, people with Learning Difficulties and people with mental health issues. It is useful to know the general access requirements for people within a group i.e. offering large print, Braille or audio tape etc to people with visual impairments. However, I must stress that these are only basic guidance and in all cases you should establish the access requirements of the individuals within their group.

I hope over the coming blogs that you will gain a better insight in to the various areas of disability and those access requirements that society needs to adopt.

Stem Cell Research

Stem Cell Research is a very emotive subject and for many it falls down to the ethics of the research but I want to look at the idea of this type of research from someone living with a disability namely ME!

Firstly, we have to establish what Stem Cell Research actually is;

“Stem cells are thought to hold huge potential for treating a wide range of disease and disability. Scientists around the world are working on techniques to refine stem cell therapy. Theoretically, it should be possible to use stem cells to generate healthy tissue to replace that either damaged by trauma, or compromised by disease.

Among the conditions which scientists believe may eventually be treated by stem cell therapy are Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, diabetes, burns and spinal cord damage”.(Source)

Secondly, we have to establish a view point. Whilst I appreciate the advantages of this research for people who wish to benefit from this type of change, for me personally, I am “against” the idea. But why?

Surely this type of research may find a treatment to my condition?

Stem Cell Research falls very definitely into that of the Medical Model of Disability. The perception is disabled people experience a medical condition and medicine is for treating people who experience illness. As a disabled person, I am perceived as being ill and must be treated. The Medical Model of Disability creates the perception of ‘normalcy” but why should we all be the same?

What it fails to consider is that my disability is me. Without it I would not be who I am or why I am. My disability has developed my personality and the growth of me as an individual. I am part of a community and part of a culture. Stem Cell Research may well be able to “cure” me but I don’t want to be “cured” and I do not want to see the eradication of the disability community.

Instead of Stem Cell Research, we should be trying to establish the Social Model of Disability and Accessibility far more widely in our society. The support of equal rights for all disabled people is a far more worthy direction to take than Stem Cell Research.

I find myself unable to support Stem Cell Research for the very reason that my disability is ME. Take away my disability and you take away the very essence of who I am.

What is the "Social Model of Disability"?

I believe strongly in the Social Model of Disability and fully embrace its more modern approach. As I go about my job, I am frequently asked "What is the Social Model of Disability?" So here goes - a quick definition......

There are various ways of looking at disability.

The traditional and most commonly used method is the Medical Model of Disability. This puts the focus on the individual disabled person and because of what is “wrong” with them and the main point of why services need to change i.e. services need to change to fit with the individual disabled person.

Contrary to this is a more forward thinking approach which is being used more widely and this is the Social Model of Disability. This moves the focus away from the individual disabled person to the barriers that the disabled person faces and it is these barriers which disables them. They do have an impairment or condition but this is private and personal to the individual and should not be the subject of gossip or chit-chat. The barriers that face a disabled person can be wide ranging e.g. physical, attitudual, information and communication, organisational and environmental to name but a few. The Social Model of Disability encourages inclusion of disabled people within all mainstream activities and most importantly treats disabled people on the same level as everyone else.