We Won’t Be Silenced or Sidelined Anymore: Women with Disabilities in Latin America are Speaking Up!
By Luciana Sosa
A primary focus of women in the disability rights movement is to understand the different forms of discrimination encountered at the intersection of two minority identities. Like in other regions around the world, women with disabilities in Latin America are talking more about our experiences and pushing back against the ableism and misogyny that doubly discriminates against us.
The situation is nonetheless complex. It’s not enough to add up the obstacles experienced by people with disabilities and women. It’s not enough to add up the demands of the disability rights and women’s movements. While this is all very valid, it goes beyond a single identity to their intersection; to the lived experiences of prejudice and discrimination that only women with disabilities encounter and deeply understand. They are many and ongoing, from situations as routine as doctor’s visits to more dire incidences of reporting gender-based violence.
How can doctors, police, educators and so on adequately and fully serve and care for women with disabilities if laws and policies are written without us in mind? And how can inclusive laws and policies be written if the people writing them don’t reach out to or represent us?
Institutions set up to serve us frequently fail to meet our needs on multiple fronts not least of all accessibility- be it lacking sign language interpretation, large print versions of documents, building access and so on- and therefore fail to protect and provide us with the services afforded to women without disabilities. It’s in these moments that our intersectionality and invisibility is most apparent and saliently felt.
Social institutions’ standard of service and care are based on an ableist model of personhood. Disability simply doesn’t factor into the equation let alone its intersectionality with other minority identities. Lack of disability representation among public officials- the politicians and policy-makers who make decisions on our behalf- is a part of the problem that plagues most societies, including in Latin America. How can doctors, police, educators and so on adequately and fully serve and care for women with disabilities if laws and policies are written without us in mind? And how can inclusive laws and policies be written if the people writing them don’t reach out to or represent us?
As women with disabilities, the responsibility falls on us time and again to do the work of systemic and structural change. While we need to be aware of and vocal about the intersectionality of disability and gender discrimination, it’s the State’s duty to build capacity in areas of need and serve the public even when it’s not quick, easy or convenient. Our inclusion isn’t other people’s discrimination. Nonetheless, a resistance to meeting our needs is overt and rooted in discourses of scarcity. Lacking the economic resources to make social-structural and institutional changes is a favorite argument of States around the world, and it’s one that often wins out. As a result, we’re sidelined and silenced [rendered invisible] by those who, again, are meant to care for and serve us.
Invisibility is challenged by speaking up; by representing ourselves [our intersectionality] and not being represented by people who don’t share or care about our experiences. When we speak up, we empower our community to do the same. An empowered community is one that fights for the full exercise and expansion of its rights. In Latin America, we see this happening as women and other marginalized groups with disabilities are becoming increasingly restless, reaching out to one another and organizing. Collectively empowered, we’re pushing back against State-led prejudice and discrimination through multiple means and with this comes the message that we won’t be silenced or sidelined anymore.
About the author:
Luciana Sosa was born in Uruguay. She is 26 and is a high school student. She is a passionate activist for human rights and is a member of Red META (movimiento estamos tod@s en acción) since June, 2017.
