Why is Disability Such a Scary Concept? And how we change this narrative
By Rachael Mole
Disability is often portrayed by wider society as something to be sad about. Disabled people are pitied, and it’s easier to sweep us into the dark corners and forget than it is to confront the reality — anyone can be disabled, at any time.
The narrative of disability as a bad thing comes from an ingrained idea that disabled people are unproductive. In the world we live in, value, especially for women, is tied directly to our ability to work, keep a home, and have a family. Value comes from the ability to conform.
Disabled people fall out of this valued category, as there is often a level of care or a needed change (for example, workplace adjustments) that brings with it an assumption that all disabled people are burdensome, incapable, and unvalued. Social support is often left to charities, and unpaid labour from family and friends, rather than provided by governments and written into law.
Everyone can see that the way society treats disabled people is unkind — often this knowledge is on a subconscious level, built from the unconscious bias and ableism that reinforces the ideas that disabled people are sad, unloveable, and burdensome, that we could overcome our disability if we tried harder, and that we should be grateful for what we have or, in other words, that our disabilities are mindsets we can choose.
Holding onto the belief that disability is something that you can overcome if you just try hard enough — that if you were to become disabled, you would have the right mindset to stop being disabled — feels reassuring.
But that’s not how it works. Around the world, the pandemic has shown us how long COVID is impacting the lives of people who were once healthy and able-bodied. The lack of support and infrastructure for disabled people is cracking, with more and more people becoming disabled.
In this context, it’s easier to underfund medical research, withhold updated medical training and financial support and ignore the pleas for help from a population of people who now have no value because they cannot work or keep a home without extra physical and monetary support than it is to plan for — and implement — strategies for a global recovery with accessibility and inclusion in mind ensure no one is left behind.
What can we do to change this narrative?
How can we show that disabled people are valuable and that the disabled experience can be full of joy and love?
One of the main things we need to do is to amplify the voices within our own community. Whether it’s by following them on social media, reading and sharing the articles they write in mainstream media, buying their books, and supporting media with positive disability representation, the wider the stories of disabled joy, love, and pride can reach, the more non-disabled people will be able to consume this narrative.
If you’re in a place and headspace to speak up, speak up! Maybe it’s flagging how an inaccessible space could be made accessible. Maybe it’s speaking up when you hear or read offensive language being used, or maybe you work in an organisation that could implement some reasonable adjustments. Starting these conversations — even when it’s not access that you personally require — holds value and is a huge step forward for the disabled community.
About the author
Rachael Mole is the founder of SIC, a Community Interest Company bringing together her passion for mentoring, disability access, and workplace inclusion to help to close the disability employment gap in the UK. Rachael is shaking up what it means to have an inclusive workplace. You can find Rachael on LinkedIn here.
