Rethinking (Dis)ability

This post was originally written for Chat for Change.

What is a disability? The use of this word is charged with social, political, environmental and emotional meaning. How I am using it in this blog post is to reflect a characteristic of a person which is not catered for generally by society and thus results in barriers to different forms of participation.

Often people living with disabilities are depicted purely through the iconography of somebody in a wheelchair, leaving out the needs of everybody who might be disabled by society in a different way. 

A person passing me in the street would rarely categorise me as having a ‘disability’ – however my varying levels of ability that classify me as having dyslexia and dyspraxia mean I use a number of additional tools to undertake certain written and reading activities. The problem is the same as for wheelchair uses, those with a hearing impairment or with a visual impairment – society sets things out in a certain expected way, such as steps up to a shop or library, and a disability is something which requires a person to need an additional tool to enable them the access the same facility or service, such as a ramp or lift.

Having a disability is often stigmatised and as such creates inequalities in access to employment, education, health care, housing services. People living with disabilities are often discriminated against and when this is combined with gender inequalities it can create a double level of discrimination against girls and women living with disabilities. If girls are less likely to complete primary or secondary education in many countries, then where there is another barrier which prevents access to education, such as a disability, girls will be particularly affected.

If we think about it, over the course of our lifetime each of us has differing capabilities and differing additional needs at various stages. I would argue that the nearly everybody in the world would benefit from thinking more about accessibility in all that we do at some time or other.

When we plan our facilities, services and programmes we need to think through as many scenarios as possible to help us cater for the diversity of potential users – but we will never be able to anticipate every need, and that is why it is also important to be adaptable. When we come to realise a barrier to somebody’s access and participation, we need to be willing to speak out, find solutions and make change happen!