***TRIGGER WARNING***
This post has examples of ableist language which some might find confronting and / or triggering. Please only read on if you feel able to. For more information on charitable organisations who can support your mental health when you’re experiencing physical challenges, please visit my Get Support page.
***TRIGGER WARNING***
The subject of ableism is relatively new to me. Although I’m disabled, my disabilities have become more prevelant in recent years and, as a result, I’ve had to learn a huge amount in a short time. It’s the same for anyone with a new, progressive health condition.
However, once you enter the disability space there’s a huge amount to take in. You’re confronted with new information about your health, new information about your needs, new information about drugs and equipment, and new information about the perception of your disability from society.
It’s the latter that I’m going to try and talk about today, although I barely feel qualified. Still, I want to try, and I’ll explain why.
As someone who regularly writes blog posts for Disability Arts Online, I also take a keen interest in what others are saying on their site. There is a wealth of information to learn from and many useful, thought-provoking opinions to read, all from like minded people.
This week I read a blog post by Kate Stephens about ableist language in the media. The post is called ‘Who should be responsible for the representation of disability on TV?‘ . It’s a quick read, with a trigger warning on abelist language, and can be found on the DAO website.
In a nutshell, Nicolas Hamilton, the half-brother of F1 megastar Lewis Hamilton, appeared on the ITV1 show ‘Loose Women’ recently. He was interviewed about his decision to stop using his wheelchair despite living with Cerebral Palsy.
While it’s great to see more representation of disability in the media, and more disabled stars appearing as a result, I’ve always felt it’s important the language used (especially in circumstances like this) is balanced, considered and careful. However, this isn’t something I’ve felt brave enough to voice publicly before. Honestly, I thought I was alone and possibly feeling bitter about my own capabilities, and that left my nose out of shape when I heard about someone being ‘less lazy’ than me in the media. Kates blog post showed me my feelings weren’t unique.
Nicolas was reveered as an inspiration, as someone who was brave, and the public made comments on social media telling him to be proud for making the choice ‘not to be lazy’. While I agree with MOST of these remarks, I’ve always been left anxious when I hear this narrative in the media and see the fallout online. Like many others, I think about how all this relates to me which creates a lot of questions, inlcuding…
- Are these people labelling us as lazy for continuing to use our wheelchairs and mobility equipment?
- Is it believed that we aren’t capable of being inspiring, brave or courageous just because we need a wheelchair?
- Why isn’t public understanding of ambulatory wheelchair use better portrayed in the media?
- Why is a physical disability still portrayed as being a life that’s less than normal? Not good enough? Sometimes (it feels like) it’s even something to be ashamed of.
If you aren’t confronted by a long term health condition that impairs your mobility then it’s difficult to fully appreciate the bravery needed to overcome the many obstacles shoved in your face as you enter the disabled world.
I’ve needed my mobility aids including a perching stool, shower seat, walking frames, crutches, a stick and wheelchair for 5 years now. Even though I was given the equipment back in 2019, it took me until 2022 to mentally accept that I was struggling (and sometimes in danger) without them, and only then did I finally allow them to be installed into our home and into my world.
This is a massive hurdle for many people and I wrote an article on the subject back in 2022 that was published in the USA. It talked about my difficulty developing a positive relationship with my mobility aids and how I hoped the relationship would grow into something more liveable eventually, but I’m two years on and it’s still difficult. Media narratives that perpetuate the idea that my equipment makes me lazy doesn’t help me, or anyone who understands this internal battle, at all.
Saying all this, I understand why it happens so easily. Until 2018 I had my own internal ableist narrative that was completely unconscious, but I was poorly educated on the challenges disabled people face. Looking back, I had only rarely been in situations where close family and friends needed this type of support, I guess I shoved my head in the sand on the subject. For disability inclusion to be fair and equal, that has to change.
Now I’ve learnt a lot more, so I spent some time discussing my thoughts on this with my partner. Despite living with me, watching me go from athletic and able-bodied to virtually sedentary and disabled, he doesn’t really know much about ableism either, and as a result his initial reaction to Nicolas’ story had questions that felt (to me) biased…
‘Is it wrong to celebrate his strength and bravery for challenging his abilities in this way because others can’t do the same, regardless of the reason?”
Of course, he’s right. Nicolas Hamilton has earned the right to talk about his successes, and like everyone else, his successes don’t have to be limited to his abilities. The problem lies in the question Kate asked initially – within the media, who is responsible for making the disability narrative balanced and who will therefore stop people like me from feeling like a failure when others are perceived as being more ‘normal’?
I believe media representation needs to come from a genuine place, not filtered by production staff who who don’t understand this triggering language first hand. While Nicolas’ story is compelling and his decision to start a new chapter without relying on his wheelchair takes a huge amount of strength and bravery, it doesn’t make everyone else in similar circumstances lazy for failing to do the same.
As I said at the start of this post, it’s great to see more disability inclusion on my television screen, but is there enough inclusion in the right places? Who manages the narrative from the other side of the cameras? If we got that right, then internalised ableism could be phased out and disabled people, like me, wouldn’t find themselves being described as ‘abnormal’ by others.
Simply being referred to as ‘normal’ is what many of us crave.
Thanks for reading.
Creative Steph 