Embracing Life and Advocating for Those Coping with Ableism

by Lisha

As I have several loved ones who have disabilities in my family, being connected with the disability community has been part of my life. My younger brother has an intellectual disability which requires a lot of help to live in modern society because his development levels are significantly low. My cousins also display signs of autism. The country where I’m from, unlike my brother, some people who have light level of autism have a hard time to adjust in the society as they aren’t recognized as disability with its level.

There are roughly 2 billion people in the world with disabilities. Now, more than ever we have access to these communities, and we have been able to speak up, I believe it is the best opportunity to take a deep look at how their life is changing and how we can advocate. Especially dealing with ableism has been a very sad fact that they and their family must face every day. Today we’re getting through these topics based on the survey about how people are seeing ableism and the disability community.

Based on the survey I conducted, most people are aware of the discrimination towards ‘disability’ but not the word ‘ableism’ itself. The word is formed with -able in disable + -ism in sexism, racism. It was first coined in United States in the 1980s. Urban Dictionary defines ableism as “the discrimination or prejudice against people who have disabilities. Ableism can take the form of ideas and assumptions, stereotypes, attitudes and practices, physical barriers in the environment, or larger scale oppression. It is oftentimes unintentional, and most people are completely unaware of the impact of their words or actions.”

The important things to know is that ableism can be personally and systematically. Either individuals feel uncomfortable around people with disabilities as they see these people ‘strange’ or ‘not normal.’ Either laws or regulations that limit the freedom and equalities of people with disabilities.

In the survey, I asked what you think about our understanding in the society towards disability community.

“It's easier to support the disabled community than it is to truly understand it. It's easy to cheer from the side-lines and call out those who are discriminatory, but you don't know how much ableism you have been taught and stored until you can no longer distance yourself from it. When the person you have to call out is you, because you are invalidating your existence, you realize you have a lot more to learn and a lot further to go.”

- Female, 19 years old

“We see progress but still not enough, especially in terms of mindset.”

- Male, 24 years old

“I think society is gaining ground on being more inclusive and understanding but I think it is starting slow and more so with physical disabilities rather than intellectual or developmental disabilities. Those with the latter continue to struggle with navigating society and society recognizing their worth.”

- Female, 45 years old

“From the under-representation in the media to the lack of universally designed facilities in many public spaces, I think there’s still a lot more space for the society to grow and be more considerate of the disabled community.”

- Female, 27 years old

“It depends on country, I would say in Europe people, media do not explain some disability like schizophrenia and people are treated differently because of the lack of knowledge.”

- Female, 24 years old

“In my city, we have musical collage for blind people, and they participate competitions just like ppl without any disability; we have rehabilitation center for blind people. Also, we have some manufacturers where they can work; we have special school for deaf children. Back then I participated many events with people with disabilities, so I can say they speak aloud about things that they bother about. And local government tries the best to hear them.”

- Female, 28 years old

Right now, at this very moment, we are all living in the society where everything can be trend. Not only disability pride movements but also all kinds of social justice movements have caught the attention of others and turned it into a trend. As one of the survey answers says, “Supporting is easier than truly understand[ing] it.” Trends are one way to spread awareness or acknowledge the facts. But at the same time, how many people are truly looking into it and how much of a positive impact have they made?

The problem of ableism is that those people who have physical disabilities and intellectual, development disabilities are very separated from the society. Andrew Pulrang, a writer who has lifelong disabilities stated in his article in Forbes, that systemic ableism can be:

“Social policy that seeks to ‘care for’ disabled people through intensive supervision, protection, and isolation from everyday society. Not that many decades ago, physically separating disabled people from society, including from their families, was not seen as a sad side effect, but as an agreed upon social goal to protect disabled people society, and protect society from disabled people.”

He continued to say that any policies and practices that “seek to reduce or eliminate disability from society, not just as a benefit to any individual disabled person, but as a perceived benefit to society as a whole.” There are organizations that still “strive for identification, treatments, and cures for disability” not only to improve the lives of disabled people but to “achieve betterment of society.”

Is our society getting better understanding? Yes. Has our society achieved something already to make these people with disabilities life better? Not enough. We cannot make a big difference individually, but together, we can improve our life and the future better.

Not sure where to start? I have resources for you:

• Disability Reframed has a lot of educational posts for anyone new to the disability community and would like to learn more about ableism.

• The Common Ground Society is a non-profit organization with its mission to educate and empower disability community.