Pages

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Things Heard From A Wheelchair & Assumptions About Disability

Dave writes a beautiful post about how loving parents challenge their son's assumption that a person in a wheelchair must be sad. Dave is not sad.

A friend, tells me she overheard a young boy ask his mom what "was wrong with her" and his mother said "She was in an accident". My friend has been disabled from birth.

"We are giving these people too much money if they can afford Starbucks," a woman said as my friend, who is a wheelchair user, went through the line. My friend works as a physician.

There is only one way to be blind, some people think in Iowa, interfering with a blind woman's right to mobility with her guide dog because they think a cane is the 'correct way' for blind people to get around.

Transcripts are the same as closed captioning for HOH and Deaf people, the government believes over at change.gov Transcripts are worthless. A speech, an address, a video appeal to the American People is not meant to be an article or the written word. They are different formats. A transcript is devoid of a good 45% of meaning for Deaf people. We rely as heavily on facial expressions and the pacing of words as most people rely on tone of voice. We read a person’s face as we read the closed captioning, alternating between lipreading and text. Between your words and your expressions.

6 comments:

FridaWrites said...

What those people said about your friend in Starbucks is shocking. I've never assumed someone received public assistance--it just doesn't occur to me. If they did, I'd assume it's because they needed it. But these women are making 2 assumptions--not just that she's receiving SS, but that she could afford Starbucks regularly if she did, showing a misunderstanding of how low disability payments are. Well, there's also the resentment that someone in a wheelchair is enjoying coffee. Did your friend say anything? Sometimes there's not always a chance to.

Ruth said...

Frida- There really wasn't an opportunity to say anything. However she rolled her eyes and said to me she was surprised they didn't ask to go in front of her, since they had to get back to work. :)

LetRVoiceBHeard said...

It never shocks me on how ignorant a person is anymore. Too many people just stereotype what a person is suppose to be, act, etc. Just like assuming that people with disabilities gets assistance mostly thinking that they are taking away from their own money as it were. They cannot comprehend that there are quite a few with jobs. But either way that was down right nasty. I guess these women must think people with disabilities should just stay home too. Guess the out of sight out of mind syndrome.

Processing Counselor said...

Just YIKES and YIKES again. I went to the ballet today and getting my coat, a little old lady almost knocked me over-I used a cane-getting to the coat check. I wonder what she would have done If I had ended up on the floor-HA!
I really hate it when people ask me when I'm going to get rid of the cane...NEVER!

Anonymous said...

I'm not shocked by ignorance either after being in a chair many years.

Terri said...

Reading Dave's post a day or 2 before about what to say (or something like that) gives great insight. There is ignorance--then there is meanness... It isn't most people, but they are very vocal, see themselves as entitled and see anyone who has something as taking whatever-it-is away from them. They are competitive and jealous--the very fact that they heard the word 'special' in their lives and it was about someone else instead of them has damaged them permanantly...

sigh...