Temporizing about Disability and Other Bad Ideas

The latest issue of the White Cane, a magazine published by the Iowa Department for the Blind carries an article about the 20th anniversary of the ADA that proposes the public is “still afraid” of people with disabilities. When I first saw this I was surprised, as I was unaware that the public is afraid of pwds and I wondered if perhaps I’d been asleep in a magic kingdom these past twenty years, somewhat like Rip Van Winkle–how else could I have missed this “fear and loathing” phenomenon? “Ah,” said my inner Bugs Bunny, “it’s not people with disabilities that the public is afraid of, it is difference of all kinds.” And this is how I tend to think of the matter. Disabilities are just as likely to be a source of anxiety to the non-disabled or temporarily abled (the normates, if you will) as sexual orientation or ethnicity. This is hardly news. What is news–alas, old news–is that there are certain groups within the disability community that insist on an almost tribal importance, as if disability is entirely separate from the human condition “writ large”. This concerns me because in my experience, the people with disabilities who are the most successful are those who see no sectarian divide between their conditions of embodiment and an integrated life on main street.

In general terms I think the blindness communities in the U.S. are susceptible to self-imposed segregation. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, two advocacy organizations that have long been at loggerheads over tiny differences in how to use a white cane or take advantage of civic opportunities continue to schedule their national conferences at precisely the same time and always over the 4th of July weekend. Think about that. By scheduling their conventions at exactly the same time these groups make certain that there can be no crossfertalization of memberships and no real meeting of diverse minds. But wait! There’s more! By having these conventions over the 4th of July the NFB and the ACB ensure that no one from the rest of society is going to walk in.

Tribalism. Ingrown followings. Hostility to differing views about “how” one might successfully live and navigate with blindness. All these things mark the American organized blind advocacy groups. If the White Cane magazine thinks the public is still afraid of blind people, well, you might start imagining a welcoming message and an inclusive agenda for both the blind and the public. If you’ve been reading this blog over the past couple of years you may remember that it was the Iowa Department of the Blind (the publishers of White Cane) that prevented a woman with a guide dog from taking one of their state sponsored assistive technology classes. That story speaks for itself.

S.K.   

Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University View all posts by stevekuusisto