Our friend Andrea Scarpino brought this blog post by Phillipa Willits to our attention. Ms. Willitts writes about the slew of disability inspiration advertisements and images that are currently going around in cyber-land, portraits of cheery disabled people overcoming their afflictions because they have fabulous attitudes. The idea that you can overcome a disability with a “fab” attitude is reductionist and of course just too easy. Here’s a quote we like:
“What’s more, as long as non-disabled people can happily dismiss disability as a matter of attitude, they then have no need to start tackling the real causes of disability such as inaccessibility and discrimination. That disabled woman who complained because she couldn’t attend your inaccessible meeting? She’s just got a bad attitude! A good attitude would presumably have magicked up a ramp and large-print leaflets.”
Planet of the Blind 