Out of Sight Out of Mind.

Well, another October has come and gone. What is October known for? Most would say Halloween, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Canadian Thanks Giving, and depending on where you are, that time when the cold weather sets in        just before the snow falls. What most don’t know is that October is also blindness awareness month. Now to those reading this, if I hadn’t mentioned it, would you have known that’s what October is? I am going to take a wild guess here and say the majority of you would’ve had no idea.

Can I blame you? How can I when I myself, a blind man who has lived in Canada for 27 years had no clue until stumbling across a post on a blind-specific Facebook group. What does it tell you when even a person with a disability is unaware of those times during the year set aside for him? I know what it tells me. It tells me that disability is not worth mentioning. It tells me that, even during a time of so-called progress and social justice movements calling for the recognition of other minorities, not even our dates, months, and weeks are worth talking about. This needs to change.

Why? What is to be gained with having these disability-specific times widely known and talked about? I believe we can use these times as a good opportunity to get the conversation going regarding disability-related social, political, and economic issues. Let us take that time to discuss the 70 percent unemployment rate. Or how about using that time to teach our children not only that people with disabilities have the same ambitions, hopes, dreams, and desires as everyone else, but to also teach disability history, and the great things people with disabilities have contributed to our society.

I have noticed unfortunately that even when the general public does hear about these disability awareness times, they don’t give them the same weight and respect they would, let’s say black history month or international women’s day. They go about discussing or approaching them the wrong way, even if their hearts are in the right place. They will sometimes observe someone with a disability just going about his or her day like anyone else wood, and stare in complete awe. They will then stop that person just to tell them, in an infantilizing way what an inspiration he or she is, simply for getting out and running errands. Or they will see a viral video or a feel-good news story about some able-bodied person helping someone with a disability, and there’s their inspiration porn fix for the day. To those who don’t know, inspiration porn is a phrase widely known about within disability circles. The term was coined by Australian disability rights activist and comedian Stella Young in 2012. It refers to images of people with disabilities doing normal, everyday things and people praising them for it, telling themselves that if this poor disabled person can do that, then surely I can do anything. It sets low standards and expectations of people with disabilities. It is also a distraction from key issues including better policies, and challenging social norms.

Let us use these disability awareness moments to our advantage, to dig a little deeper. The beauty here is it’s not too late. As a matter of fact, December third is just around the corner. You do know what December third is don’t you?

Comments