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Many people think that a
human being's ability to communicate through
sophisticated speech patterns is what separates us
from animals. Our speech patterns may be
sophisticated but often our understanding is not -
nor is our ability to use our communication tools
effectively. However, what we all share is our
dependence on communication - it is as important to
us as breathing, and the information that we either
give or receive is as important as food. As many
studies on prisoners held in solitary confinement
or disabled children locked away in rooms for years
have shown, we cannot survive without
it.
Non-disabled people have
information about their lives readily available to
them. They are informed by their families, by their
communities, by the media, by their shared culture
- all this information reflects the sorts of lives
that they live and gives them an understanding of
how they as individuals fit into this overall
informational picture. They feel that they have a
place in the world which is backed up by the
communication that they have with
others.
But when a person becomes
disabled or a disabled child is born, the
individual and, to an extent, the family enter a
new land - a territory about which they know
practically nothing and about which they have
probably got a lot of stereotypical notions. They
have come to a new land which is quite different
from their old one. They are no longer in control.
Professionals come into parent's lives and tell
them what to do with their disabled child, suggest
that they give the child away to a 'special'
school, away from everything and everybody that the
family knows about.
Newly disabled adults who
have had years of employment are told that they can
stop working and go to a day centre. One
professional tells them one thing, another tells
them something else. Who are they to believe, what
is the best thing to do? Where is this information
to come from? There is no common understanding or
knowledge to rely on. There are no instructions as
to where to go for information about this new
life.
Stereotyped, negative
images
What very little individuals
or families do know about disability they have
learnt from folk-lore and the media. They are
influenced by religions which see disability as a
curse or the manifestation of sin and disgrace in
the family and charitable works extended to the
disabled person as a means of obtaining spiritual
grace for the non-disabled person. They are
influenced by neighbours who see the birth of a
disabled child as a tragedy. They are influenced by
the media who only see disabled people as tragic
but brave heroines and champions, overcoming the
odds, or as pathetic and powerless objects of
charity. It seems that the only things that are
newsworthy about disabled people are our
impairments, the length of time we have 'endured'
our lives and whether we are properly grateful for
the care we receive, if any.
All the books, stories and
films that have impacted on our collective
consciousness have underlined this view of disabled
people. Most folklore is based on making the
'baddie' a disabled person. How much more
frightening it is if the witch, or the gangster has
a crooked spine or has lost a limb. All James Bond
movies have disabled people as the potential
destroyer of the world. Richard III, Quasimodo and
the Phantom at the Opera are only a few of a
long-line of stereotypes of the 'bitter and
twisted' souls of the disabled person.
The language used about
disability has its own oppressive and stigmatising
effect. Although the verb 'to disable' actually
means to make something not work, 'disabled' is
mostly used as a synonym for 'impairment' and gives
the impression that it is the individual who is
'unable', rather than the attitudes and
environmental barriers within society that do the
disabling - personalising the political rather than
politicising the personal. As with women and ethnic
minorities there are a catalogue of words and
everyday sayings that are used in playgrounds,
streets and homes all over the world to denigrate
disabled people and add to the negative images. In
many languages the word used for 'disabled' is the
same as the old 'invalid' - or a person without
validity.
Oppressive
communication
The use of negative, passive
images in communication is a well-known tool of
oppression - one that has been used against women
and people of different ethnic origins for a very
long time. Women have traditionally been portrayed
as wives or mothers, powerless, unpaid servants to
our fathers, husbands, brothers and lovers. If
women are seen as having power, it is generally
confined strictly to the family circle and does not
extend to economic or political power.
Every country and tribe uses
similar negative communication methods when they
are trying to show how much better they are than a
neighbouring country or tribe. In England, for
instance, there are endless jokes made about 'A
Scotsman, an Englishman and an Irishman' who are
doing different things or who react differently.
These jokes always portray the Scotsman as mean,
the Irishman as stupid and the Englishman as the
only one who is clever. Every culture has similar
examples. It is interesting to note that these
jokes are generally about men - again giving the
message that women are not really Scots, or Irish
or whatever! Religions too have disempowered women
and disabled people in much the same way - denying
them access to the priesthood, declaring them
'unclean' at certain times. The leper is always at
the gate of the church - never inside.
What is really happening is
that we are all communicating our negative response
to difference. We are saying that anything or
anybody who is different from our accepted idea of
who should be part a particular group should be
excluded, mocked and criticised.
The promotion of negative
images is not the only oppressive communication
technique. The more firmly we believe in the
particular group that we come from or support the
better we become at communicating in a way that
makes people who are different unable to hear or
understand what we are saying. It may be by the
simple method of speaking in a language that is not
understood (there is no better way of showing how
well educated you are than by using a bit of
another language) but it also may be by using
language in a way that keeps out people who are not
the same as us.
Professionals are
particularly good at that sort of communication
trick. Whatever the profession, they gather words
around them that only they know and for which most
other people use much simpler words. This is quite
understandable when they are communicating among
themselves. A scientist would be expected to
communicate to another scientist in their
professional language but when they are trying to
show how clever they are - or more importantly how
uninformed the person is to whom they are
communicating - then they use this scientific
language to disempower. Because disabled people
have to see many professionals in the course of
their lives, this linguistic oppression is a common
factor in communication.
Most people have gone to a
doctor or a lawyer and wondered what they were
saying because they used a word which we did not
understand. Aid and development workers have also
gathered their own language around them, which can
again make those people they are specifically meant
to help feel even more powerless. For instance they
often talk about getting a group of people together
and doing 'animation exercises'. To many that might
imply that they are bringing cartoons to life -
just as in animated cartoons on film. The use of
specialised professional words is a very
patronising way of communication and conveys the
impression that only the speaker is in control of
the dialogue.
Information is
power
We not only need to
communicate in a way that does not make the
listener feel stupid, puzzled or out of control, we
also need to ensure that the information that we
are communicating is relevant to the people who are
receiving it. Disabled people have traditionally
been denied that sort of information. We are denied
simple, everyday facts. For instance, travel
brochures seldom indicate whether the hotel is
accessible. We are also denied much more
fundamental information on our rights and
responsibilities as we are often excluded from
participating in the political or legal processes
of society.
'Information is power' is a
phrase that is continually being used. It may be
trite but it is very, very true, particularly when
seen from the perspective of disabled people. To be
empowered disabled people need information about
ourselves and the world about us which is relevant
and accessible. As with any group we need to
disseminate information among ourselves, to help
our own development, as well as exchange
information with non-disabled people and groups.
And we have to struggle against the damage that
oppressive and negative messages have caused and
which further exclude us from society and prevent
our equalisation of opportunities.
It is interesting that the
world-wide movement of disabled people was started
through the breaking down of communication
barriers. In 1980 in Winnipeg, 300 disabled people
from all over the world came to a conference on
rehabilitation. The professionals had invited them
there to discuss plans for the International Year
of Disabled People. Unfortunately those
professionals would not allow the disabled people
to have a proper say in the proceedings - that is
they had gone to all the trouble to get them to the
meeting but were not allowing them to communicate
properly.
So the disabled people
arranged a barbecue and through talking with each
other in a way that they understood, recognised how
much they shared and how much information they
lacked and then decided to do something about it.
The barriers of communication had been broken and
disabled people realised for the first time that
they had a right to be part of the world in which
they lived, they had the right to participate in
their communities and were not objects of pity and
charity.
Communication as
empowerment
Communication is a two-way
business. If images of disabled people are to
change, if disabled people are to be part of the
cultural, economic and political exchange that
makes the modern world, then disabled people have
to be an integral part of that exchange. Disabled
people must be consulted on all policies and
programmes that directly affect us and we must
influence the media to ensure that they stop the
negative and stereotypical images of us. It has to
be disabled people who are seen on the TV screens
and heard on the radio and in the press, as
ordinary citizens, as participants in our
communities.
Television has abandoned the
stereotype that newscasters can only be white men
and news is now presented by women and people from
different ethnic backgrounds. A further
breakthrough in de-stigmatising will be made when
the first disabled presenter is
employed.
For any group or individual
in society, communicating their experiences, their
needs, hopes and rights is the foundation of
liberation and empowerment. Communication and the
imparting of appropriate information is the
fundamental dynamic of any civil rights movement.
For the disability rights movement it is crucial.
We have to get the message across - we have to
communicate. Disability is a rights issue not a
matter of pity or charity.
Bibliography
- Barnes, Colin (1992)
Disabling Imagery and the Media, Halifax,
UK, BCODP and Ryburn Publishing Ltd.
- Cumberbatch, G and
Negrine, M. (1992) Images of Disability on
Television, London, UK,
Routledge.
- Groce, Dr. Nora Groce,
(1989/90) 'Traditional Folk Belief Systems
and Disabilities: An Important Factor in Policy
Planning', One in Ten.
- Hevey, David, (1992)
The Creatures Time Forgot: Photography and
Disability Imagery, London, UK,
Routledge.
- Hurst, R. and Fletcher,
A. (1995) Overcoming Obstacles to the
Integration of Disabled Persons. A UNESCO
sponsored report. London, Disability Awareness
in Action.
- Morris, Jenny (1991)
Pride Against Prejudice: Transforming
Attitudes to Disability, London, Women's
Press.
- Page, M., (1984)
Stigma, London.
- Weiss, M. (1997)
Territorial Isolation and Physical Deformity:
Israeli parent's reaction to disabled children,
Disability and Society, Oxford, Carfax
Publishers.
SOURCE www.wacc.org.uk/publications/md/md1998-2/hurst.html
by Rachel Hurst, 1998
Rachel
Hurst, OBE, - is Director of Disability
Awareness in Action,
an international information network on disabled
people's human rights. Chair of Disabled Peoples'
International, European Region and Rights Now (the
campaign for civil rights legislation in the UK.
Trustee of Action on Disability and Development and
on the board of IMPACT and Greenwich Association of
Disabled People. She has been active in the
disability rights movement in the UK and throughout
the world since the late 1970s focusing on
independent living, non-discrimination legislation
and policy, disabled women's issues and promoting
awareness of the rights of disabled people. She has
travelled extensively and contributed to many
conferences, seminars, TV and radio programmes
throughout the world.
— Rachel Hurst, 1998
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