Imani Barbarin ( known as Crutches&Spice on Twitter ) started the hashtag #ThingsDisabledPeopleKnow. It was a response to Hollywood not having disabled roles played by disabled people. She discussed her hashtag with the BBC in January 2019.
Her aim was to illustrate the similarities and subtle differences between disabled people. She also wanted to show the knowledge gained from lived experience. The hashtag has now grown in both number and scope of posts. It now shows the humour and intelligence of people often forgotten, ignored or demonised by the rest of society.
I decided to pick some tweets that I feel sum up #ThingsDisabledPeopleKnow. They help illustrate the life, challenges and character of the disabled community.
Assumptions
Non-disabled people make many assumptions about disabled people. They range from misunderstandings and beliefs to dangerous myths. An example of a common belief is that most disabled people use a wheelchair. Actually less than 10% of disabled people use a wheelchair.
I’m starting with a tweet covers another common misconception. I hope it is obvious that person can have more that 1 impairment.
Many non-disabled people think that impairments are well defined. They think that impairments are either on or off. Each impairment has a spectrum and they can overlap. The following tweet explains it perfectly.
Every disabled person is expected to be an accessibility advisor.
Every disabled person’s access needs are different. It therefore it requires both training and experience to asses accessibility. Idealy you would get many different trained disabled people to test access. This is what I tried to do with my last disability project.
Society
As described in the social model many of a disabled persons issues come from society.
Many people (in the UK) think that there is an integrated social support system. They think it is set-up to help all disabled people. Unfortunately this is not true.
As Bedridden Bohemian implied the system makes assumptions. One assumption is that only elderly people are disabled.
This was made clearer during the Coronavirus pandemic. The UK government didn’t mention disabled people in their guidelines. They only spoke about the elderly and vulnerable.
The next tweet sums up the convenient “disabled friend” ploy. It’s often used to get sympathy or complain about access for pushchairs or bikes.
Disabled people are often questioned about their impairments. We also get challenged over how disabled we are. This leads to us having to explain why we are disabled.
This tweet shows another example.
As mentioned before there are some dangerous myths about disability. The most dangerous myth in The UK is that most disabled people are lazy fakers. In the last 12 years the UK government has used and promoted this myth. Disabled people were blamed for some of societies problems. It has led to a huge rise in disability hate crime in the UK.
Language
Language used can be a source of real problems for disabled people. This is why the social model of disability is clear on language. It is also why most disability training courses have sections on language.
Using language like “differently abled” encourages and excuses the inequalities and discrimination that occurs. Therefore making things worse for disabled people.
Often when a disabled person just tries to live their life they will be told that they are an inspiration.
A person can only be an inspiration if they encourage you to do something. For example Imani Barbarin was my inspiration to write this article.
The next tweet shows another common example.
Social Life
There are lots of challenges for disabled people trying to socialise. They include going out, meeting people or communicating. For many disabled people most of their social life is on online. This can be for many (often practical) reasons.
When going out there is a lot of extra effort required. Sometimes it is purely physical effort. Most of the time it also requires extra planning.
Even booking booking a hotel can be harder. An example was the first time I went to Yorkshire. It took me 3 months of research. It then took days of calling hotels to arrange just 5 nights away. A non disabled person could organise the same trip cheaper online in minutes.
Everyday Annoyances
There are many annoyances that disabled people face every day. Most go unnoticed by non-disabled people.
Parking is always a concern for disabled people. Abuse of disabled parking bays is common place. Despite media reports it isn’t normally people with fake or stolen blue badges. It is normally non-disabled people being “5 minutes” in a shop. Rose describes anohter common cause.
Parking has become more of an issue recently. Disabled parking bays now used for queuing to limit the number of people in shops.
Even getting around in a wheelchair has it’s problems. As the next tweet shows.
I often consider wheelchairs as the ultimate stealth transport.
Humour
Humour is very important of life. It can be especially important for disabled people. We often have a very honest, blunt and dark humour. It can be used to handle the extra daily stresses we experience.
Sometimes our impairments can be the source of humour. The next tweet is my favourite example.
Summing up
As you can see disabled people are a varied group. We also have a lot in common. I will leave you with a message from Shannon Barnsley.