A day designated by the UN in 1992 to raise awareness you might think is good but it has had MKDSA’s Disability Officers spluttering, what is this all about?
Come on Jo & Jeff explain!
“There are two ways of understanding disability. The traditional way has been to speak of people with disabilities, often defined by medical conditions with the emphasis on individuals’ physical, mental and sensory limitations.
Yet the reality is that this is confusing, intrusive and unhelpful. In reality disability is caused by people’s physical and social environment as these examples demonstrate. If ramps are provided, wheelchair users can get on trains, buses and into buildings, if not they are disabled.
If provisions are in place for autistic fans at a sports stadium they can go to matches whereas otherwise they might not be able to. If disability abuse is addressed in a school, disabled children won’t refuse to attend and suffer mental health problems as they might otherwise.
Disability is not a personal matter, people are disabled by society and as such are disabled people. Getting the language right is important it is not political correctness gone wrong, as it puts the emphasis on the need for society to change and not individuals to adapt.
Disabled people are the biggest minority in society, 24%, 16 million of the UK population are disabled, 11% of all children are disabled and 45% of pension aged adults are disabled. (Figures quoted by Level Playing Field’s Introduction to Disability, updated September 2023).
These figures have massive implications for how football clubs and those representing supporters meet the needs of disabled fans and why we all need to understand why it is important to use the term disabled people, not people with disabilities.”
Wow, I think we can all learn something from this.
Thank you to Burt & Ernie.
