I think that here in the US, people with disabilities are more likely to be ignored by the news or held up as objects of pity than portrayed as malingerers than they are in the UK, which is, uh, a relief, but when I was interning for Senator Udall, there were a whole lot of calls from people who ranted about how people with disabilities were draining the economy and wasting their taxes. I was wearing my oxygen while talking with some of them, and they got pretty frightening when they realized they were talking to a disabled person.
Even if people do have disabled friends and family they can build their judgements about people with disabilities from media and previous prejudice. A lot of the people I knew who were good friends with someone with disabilities treated that person as a sort of One Exception. They were a good disabled person, not like those other disabled people, who are moochers. It's surreal. It happens with every minority group though.
I have stories about things that universities have done that would curl your hair. And then there's that feeling when you go in and have to ask for accommodations, that begging, and wheedling, and persuading you have to do to get things that in many cases are yours by law. We have to beg and smile, because a lot of teachers think that because we're disabled, they don't have to do their duty by us.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 04:57 pm (UTC)Even if people do have disabled friends and family they can build their judgements about people with disabilities from media and previous prejudice. A lot of the people I knew who were good friends with someone with disabilities treated that person as a sort of One Exception. They were a good disabled person, not like those other disabled people, who are moochers. It's surreal. It happens with every minority group though.
I have stories about things that universities have done that would curl your hair. And then there's that feeling when you go in and have to ask for accommodations, that begging, and wheedling, and persuading you have to do to get things that in many cases are yours by law. We have to beg and smile, because a lot of teachers think that because we're disabled, they don't have to do their duty by us.