Most people no longer see disability as a medical issue at the level of the individual and have instead become socially aware.
Disabled people are more able to take an active role in our society. Education is now more inclusive than it was, buses are now more accessible, employment opportunities are now more numerous. We have a disabled person as Prime Minister. Housing is becoming more accessible. There are less physical barriers to access. Increasingly, charities are becoming controlled by their users.
OK, there is still a hell of a long way to go before we can say that we live in a truly barrier free society, but things are certainly more equitable than they were say 30 years ago
There is however one insidious institution that remains virtually unchanged. Every year the BBC subjects its audience to an evening of poor quality "entertainment" where by waning celebrities perform their dubious acts in order to raise monies for so called "good causes".
Their mascot, Pudsey Bear, reigns supreme for the torturous evening, with the knotted handkerchief covering one eye, which is so blatantly a disability-related symbol, but I have yet to meet a single disabled person who has been consulted over where the dosh that is raised is distributed to.
There is another issue. The people who hand over their hard earned cash to Pudsey are actually funding activities that I believe ought to be funded by the Government themselves.
Twenty years ago I was one of the founders of the Campaign to Stop Patronage. The Campaign succeeded in making the ITV Telethon so unpopular that no Independent Television company wanted to purchase it after 1993. Comic Relief chose to become more socially aware and stopped using negative imagery of disabled people to promote their fundraising. However we were not able to tackle the BBC successfully.
Below I attach an article that I wrote in November 1990 for the Campaign to Stop Patronage, but which was never published. I am amazed that nearly 20 years later it still seems strangely relevant.
A History in the Making:
It was 7 p.m. on Friday 23rd November 1990 and I was cold standing outside the BBC Television Centre in Wood Lane, West London. My partner (at the time), Caron was asking for another cup of coffee from our flask. She was cold also and so were the other 50 members of the Campaign to Stop Patronage who had turned out that night to demonstrate against Children in Need. Elspeth Morrison has just graciously accepted the first "The Most Partonising Personality of the Year" award on behalf of Esther Rantsen. Vicki Waddington walked past wearing a space blanket and I thought "What the fucking hell are we doing here?" And for a moment my resolution wavered.
Then I remembered that ever since I was a small child I have been aware of charities collecting money for disabled people and that I had never actually seeing any tangible benefits of this money that should not have been provided as of right by Central Government. That Disabled People certainly don’t have any control over where it is spent. My anger returned
I had already offered to write this article on how the Campaign to Stop Patronage came to being formed for our first newsletter. The only realistic way that I can do it is from my own personal viewpoint.
I can clearly remember being about the same height as one of those Spastic Society manikin-type collection boxes asking my mother where the money that people were putting into the slot in its head went and why couldn't they (the Spastics Society) buy me an electric typewriter that I needed (I have cerebral palsy and cannot write clearly).
Over the years I have become increasingly aware of the enormity of the power of these charities and the way that they disempowered Disabled People. For example, charities that run residential homes can have the power over Disabled People who live within their homes to decide every aspect of these people's lives, what time they get up, what they wear, what they eat, what they drink, what they do to occupy their days, and what time they go to bed. Even whether or not disabled people can have sex!
I have sat in meetings, at work, and listened to non-disabled "professionals" making decisions about disabled people who are in their "care" which have made me want to throw-up, but until recently, for political reasons, have been powerless even to raise an objection.
At the same time, Anna Thorpe and I, through organising a self-advocacy group in Ealing where we both live, have become increasingly frustrated over the level of disempowerment among young disabled people who have become products of "the system". We came to the conclusion that it was the patronising way that the media and the charities portray disabled people that were creating disempowering images.
The media and the charities, depending on their objectives, either portray Disabled People as pitiful, pathetic people who are incapable of doing even the most basic function or paradoxically as "Supercripples" who from simply living with their disabilities or from wanting to do things that the average non-disabled person does, become brave, courageous and special. Consequently, society's expectation of Disabled People is reduced which increases the level of discrimination, disablement and disempowerment that Disabled People have to contend with.
Throughout our conversations the same point kept being raised, that it was the television appeals which combined the worst aspects of patronage. ITV Telethon, Children In Need and Comic Relief transmit negative images of Disabled People introduced by condescending presenters like Frank Bough, Terry Wogan and Lenny Henry who play on the viewer's guilt with the message that if you contribute to their appeal that the viewer will feel better about being thankful that they are not Disabled People too.
We kept saying that we wanted to do something to say, "No, Stop! Disabled people are not special. Disabled People are not objects of pity. Disabled People are not courageous. But. Disabled People are strong. Disabled People are proud. Disabled People are angry at the way that we are discriminated against. Disabled People are angry at the way that we are disabled by society. Disabled People demand the resources, as of right, to enable us to maximise our life chances and thereby compete, on an equal basis with non-disabled people in our society."
Towards the middle of March 1990 Anna and I decided to go for it. We decided to organise a demonstration against the ITV Telethon. Neither of us had organised a demonstration before. I am sure that over time the rest of this story, that is yet to be conceived, will become history.
November 1990
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