---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Avinash Shahi <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 17:00:37 +0530
Subject: Thought-provoking read: Disabled people shouldn't have to
wear a Paralympic tracksuit,By Will Norman
To: Eyeway Team Delhi <[email protected]>
Cc: shahi88avinash <[email protected]>
Attending functions as a Paralympian, I'm treated with the utmost
respect. Out shopping, it's a very different story
Will Norman
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/29/paralympic-disabled-people-respect
the guardian.com, Thursday 29 August 2013 10.54 BST
Paralympians celebrate
Paralympians wave to the crowd during a parade through London.
Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA
A stadium roars, a pool erupts, a nation celebrates. Cockcroft,
Peacock, Simmonds and Storey. Gold, gold, gold, gold. There's no doubt
that the Paralympic Games of 2012 – which opened a year ago today –
broke the mould, but behind the tears of joy, the luminescent summer
nights, and the national rapture, there is another story to tell.
In the year that London hosted the 14th Paralympiad, hate crimes
against disabled people in the UK rose to record levels. One year on,
thousands of enthusiastic fans crammed in to the Olympic stadium once
again for the Anniversary Games. But has the public's attitude towards
disability in its more everyday guise really changed? Or has a
fault-line developed in the public consciousness, separating
Paralympic heroes from the socially burdensome workaday disabled
populous?
Prior to the Games, a disabled friend of mine was travelling home on
the train with her two children when a fellow passenger said, in a
viperous hiss: "You shouldn't have kids. You people should be
sterilised." There are many such tales of abuse out there. Far too
many. That is why the Paralympic Games of 2012 felt like such a
seminal moment for disabled people in the UK.
Every time I left the Paralympic village, I found myself surrounded by
enthusiastic well-wishers. Standing there, chatting to curious
youngsters about my disability, signing autographs, and high-fiving
random strangers, I felt, possibly for the first time, a real sense of
belonging. People respected us for what we were achieving, and not in
spite of our disabilities, but because of them. Suddenly, having a
disability, having "different" abilities, was something to celebrate,
not something to hide away.
The hard part was always going to be how to take this message to the
streets. The Paralympic superhumans are surely the best means. They
have the platform, they are the role models. Their message – a
positive and empowering view of disability – is broadcast across the
airwaves and plastered up on billboards nationwide. If we allow a
schism to open between Paralympic heroes, revered by society, and
their civilian counterparts, then the power of the Games to impact
wider perceptions of disability within the UK will be lost.
Take, for example, the story of a young lady who was reduced to tears
when she was ejected from her local supermarket for being a guide-dog
user. It's a hypothetical question, but would she have received the
same humiliating treatment if she was wearing a Paralympic tracksuit
and sporting a gold medal? My own experiences post-London would lead
me to suggest possibly not. Having a Paralympic tracksuit is a bit
like having Superman's cape. Attending functions and events as a
Paralympian, I am treated with the utmost respect and dignity. Trying
to buy light bulbs from my local store, I am treated with the utmost
condescension.
In reality, there's no Superman/Clarke Kent dichotomy. The superhumans
of London 2012 are disabled people, and the disabled people of the UK
are superhuman. Both are equally deserving of respect, because both
achieve unbelievable things against the odds. As a double Paralympian
myself, I know what it is to represent my country at an elite level.
As a father with a full-time job, I also know what it is to make my
way in the world with a disability. For me, performing on the
Paralympic stage has always felt relatively easy compared to the
intense determination required to tackle the obstacle course of
everyday life. As a nation, we admire our Paralympic heroes, but could
we do more to respect the efforts of all disabled people for facing
down their demons and tackling life as they do? For some, with
particularly severe circumstances, their challenge may be simply
getting out of bed in the morning, and that in itself may be a
medal-worthy effort.
In the exhaustive discussions about legacy over the past few years,
the concept of a social legacy has been somewhat overlooked. The goal
of creating more opportunities for disabled people to participate in
sport is a noble one, but it is as nothing compared to the dream of a
truly inclusive society in which disabled people count sporting
opportunities as only one bright light in an entire firmament of
freedoms.
For me, the ultimate Paralympic inheritance would be a society which
respects the abilities of disabled people from all walks of life, and
which seeks to better understand the challenges they face. If a
fraction of the public enthusiasm for the icons of last years
Paralympic Games can filter down in to the collective social
consciousness, then maybe the summer of 2012 will turn out to have
been the start of something special, not just a daydream of Avalon,
receding into the mists of memory.
--
"Let’s stop "tolerating" or "accepting" difference, as if we’re so
much better for not being different in the first place. Instead, let’s
celebrate difference, because in this world it takes a lot of guts to
be different." - Kate Bornstein
Avinash Shahi
Programme Executive at Score Foundation
To know more,Why not visit our Website: http://www.eyeway.org/
And M.Phil Research Scholar at Centre for The Study of Law and Governance JNU.
--
Avinash Shahi
M.Phil Research Scholar
Centre for The Study of Law and Governance
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi India
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