There is Ableism Among Us

Did you know that there is a certain term which describes discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities? Yes, the term exists, and it’s called ableism. This atrocious behaviour towards people with disabilities happens all around us and we might not realize it.

The term ableism has grown from the assumption that people with disabilities will not have the same future as able-people do, in other words, their life is not worth living like everyone else. Common ableism showed up unintentionally as an offensive action that many people are not aware of. As an illustration, when we meet people with disabilities for the first time we tend to give them a look of pity like we were framing disability as a tragic experience. Sometimes we also ask sensitive questions about their medical history or personal life. Thinking that they cannot live productively and independently is also a form of ableism. The ableist language, known as disability slurs, arises in many forms. These common derogatory words, such as ‘retard’, ‘moron’, and ‘idiot’ actually began from medical definitions used in scientific journals that were used during forced sterilization and institutionalization in the past. Back then, people with disabilities were being used in research, so the scientists could find a way to prevent the newborn from becoming disabled and to cure people with disabilities. 

Hideously, this fallacious assumption that sees people with disabilities are less worthy remains until the present day. To make it worse, this assumption makes people with disabilities harder to get their rights. Commonly, able-people speculate what people with disabilities can or cannot do. This opinion leads to some actions that take away the rights of people with disabilities including right to freedom and to make decisions. In turn, people with disabilities do not have enough access to education, often forced to enroll in special needs schools, and endure ableist stigma throughout their life. In contrast, the Disability Convention stated that people with disabilities should have the same human rights as everyone else. Because everyone’s life is important and valuable whether they have a disability or not.

Unfortunately, an uninvited guest, the COVID-19 has put people with disabilities in more deeply pre-existing inequalities. Our society is commonly more concerned to find accommodation for able-bodied people rather than protecting disabled bodies. UN Special Rapporteur found that people with disabilities are often not being considered when constructing and implementing new ideas in medicine and science for making new laws or guidelines. Thus, we can see many countries releasing policies that actually excluded people with disabilities from the same access to health care during the pandemic. According to the Center for Public Integrity, these policies include the triaging policies that prioritized able-people to get ventilators and permit hospitals to take ventilators away from patients who have disabilities. Being ignorant towards these issues during COVID-19 might lead us to other ableism actions that put people with disabilities at much higher risk. 

The struggle among people with disabilities does not end there. During the pandemics, people have unequal access to health care information and we can see that many public information services are targeted only for able-bodied people as the audience. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities stated that information about how to prevent and contain the coronavirus should be accessible to everyone. This can be done by disseminating the public advice campaigns and information from national health authorities in sign language and accessible means, modes, and formats, such as accessible digital technology, captioning, relay services, sign language interpretation, Easy-to-Read, and plain language.

So, what could we do? First and foremost we have to understand people with disabilities. There is an old but gold Indonesian proverb, “Tak kenal maka tak sayang”, describes how people can only care for something or someone they know. The same goes with this issue. Although we don’t intentionally treat people with disabilities differently, our lack of awareness of someone’s disability can contribute to ableism. Don’t wait until they become our families, or neighbors, or someone close to us. Just remember, people with disabilities are human just like us. We can help them by educating ourselves and our surroundings regarding issues about disabilities, supporting organizations that focus on disabled people, advocating stakeholders to provide reasonable facilities for disabled people like wheelchair ramps, tactile paving and braille books, and most of all, we should be mindful when we happen to interact with people with disabilities. We should treat people with disabilities the way we want to be treated. 

Lastly, ignorance and silence will not remove assumptions, stigma, and stereotypes among people with disabilities. Keeping your eyes closed for these issues might lead to an unknowing act of ableism which continues the cycle to perpetuate ableism in our daily life. Sometimes, society is the one who disables people with disabilities, because disabilities should not define a person, instead it is a gift as a part of human diversity. After all, people with disabilities are also human beings who have hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, and unique personality traits like most of us. We should be aware that people with disabilities have the same chances to lead a good life as long as they get the support and services they need. Therefore, if you care about human rights in general, then you will dare enough to help and stop any form of ableism. Hand-in-hand, we can stop it!

REFERENCE

• Merriam-Webster. 2020. Definition Of ABLEISM. [online] Available at: <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ableism> [Accessed 29 October 2020].
• People with Disability Australia. What Is Ableist Language And What’S The Impact Of Using It?. [online] Available at: <https://pwd.org.au/resources/disability-info/language-guide/ableist-language/> [Accessed 29 October 2020].
• Pulrang, A., 2020. The Disability Community Fights Deadly Discrimination Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2020/04/14/the-disability-community-fights-deadly-discrimination-amid-the-covid-19-pandemic/?sh=31784328309c> [Accessed 30 October 2020].
• OHCHR. 2019. Easyread Version Of: Report On The Impact Of Ableism In Medical And Scientific Practice Of The Special Rapporteur On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (A/HRC/43/41). Available at: <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disability/A_HRC_43_41Easyreadversion.pdf>  [Accessed 30 October 2020].
• OHCHR. 2020. COVID-19 AND THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: GUIDANCE. [online] Available at: <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disability/COVID-19_and_The_Rights_of_Persons_with_Disabilities.pdf> [Accessed 28 October 2020].
• OHCHR. 2020. COVID-19: Who Is Protecting The People With Disabilities? – UN Rights Expert. [online] Available at: <https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25725&fbclid=IwAR0BtrEp7xOtFlARx_MRhcdxTyNJCVymIS0eBi55zc8Q4P9QysdtzvZDS3k> [Accessed 30 October 2020].
• OHCHR. 2020. Statement On COVID-19 And The Human Rights Of Persons With Disabilities. [online] Available at: <https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25942> [Accessed 28 October 2020].
• 2020. 2020. Policy Brief: A Disability-Inclusive Response To COVID-19. [online] Available at: <https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_persons_with_disabilities_final.pdf> [Accessed 29 October 2020].

Image: Liputan6

Writer: Salshabila Zavinaura, S.Ked. – Human Rights Trainer