Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day. Dozens – hundreds – of bloggers have written poetry, posts on employment, love, politics, and more – click the link to see the collection.
This is a learners’ blog. It begins with the premise that the blog’s owner is not a person with a disability, and the students who enroll in the class that will use this blog in the Fall will not necessarily be people with disabilities. We bring our interest and our willingness to learn, our academic and professional backgrounds, our lived experience. And we bring awareness that there are things we don’t know – and don’t even know we don’t know them.
We are grounded in the sociological imagination, a basic premise that the world looks different from different positions, in different cultures, with different resources – and that people’s actions usually make sense once if we can have enough courage to get out of our own shoes, and take time enough to find out what it’s like to stand in a different set of shoes. The sociological imagination does not, by itself, change policies, right wrongs, open doors, or end discrimination. Without it, however, policies are made without understanding the people they affect, wrongs are not even acknowledged, discrimination seems defensible. Becoming a learner is a first step.
It is dangerous to be a learner. I can be certain that I will write things that show my ignorance. I am pretty sure I will write something that offends someone about an issue that I did not even see. We will work actively to hear the voices of people with disabilities, but we will also study the medical, economic, sociological, psychological, anthropological and other social science models of disability as well. The results may be contradictory – and some of them may be controversial as well.
What I can write against disablism this year is simple. For people who do not currently have a disability, the first step against disablism is seeking to understand. Seeking to learn even if it means looking ignorant, giving offense unwittingly, falling into a controversy we didn’t know existed.
Take a step against disablism: be willing to become a learner.
Related Articles
- Mackenzie Morgan: Blogging Against Disablism Day – ASL (ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com)
- Blogging Against Disablism Day: my experience (liberalconspiracy.org)
- Fighting For what Really Matters for people with Disabilities (brslabourparty.wordpress.com)
The sociological imagination is a powerful thing. Once you get it, it can change your life, your way of viewing the world, forever. I wish I could bottle it! Thanks for the post for this year’s BADD!