Wake Up: Ableism

Ableism has brought out so much anger. There seems to be a lot of anger amongst disabled people. Anger is a very negative emotion that often takes what limited energy we have. Over the 28 years since my diagnosis, I have encountered a lot of angry disabled people, it is an accepted part of living with disability. I am not a naturally confrontational person and always counsel people to pick their fights, to be assertive in the face of hostility. In my own experience, I am aware of a hostile political environment, I have witnessed incredible stupidity, laziness and rudeness but put it down to poor human behaviour. I call it a ‘new’ concept, but sadly it is only new to me. I started using Twitter regularly at the end of 2018 and quickly picked up on the strength of emotion that Ableism was inflicting on other disabled people around the world. Although very familiar with discrimination, I was concerned that recognising the Ableism behind it was nothing but a vehicle for pure anger, that it would quickly undermine any progress we had made. But it is not.