How Can Attitudes Towards Disabilities Change?
How can we all work towards changing the attitude of our society when it comes to disabilities? Whether you campaign and dedicate your free time to starting and signing petitions, or you only have the time and energy to read and share articles like this one, there is so much that can and needs to be done to help shift the narrative of disability in the world.
The people we see and are influenced by in the media, and on our social media platforms help to shape the narrative of the world we live in. They drive trends, kick-start movements and represent who we see and accept in our society.
The fact that it caused major celebration and media coverage when Selma Blair walked the Oscar red carpet with a walking stick as though no one in the world had ever seen a disabled actress before shows just how far behind our society is with the acceptance of disabled people.
What can you do to help?
Help disabled people be seen. It really is as simple as that. Follow disabled actors, fashion designers, campaigners, athletes- anyone who shares a positive message, inspires you to take action, empowers you to live your life they way you want to live it.
Share their posts, read their work, buy their books. Get disabled authors to the top of the New York Bestseller list. Sell out a cinema of a film with a disabled actor. Watch their interviews on TV, share them from youtube- make championing their message a part of your everyday.
The great thing about this? Their message isn’t always going to be able their disability. But the more that we, as disabled people, are recognised as being thought leaders in our own fields the more we can grow and be seen in society as people, who also happen to be disabled.
Another way for this to improve the awareness and understanding of disability, illness and mental health for millions of people around the world is to introduce more diverse characters into stories of all genres, towards readers of all ages.
Growing up, children with disabilities have no role models in mainstream literature or media and for this reason, often feel like they are 'wrong' for being disabled and left out because they can't run or jump around the playground like superman or Spider-Man, or don't look like the princesses that all walk around with long hair and go on adventures in the cold.
Teenagers and Adults who suffer from mental conditions such as anxiety, OCD, and depression have no strong characters to tell them that there is someone else who is going through the same struggles. There is no character to aspire to be like, who accepts themselves and can stand alongside the heroes of literature.
Getting characters with disabilities into literature that serve no purpose to the plot is the first step in making people with disabilities feel like it is OK to be who they are, and show them- albeit fictional characters- people who have achieved great things or aided, even led adventures and battles. As well as normalise the acceptance and adaptations needed.
Not only will it help bring confidence to young children and let adults know that they are not alone in their own personal battles, but it will also help educate abled bodied people, children and adults alike, about what struggles these characters- and therefore real disabled people- face.
My challenge to you today is to find the social media accounts of three disabled people who inspire you, give them a follow and over the next week, share their content to your own audience- whether you have a million followers or just to your friends and family, it all makes a difference.
