Dear Sir Unlike Reynolds Price ( Golden boy who beat the killer eel , G2, August 21), ordinary disabled people without "genius and physical grace" wouldn't dream of giving pet names to our medical conditions. Nor are we particularly interested in making mileage, or money, from our bowel movements. We find we have our work cut out trying to live ordinary lives, in ordinary homes, in ordinary streets; work that is made so much harder by newspaper articles whose stereotypical portrayal of disabled people oscillate between superstar and pain in the arse. Speaking of which, John Sutherland talks out of his backside. You can't learn about disability from books written by literary egotists who prey on the fears and fantasies of non-disabled people, or from scientific prima donnas stuck in denial. In the real world, rather than conquering disability with our minds (whatever that means), disabled people aspire to accomplish mundane things that everyone else takes for granted: go to work, do the shopping, bring up kids, etc etc. Good luck and charm have their place, certainly, though it's mostly about brick walls and banging heads, not to mention bloody minds. It can be messy, and some non-disabled people stand to lose by disabled people's assertiveness and resistance: the power to rule over us, for one thing. But that doesn't excuse Sutherland's, or anyone else's, blatant denigration of our efforts to achieve self-determination, in our own terms. In the wider scheme of things, the right to urinate hygienically at the top of a mountain is small beer. However, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is a legal right that should be defended and upheld, not used as a stick with which to berate "obstinate" wheelchair-users. Here in the UK, our own Disability Discrimination Act, though deeply flawed, is just as precious because it is all we have. While a person's bodily functions should be private, and Sutherland's anxieties are his own to sort out, it is everyone's responsibility to oppose injustice and promote equality. Deborah Sowerby. |