Representative. That word means so many things these days. We are always on the look out for something or someone that represent us in someway that we identify with. It’s been a long time since I stopped feeling that word was applicable to me anymore simply because as much as the world has made so much progress accepting disabled people there’s some pretty ridiculous hold ups too.
In politics there’s lots of loud, worringly not always up to date privalged folk making decisions that impact the likes of you and me. I always dread when they discuss the NHS or disability benefits and wonder how much time they’ve spent speaking and really listening to its core users. I’ve written many times and often been disgusted by the response back which has so inadequate they’ve not even referred to my letter remotely accurately.
In fashion I struggle to find clothes that don’t physically injure me when putting them on. I’d love to see more disabled friendly clothes hitting the stores at reasonable prices. For those of you thinking just avoid the clothes that cause injury I do for the most part, but I haven’t found a bra yet that I can take on and off without dislocating.
Councils; I am honestly curious when you design pavements, who decides on drop curb placements? As a wheelchair user, with brain fog more days than not, I have to try to remember the best wheelchair friendly routes. These often involve laughable detours. I’ve been debating starting a ‘The disappearing Dropcurb album’.
Film/TV. All I’m going to say on the subject is start hiring the talented disabled actors that are out there for roles, rather than able bodied household names. You have no excuse, make the adaptations needed to facilitate.
Finally I don’t expect to see representation of myself everywhere, that’s not exactly what I’m getting at. After all one of the beautiful things about human life is our differences, our uniques, our quirks. However that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t address the issues I’ve raised above and as we’re heading into 2021 these really should be non issues by now.
Dystonia and Me 