Accidental Ableism - Your Opinions

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Here is an article I wrote that was published on Autism Daily Newscast - I am interested in what other's think.

http://www.autismdailynewscast.com/acci ... nmarcotte/

I really think they should come up with some other term other than "ableism."

What's wrong with being "able" to do anything?

I saw that article that you're referring to, and it gave me some feelings alongside what you wrote here. People don't like to be pitied, which is what a lot of articles like that one feel like to me. Those people didn't come to the kids birthday party because they liked him, or even knew him. They did it because they felt bad for him.

A lot of us have been in similar circumstances. Having people feel bad for you doesn't erase or cover up the feeling of not being liked by others. In many ways it often highlights it. Making a permanent record of those events on social media and in the news puts even more of a spotlight on it.

We all have our prejudices and have probably expressed them including ableist ones done both intentionally and unintentionally

I don't think anyone is immune to it and we all may feel bad for someone because they have a limitation and we don't and we couldn't imagine having to live that way so we assume it's hard for them. I used to feel sorry for people who were in wheelchairs, were blind or deaf, or were way different than me because I couldn't imagine having those limitations because I liked what I could do.

I agree completely - It makes me sad every time I see another version of the recent article about the little boy that didn't have anyone come to his birthday party. If he didn't have autism it wouldn't be an article - and believe me there are children out there who are just as lonely for entirely different reasons.

Great article - thanks for thinking about these things! I agree that everyone has internal, accidental prejudices, and it's great that you addressed yours - more autistic kids need parents like you.

It always upsets me that the main pro-vaxx argument is almost always "But vaccines don't cause autism", rather than "Even if vaccines did cause autism, what's the problem with that?" Even if they can convince people to vaccinate their kids, it's still not helping with the public opinion of autism being a scary dangerous disease.

In the UK they use "disableism."

But that's not the core of your objection, it seems: There is nothing wrong with being able to do anything. There is something wrong with thinking that being able to do things makes one better than people who can't do those things. Ableism is about setting up such a value system where disability reduces one's importance and value and not being disabled is seen as a superior way to be. This often includes implicit or explicit assumptions that being disabled is a matter of choice, or that being disabled and doing things anyway is somehow inspirational and amazing, and not just someone doing stuff they want to do.

Good point!

Everybody I know has at least one "ism" that they wish they didn't have, as well as a belief that others shouldn't have their "isms," too. There are "isms" we like, and "isms" we don't like. Isn't the term "NT" considered by some to be hurtful and presumptuous? For me, at least, if someone is attacking their favorite bad "isms," I needn't scratch the surface of their own personalities to find the "isms" that others would denigrate.

So, everybody has at least one "ism," good or bad. I do, too, because I amn't perfect yet, or a robot. I don't like it when others attack me for mine, and I don't believe that they would like me attacking theirs.

Stephen Hawking is a prime example of why I don't devalue people who are "disabled."

He can barely move an eye, no less his body--yet he still creates these great theories. Writing using eye movements is painstaking stuff, frankly!

He has hurt at least a couple of women when he "left" them.

Hell no--I'm not an "ableist" by that definition.

I'll have to come up with something better--maybe "normocentric?"

Uh, yeah, this IS ableist...because you're valuing him by the things he is able to do.

What about a disabled man who is just...disabled? A guy who is unable to create great theories, and doesn't hurt women? Would you hold that guy up as a "prime example"?

I wouldn't judge the person per se. I don't judge people that way.

But I do admire people who accomplish things. I don't get the problem with that.

I admire that guy who could only use his left foot in life. What's wrong with that?

I don't NOT admire somebody because he/she has a disability.

I haven't done much to earn people's admiration--but I don't expect people to admire me for "just being me." I expect people to respect me, though, as a fellow human being.

Everybody values others by what they can do. That is a lot of accidental ableism.

"Accidental Ableism" is inevitable--and is what human beings do.

Norny: haven't seen you in this neck of the woods in a while.
I heard it's pretty hot Down Under!

I don't see a problem with valuing Stephen Hawking by what he is able to do, valuing him for his intellectual accomplishments doesn't mean that I disvalue others who have none. If someone has high ability in any area, they may be valued by others for their abilities, but that doesn't mean that others who don't have those abilities are disvalued. If someone has accomplishments in some areas, they may also be valued for those, but that doesn't mean that people without accomplishments in any area are disvalued.

Personally I see ableism like "oughtism". We ought to do this or we ought to do that. We ought to give our child a birthday party. They ought to have scores of friends they ought to have a partner they ought to want this or that etc. Sometimes I feel parents with the best of intentions put neurotypical values onto autistic children because it is the parent that hurts at the child's lack of social connections and relationships rather than the child. The pity birthday party thing can hurt more than it helps because it gives the impression that the child is abnormal and his social situation is bad when that's just one view on the reality of it.