....Nabil Shaban writes"Ever since the International Year of Disabled People in 1981, I have believed we people who have been designated as "Disabled" or "Handicapped" or a person with a physical impairment, should try and find a new word to describe our unique presence in the world. A word which WE have chosen - not one bestowed upon us by non-disabled people (whether they be priests, doctors, scientists or educationalists)..all the words they have labelled us with are loaded with negative histories and connotations. "Disabled" for example means "without or lacking power or ability".
Well, thank you very much but I do not want to live with a label which intrinsically denotes an inferior status. Similarly, "handicapped" is a dreadful word for us, since it is derived from "hand in cap" i.e. needing to beg with hand in cap...man, do I want to be reminded that people like me in the bad old days, had to demean ourselves by begging for charity? No way!
And I don't like the word "impairment". Again it puts an emphasis on what I can't do or haven't got. Other humans aren't continually humiliated by being summed up in terms of what they can't do. For example, humans cannot fly without artificial means, unlike birds, yet we do not give ourselves the appellation "creatures with a flying impairment". Similarly, our swimming abilities are pretty miserable compared to fishes and dolphins, yet we do not generically define our species as "creatures with a swimming impairment". Instead, we give ourselves a label which encapsulates a positive attribute, e.g. "homo erectus" - we stand erect, "homo habilis" - we use our hands, "homo sapiens" - we use our discernment or wisdom.
Also at the particular level, a man who is unable to play a musical instrument, is not obliged to perceive his entire being as someone who is musically impaired!
I have always been impressed by the homosexual liberation movement hijacking a word like "gay" which has absolute positive cheerful, happy connotations and succeeded in completely changing it's meaning, to become a generic label for themselves...and they pulled off the coup so brilliantly, that the whole world today accepts that the word "gay" now means homosexual.
Ever since the early Eighties, I have been wracking my brains for a similar positive-sounding word we, so-called "disabled" people can hijack. When I started to work on the "DARE" show, I thought, maybe, the word "dare" would be a good candidate...Eventually, I decided I liked to be called "dare" rather than "disabled"...
So, I am not disabled, I am dare...and you, who were formerly known as "able-bodied" or "non-disabled" - are simply "non-dare". It's about time, you lot were negatively described in relation to us, dare people!!!" (20th July 1998)
Disability Awareness in Action
© 1997 jinghiz@msn.com
"The time has come...to turn into Gods - or perish."
- Alan Harrington (1977)
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