Invisible Ableism

Greetings,

There are going to be some people who have looked at the title of this article and gone, "What? How can ableism be invisible?" I could simply respond and say the same way that disability can be invisible and that would almost be as accurate as I could get. It becomes invisible when it becomes normalised, as you will see below...

How invisible is ableism? When a person with disabilities does not notice an aspect of ableism in an activity they have been participating in for years. It qualifies as invisible.

For many the attaining of a driver's licence is a simple rite of passage. Lessons often begin toward the end of high/secondary school and continue onward until the tests are completed and the licence is attained. This is not the same for all of us. Possessing a driver's licence is a privilege, a privilege that some of us do not have, sometimes by choice, other times because disabilities disallow us.

Anything that can be taken away is a privilege. Re-read that again (no not bad grammar, do it twice) and have a good think about it. There are some of us who do not realise just how privileged we really are. However, that is a subject for another discussion. For now, we will recognise that a driver's licence is a privilege denied to some due to their disabilities. So, it means every adult in the world does not possess one, even in modern societies where such things are prevalent, and relatively common.

I never thought much of this particular issue until recently. My 18+ Card served as photographic identification (ID), usually sufficing for most things. I have since found somethings where a driver's licence is required as primary ID, where the 18+ Card is not enough. Here, we can see aspects of discrimination and ableism.

However, it was not until very recently that I realised just how prevalent this ableism, based on assumption or ignorance, was present in our lives. I have participated in fencing in a social group since the mid-1990s, am very well-known for it, and have had no reports of safety issues or other issues, at least that have been brought to my attention.

The most recent draft of the rules of this social group in one section states, "If you are not fit to drive, you are not fit to fight!" But I have never been fit to drive in my entire fencing career, and never will be. Taking this rule literally, my fencing career is over at the publication of this set of rules; or some pedantic rules lawyer could read it like that at some tournament in the future.

The statement in the rules is supposed to be a guideline for people, however it exposes a level of expectation certain people with disabilities, such as myself, cannot, and will not, ever meet. I know it is not the intention of the rule to be read like this. The purpose is to set a "known standard" for people to follow, however, this standard is ableist, and is possibly discriminatory due to its potential implications, i.e., is there a hidden requirement that a fencer also possesses a driver's licence?

I have identified this statement not to demand an apology or some sort of recognition. No, I have identified it merely to show the invisible ableism that even well-known (at least within my community) disability advocates such as myself have missed until recently. We all need to stop and examine such things in our lives to see if there are hidden aspects of ableism or discrimination present.

The purpose here is not to vilify, but to educate. To recognise these aspects are present, that we all need to improve, even the people who are most affected by the discrimination based on such concepts. If we, as people with disabilities, can't work together to remove such aspects from our lives, what hope do other people have if they don't have our perspective? 

The issue reveal one of the reasons that such issues need to be discussed with people with disabilities involved in the conversation, as has been said "Not about us, without us." Further, that we all need to look in the mirror and examine what issues may be invisible to us, because they have become normalised, just as a process of our lives.

Cheers,

Henry.

"Privilege": Its Meaning and Application

 Greetings,

The subject of "privilege" is one that I am loathe to talk about because everyone has a certain amount of privilege depending on how you look at the terms and the definition which is applied to it. However in the context of the socio-cultural and socio-political context which has been placed upon the term, the definition is more specific, indeed it will have a definition which appears something like below:

"If you talk about privilege, you are talking about the power and advantage that only a small group of people have, usually because of their wealth or their high social class."

This definition is one which was taken from the Collins English Dictionary. This is one of those words which people have added special meaning, indeed it is not actually the word "privilege" they are talking about they are talking about "social privilege". It is likely that for convenience the first word "social" was dropped because it was understood in context, and then the new one was picked up and used so the definition of privilege was changed to have this new definition.

A privilege is simply something that another person or group does not possess, and this can vary over many different things. It was previously stated that everyone is privileged and this is true. Here are some simple statements: 

Everyone is privileged to have been born and survived that event, there are those who do not. So, People are privileged to be alive. 

People are privileged if they do not have a disability. 

People are privileged if they do not have some sort of illness, chronic or acute. 

People are privileged to have regular meals each day, or even to eat once a day. 

People are privileged to have clothes to wear, more so if those clothes are clean. 

There are those who have homes and those who do not, those who do are privileged. The more privileged people own the homes that they live in.

Social Privilege is something else which goes on top of these privileges. These privileges focus on the  social differences between individuals and also highlight some of the differences between individuals which may differ in the privileges which have already been highlighted. The purpose of this concept is to show which group of people stands above or below, and more often than not below, another group of people. Most often this is so the people who are above can be denigrated for their lack of empathy for those below, however often there are circumstances that are unknown and this is used as a simple tool for some social advantage, for the purposes of virtue signalling more than showing some actual social injustice being present. Simply put, everyone has their story, and it is not completely known to everyone.

The concept is supposed to highlight social injustice for the purposes of correcting the injustice, bringing things so there is more equality. Instead the concept is now used as a convenient stick to beat any person who has a disagreement, or who has a different point of view. Most often it is used as a convenient stick when a social issue seems to have been being ignored, even if the individual has no opinion or is unaffected by it, and most often by individuals who do not reflect upon their "privilege".

Cheers,

Henry.

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