#IDPWD: Are you a disability ally?
Where were all the nondisabled people on International Day of People with Disabilities?
Hello, happy Tuesday,
Last Friday was the UN’s global day for disabled people. Much like International Women’s Day, the occasion serves as an opportunity to highlight issues faced by disabled people around the world.
It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the disabled community, and it was lovely to see disabled people fill my social media feeds with posts about resilience, solidarity and pride.
But unlike on International Women’s Day, that was about as far as it went. Brands didn’t share mission statements about equality. The media didn’t run a thousand op-eds on the blight of ableism. I didn’t see a single nondisabled person share a post by a disabled person they didn’t personally know already.
Once again, the spread of solidarity halted as quickly as a wheelchair user at the bottom of a flight of stairs.
It’s not good enough.
So let’s face some facts, shall we? 20% of the population is disabled. That’s one in five people. So even if you don’t really care about the random disabled people you see on line, you should probably care about the disabled friend you almost certainly have. (If you don’t think you have one, you do - they’ve just chosen not to tell you. Sorry.)
And if you’re not convinced by that, consider the fact that only a small percentage of disabled people are born with their impairments. With the population aging rapidly, it would be more accurate to describe nondisabled people as not-yet-disabled. It is in your self-interest to be talking about this stuff.
But it shouldn’t have to be. Let’s consider the statistics disabled people live with every day and see if that convinces you. The disability employment gap stands at nearly 30%. Half of people living in poverty are either disabled themselves or live with someone who is. Disabled women are twice as likely to be sexually harassed as nondisabled women. Two thirds of people who’ve died of Covid in the UK were disabled. The grim figures simply go on and on.
Which is to say, if you’re not responding to IDPWD, you are living in wilful ignorance - and ignorance is at the core of the problem. It’s also not an excuse any more. This information is out there for you to find; indeed, disabled people work very hard to highlight it. If you don’t know, it’s because you’ve looked away.
But there is some good news: none of this is inevitable. Indeed, if we’ve learned one thing from the renewed focus on women’s safety this year, it’s that awareness can and does change conversations. And in having better conversations, we create the conditions for change.
It’s time to be an ally.
Being an ally means actively participating in the fight for disability rights, inclusion and justice. It means not being a bystander - not going to inaccessible events, challenging ableism when you see and hear it, and not voting for the Tories. It means buying from disabled-owned businesses, it means not thinking of disability as a bad thing. It means asking a shop or a pub if they have a ramp, even if you don’t need one.
It means amplifying disabled voices, including disabled women in your feminism, and disabled people of colour in your anti-racism. It means not subscribing to the idea that productivity is a definition of value or that different bodies have different worth. And, once a year, it means sharing posts about IDPWD and celebrating this vibrant, brilliant, badass community, even if it’s not the one you belong in.
It’s time for nondisabled people to do the work. Trust me, we notice when you don’t.
Just this once, I’m going to signpost you to some resources. This is a non-exhaustive list and you should definitely seek out more, but at least it’s a start:
People to follow on Instagram: Sam Renke, Sophie Morgan, Lucy Edwards, Sophie Butler, Hannah Barham-Brown, Jennie Berry, Rebekah Taussig and Gem Turner. Most of them are on Twitter, too, where you should also follow Amy Kavanaugh and Katie Pennick. My current fave is Nina Tame who just serves truth bombs as snacks and is also extremely funny
Just going to recommend my own stuff because IDPWD is nothing if not a tool for self-promotion (disabled people only, obvs). Read this in Tortoise on how the UK government and public abandoned disabled women during the pandemic, and this about the care crisis. My Guardian piece about the sexual harassment of disabled women is here
The very first step on the road to becoming a good ally is understanding the social model of disability. Read this explainer
Check out Scope’s campaigns highlighting the extra costs of disability and the fight to get benefits
Simultaneously diversify your bookshelves and become a true ally with a deep dive into disability by reading Sitting Pretty, Crippled and/or Disability Visibility. You won’t regret it
What are you doing to be a disability ally? Let me know in the comments.
See you next week,
Lucy
This is a free issue of The View From Down Here, my newsletter about life as a disabled woman. To get the full weekly version - and access to the archive - please subscribe! Alternatively, please share this post with family and friends - it really helps. And it’s a great way to be an ally!
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