(By Kieron Smith, author of The Politics of Down Syndrome)
Mostly I think people are afraid.
Society has become obsessed with image, consumption and superficiality. Politics appears to be going the same way.
Things have improved for people with Down syndrome since it was first identified 147 years ago, but not as much as they should have. Now we have institutions without walls, where people with DS are excluded from work, integrated education, plus suffer from second class health care and screened out by public health policies.
Society is obsessed with risk, with feeling powerless – Down syndrome is presented as a risk so serious that an national screening programme is required– you get assessed for 'risk' during pregnancy, not chance. Stigma does the rest, images from institutions and from TV series that bang on about difference. The idea of Down syndrome creates a cascade of potential risks and fear of the unknown, stigma.
The danger is that we respond to this scared and superficial environment with piecemeal and superficial solutions.
Visibility of people with DS on billboards, in exhibitions, catalogues and TV ads is all well and good but if people don’t interact, without real inclusion, then these images almost emphasise their own unreality.
In the real world people with learning disability are still excluded - they don’t get to be part of the picture.
The Gulf war was referred to it as a virtual war, so stylised and selective were the images we were exposed to.
So, there is image and there is power.
The images, the oft quoted awareness that people with DS exist, might nag at a few charitable consciences but serve to change little. If anything, because of the distance in everyday life between people with DS and society – then images of difference, in isolation, could actually play to a fear of difference, the other and the unknown.
The point is to change it.
Change will come when the fear is overcome and the stigma dispelled – when people are engaged with people who have DS. Not sharing an ‘endeavour of learning’ somewhere in a different unit – but in the same class, not excluded entirely from the workplace – but working together, not screened out by default.
We need people to speak up, we need self-advocates, we need like many liberation movements before to stand up and demand an end to stigma and we need to demand inclusion at every level of society, and to have big ambitions.
Differences are not deficits – a diverse society is a richer one, at its core the message should be that people with DS are more alike than different – like most groups who have been subject to stigmatisation. But we're going to need to shout louder to get heard.
Today is World Down Syndrome Day and we are blogging about acceptance, inclusion and activism. Join our Blog Symposium!
(A reciprocal link is required: you can find the code to add to your blog underneath the "linky".)
This Blog Symposium brought to you by:
Mostly I think people are afraid.
Society has become obsessed with image, consumption and superficiality. Politics appears to be going the same way.
Things have improved for people with Down syndrome since it was first identified 147 years ago, but not as much as they should have. Now we have institutions without walls, where people with DS are excluded from work, integrated education, plus suffer from second class health care and screened out by public health policies.
Society is obsessed with risk, with feeling powerless – Down syndrome is presented as a risk so serious that an national screening programme is required– you get assessed for 'risk' during pregnancy, not chance. Stigma does the rest, images from institutions and from TV series that bang on about difference. The idea of Down syndrome creates a cascade of potential risks and fear of the unknown, stigma.
The danger is that we respond to this scared and superficial environment with piecemeal and superficial solutions.
Visibility of people with DS on billboards, in exhibitions, catalogues and TV ads is all well and good but if people don’t interact, without real inclusion, then these images almost emphasise their own unreality.
In the real world people with learning disability are still excluded - they don’t get to be part of the picture.
The Gulf war was referred to it as a virtual war, so stylised and selective were the images we were exposed to.
So, there is image and there is power.
The images, the oft quoted awareness that people with DS exist, might nag at a few charitable consciences but serve to change little. If anything, because of the distance in everyday life between people with DS and society – then images of difference, in isolation, could actually play to a fear of difference, the other and the unknown.
The point is to change it.
Change will come when the fear is overcome and the stigma dispelled – when people are engaged with people who have DS. Not sharing an ‘endeavour of learning’ somewhere in a different unit – but in the same class, not excluded entirely from the workplace – but working together, not screened out by default.
We need people to speak up, we need self-advocates, we need like many liberation movements before to stand up and demand an end to stigma and we need to demand inclusion at every level of society, and to have big ambitions.
Differences are not deficits – a diverse society is a richer one, at its core the message should be that people with DS are more alike than different – like most groups who have been subject to stigmatisation. But we're going to need to shout louder to get heard.
Today is World Down Syndrome Day and we are blogging about acceptance, inclusion and activism. Join our Blog Symposium!
(A reciprocal link is required: you can find the code to add to your blog underneath the "linky".)
This Blog Symposium brought to you by:
Add your WDSD post now!
Here are the code sources for your blog. If you require instructions as to how to add the linky to your blog, click here. Examples are provided.
For Blogger:
<div style="text-align: center;">
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Add your WDSD post now! </div>
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<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=189879" type="text/javascript"></script>
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For WordPress:
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<p><b>Powered by Linky Tools</b></p><p><a href="http://www.linkytools.com/wordpress_list.aspx?id=189879&type=thumbnail">Click here</a> to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...</p>
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