Patience and Kindness

It is easy to get discouraged about the state of disability support and the state of our own lives as we try and figure out our places within the world.  We find ourselves easily overwhelmed, and it sometimes frustrated by the speed of change.  The speed becomes our focus not the quality of the process that drives the change.  If things happen too quickly we often say, that there was not enough study, there needed to be consideration of other issues and angles end there was not enough consultation.  However, if the opposite is true and things happen to slowly we say there has been too much consultation, the time for study is over and it is time for the actions to begin.  When I consider this within the context of disability policy in Canada I have to say, I'm not sure where I stand and my responses to whether we're moving too fast or too slow might change hourly depending on my experiences any given day.

As a social worker people always tend to think that my professional goal is to solve the world's problems. While social workers do comment on the social nature of society.  I'm always greeted with shock when I tell people that I'm not going to solve their problems, I'm going to help them sort through the issues so they can have the strength and find resources to solve their own problems.  So here is the challenge,  why can't we solve policy problems in the same way individual problems are solved?  Sheer will and conviction.

The truth is that movement of the policy and program agenda in disability is not unified and is caught up in a series of short-term gains.  That's not to say that there have not been significant strides over the time 30 years since the Obstacles Report came out in 1981,  Canada's signing of the UN convention and the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) (2005) in Ontario.as important as those strides are there are still struggles ahead in the implementation of both those initiatives.  Perhaps, the devil is in the details and mustering patience and the courage of our convictions is what makes the waiting, and the wading through the discourse bearable.  but beyond that people with disabilities are on some level, inherently optimistic and believe that the wait will be worth it someday.

In 2005, I attended a session on the newly announced AODA, upon hearing about its 20 year implementation period a colleague of mine remarked that he wasn't sure how to feel because being in his mid-50s he remarked  that it was unlikely that he would see the full effect of the legislation because by the time it was fully enacted he suspected he would be dead or long past caring.  His feeling was echoed by many others.

We can only hope that processes of slow consideration mean strength in implementation because after all this work is a labor of love. And love by definition is patient and kind.

Underclassed but not Outsmarted

 There are challenges in keeping calm with the challenges of inaccessibility and disability management.  I find it interesting that the able-bodied world sometimes is so busy telling people with disabilities how their lives can be so much better "if only" that the world neglects listening to what people with disabilities can offer.  Yet people with disabilities are recognized by the able-bodied world as resilient and very superficial ways.  People always told me growing up how brave they thought I was, my response was that I was not brave just living.

Why then are people with disabilities not recognized for the contributions developed through their resilience in coping with the world that wasn't meant to include them.  In employment and education I have seen people with disabilities use innovative skills to reach goals and milestones but the sad part is the rest of the world is not aware of these innovations and rarely recognizes the depth of that person's contribution.

If these contributions were recognized with the full merit it would probably make schools and the workplace much more efficient places however somehow people with disabilities are still seen as liabilities to productivity and efficiency.  The truth is the untapped potential of people with disabilities makes them underclassed by society systems but most find ways of using innovation to outsmart most of the same systems. People with disabilities are contributors to society and the longer the potential for innovation is not recognized the longer the world goes without a wealth of knowledge and skills.

Reflections

"But working together there is no challenge to which we are not equal, no obstacle that we cannot overcome, no aspiration so high that it cannot be achieved." 

Those words were spoken in regard to the global economic recession of late 2008 -- 2009. While I'm told of economic recovery I have not seen it in practice regardless, the collaborative sentiment of Gordon Brown's words to the United States Congress serve to inspire. Beyond inspiration however, there is a measure of truth that can be applied to the socioeconomic circumstances of people with disabilities. People with disabilities are often constrained by support systems that are there to assist them in achieving activities of daily living. Problems arise because the constraints of programming in their efforts to help hinder possibilities for true progress.


Brown's quote encapsulates the message that by working together the world would be shepherded back from the economic brink. This makes me think that if we were somehow able to persuade government and community agencies to relax regulation and limit micromanagement a larger percentage of people with disabilities would achieve the economic independence that government and community agencies support in principle but increasingly not in practice. True empowerment is to provide opportunities with full support until a level of sustainability is possible. Full sustainability is not always realistic given disability constraints; however partial sustainability is possible and probable if micromanagement and income claw backs don't make it less palatable to join the world economic stage. I am always struck by how quick bureaucrats, both government and the ones that find their way conspicuously into community agencies, are defensive about the administration of programs for income support or the employment of people with disabilities. There is one common fact people working within the systems have rarely if ever had to be consumer of them. The key is in the first three words of the quote above," But working together…", programs for people with disabilities are designed only with limited consultation if any, with people with disabilities and governments still tend towards short-term results rather than longer-term systemic gains.


There is another issue that stands at the foundation of many social programs, an all or nothing mentality that has people with disabilities remove their rights to economic autonomy by the stipulation of criterion of the "unable to work". This leaves many in an unassigned limbo with limited options and creates further obstacles to self-empowerment. Overcoming obstacles under these circumstances is an enormous undertaking. It requires fortitude and determination to stay in the fight and the ability to see the greater aspirations that the future brings. Achievement through persistent prosperity, prosperity does not have to be economic, it can be spiritual.


After all I saw an ad on a bus recently that said, "Free your mind, your assets will follow." I remain inspired in cautious tones.