Advocacy for the rights of the disabled - a Transition Year project
"Attitudes to disability are the major barrier to disabled peoples' full participation... From pity, awkwardness and fear, to low expectations about what disabled people can contribute, stereotypical and negative attitudes hold people back"
(Massie, 2006)
Let's try to imagine...
Have you ever walked down the street and thought about how difficult it would be to get around if you had a disability? It's something we see all around us and many people seem to ignore this maybe even laugh at it. Imagine for one moment that you require a walker to get around (you could have been born with Cerebral Palsy, you could have been in a road traffic accident, you may have had a stroke, you may need it to carry a heavy oxygen cylinder because smoking all your life has left you with Emphysema, or you may just suffer from mobility and balance problems in old age).
Most people find walking to the shops a relaxing opportunity to get a bit of exercise. However, it could become a terrifying obstacle course. Getting up your street you do your best to squeeze in between overgrown shrubs and trees flowing over walls and cars parked up on the footpath. No matter how well the walker helps you balance, the sight of an oncoming, swerving cyclist or skater at speed may still be enough to terrify you, not to mention the possibility of that roaming dog jumping up innocently to say 'hi'. Getting in and out of the shops is like the high jump in the Grand National to you - with a step leading up to the front door forcing you to lift your walker (if you have the strength) up and into the shop. Phew, you've made it. All that's left to do is grab the milk - but that may not be easy. By the time you have maneuvered around the 'special offer' basket in the middle of the aisle and squeezed through the various clutter you've probably knocked down a few items off the shelves. The milk is now in sight and as you approach it you realize it may not actually be in your reach so then there's the job of finding help. Good luck getting home!
The project
In early January 2010 fifteen of us from Transition Year in Presentation College, Bray started out with a new project in mind. Previously a number of us had worked on the Presentation Trust Mural and with our art teacher's guidance, we set out on a new project - to widen our horizons and give us a better understanding and respect for what the world is. This new project was a mural - but this time to advocate for disabled peoples' rights...
When we discuss disability the debate often revolves around the disabled and the able bodied - is this dichotomy that presents a 'them' and 'us' framework not inherently divisive? Let us instead rephrase this framework as 'we'. 'We' all happen to share this tiny planet. 'We' are all in it together. Disability is a man-made concept; to define disability we must use a presupposed norm as our starting point. Definitions of disability vary from an impairment that curtails an individual's ability to partake in normal pursuits, to a complex phenomenon reflecting an interaction between features of a person's body and features of the society in which he or she lives. We pose two questions:
1) what is normal,
and 2) if the interaction between a person's body and the society in which he or she lives is not harmonious, is it not the fault of the society?
Why not instead divide our man made society into inclusive and exclusive rather than the population as able bodied and disabled??
Physical disability is one manifestation of disability, there are others including: hidden disabilities, (e.g. high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes), learning disabilities (e.g. Down Syndrome), mental health (e.g. depression), sensory impairments (e.g. deafness) and complex (more than one). Not a lot of people think about how we view persons with disabilities. Our attitudes hold people with disabilities back. The main reason disabled people are treated differently is because of our attitudes towards them. The mural was painted in order to raise awareness about these issues. The mural tries to communicate the message that society needs to change not just the people, and also how much society constricts and separates a whole group of people who are entitled to the same expectations from life as everybody else.
The project team consisted of Dáire Healy and Ethan Fitzpatrick, R and D, Christian Dunne and Rory Dowling, head of drawing, Cillian Guihean and Sean Dempsey, studio managers, John Gallagher, Greg Butler and Cillian Dunne, our meet and greet group, Fiachra Bradley, Thomas Gascoine and Will Fleming, art direction and Pádraig Hogan and Patrick Tunney in charge of quality control. We worked closely with the National Learning Network (NLN), an organization with specialist trainers for people with support needs. The learners involved included: Janet Stephenson, Patricia Moylan, Laura Bradshaw, Elizabeth Earls, Stefan Burke, Paul Condren, Robert Slevin, Cillian Boushel, Dean McKeever and Graeme O Neill.
At our first meeting in the NLN we discussed the issues that disabled people face on a daily basis. The Presentation College (Pres) group was shocked by just how numerous these problems are - from small points such as bins left in the middle of the footpath that can block wheelchair users, to education and income issues. We all found it truly unbelievable. We learned about disability in the context of the developing world with important contributions from Bertrand Borg, Education Officer with 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World. We finished by discussing what the new mural would look like and by assigning tasks to everyone taking part. This ended the first of many days that would leave us questioning our society and our very own way of thinking.