Many, many people have debated and debated on what is wrong with disability. Yet the disability community is not given equal time in public discussions nor is the advice of disabled people on quality of life with a disability or the problems with being disabled is actually respected and considered.
I for one don’t know. This is charity season, and many organisations advocating for the disabled - e.g., the Muscular Dystrophy Association - hold fundraisers for this cure.
The common view in the disability community is that we don’t need a cure.
I believe that crips like these that oppose the cure are not actually opposed to the cure, per se, but are opposed to the following ideas:
- That being disabled is the worst thing on earth, the worst that you could wish on someone.
- That, if cured, our community - and some call it a culture, but I don’t support that - will vanish if a cure is found, and people will be pressured to take cures to alleviate health care costs.
I despise the “better dead than disabled” movement and I love the crip community. If suddenly, everyone - and I mean everyone - disabled took a pill and woke up able bodied, I’d probably mourn the loss of a community that really feels like a family, but at the same time, I would question why having a disability suddenly means there’s a need to hold hands and chant with other disabled people.
Basically, my issue with anti-cure people and those that boast we have a culture are the depth of their relationships with other disabled people — i.e., they must have something in common other than their disability, stories of oppression, surgeries, adaptations, tools, etc. The other issue I have with anti-cure people is that there are some disabled people who are involved in the community that want a cure. Is this so wrong?
On the other hand, I don’t like the “they are suffering so they should be cured” rhetoric of the curists. Most, if not all, of these people are not disabled nor have they had first-hand experience with pain management - or something that can make a disability less sucky.
Most disabled people in the disability community have been disabled since birth, so we haven’t known any other life except the disability experience. I, on behalf of other people who share the same attitude as I - don’t understand this urge to cure cripples. That being said, I want a cure and regeneration for my vision/glaucoma and nerve injury, because I am extremely visual, and nerve injuries suck. If I went blind, however, of course, I would probably throw a pity party, but I would adapt. In essence, the very nature of being disabled mandates that a person be flexible and willing to adapt. Sounds good, huh?
What’s my “cure” for the disability problem?
- Improve social attitudes about disability. No need to fear us cripples, no need to fear joining us.
- In improving social attitudes about disability, consequently, there will be an improvement in access to health care, housing, personal assistants, etc.
- Because, as the Cynical Gimp, I recognise disability can be a pain in the ass because of the disability itself - e.g., diabetes can be life threatening and unstable; cancer just sucks overall; glaucoma is a pain in the ass because of its instability, teasing nature, and aggression. Therefore, I endorse cures.
The reader’s digest version - improve access and attitudes first, and then we can talk about a medical cure.
Who knows, maybe with the right attitudes, and maybe with the most access, we won’t need to spend thousands of dollars researching and acquiring a cure?
