farmdoc's blog post number 227

Disability, simply put, is the inability to function fully. Today, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, is important to me on two levels. On a personal level, because I have some disabilities, due to presbyopia, osteoarthritis etc. Thankfully they’re all pretty minor, but still I’m conscious I can’t function now as well as I once could. But far more importantly, our society must acknowledge that overall, people with disabilities get a pretty raw deal. And this is so whether their disabilities are physical or non-physical, self-inflicted or not, visible or invisible. I think our society has adopted a model of perfection as ideal, a corollary being that the further from the ideal one is, the less accepted and tolerated and valued, and the more dismissed and marginalised. Though exceptions exist, I doubt they disprove the rule. I’ve always admired Paralympians much more than Olympians – because they’ve had to minimise disability and compete at an elite level, rather than just the latter. People are people whether they have disabilities or not. A just and fair society needs to recognise this, and treat people with and without disabilities identically to each other. Unless and until a society does this, it hasn’t earned the right to call itself civilised. I’m not optimistic the International Day of Persons with Disabilities will assist. But least it’ll do no harm.