Safety in a Failing Economy

[aishah]

i do teach people, i just don't get paid for it. i also have many other skills and have worked a number of other jobs, they just don't involve lifting more than 5 lbs or standing up for more than 5 minutes. or having decent balance, a great memory, the ability to focus for long periods of time, etc. etc.

i find it frustrating when people assume i'm 'high functioning' because i am so 'articulate' because there is this underlying value judgment that goes with it - i am good and those other disabled people are bad. that's really not okay. people do this a lot with me in real life because i don't 'look disabled.' (i have cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia.) it's not about being 'pc,' it's about - if we are going to talk about futurism, if we are going to talk abut survival in the future, i believe we have to talk about a future that includes everyone. not just able-bodied or 'high functioning' (vomit) disabled people. that's all i'm saying. and having those conversations is also part of the work of building a society that is actually inclusive of everyone in the present, too (which we don't have).

I really want to address this but not sure how. I can talk about our challenges in bringing together a sustainable farm community. Everyone needs to do "something" in order for it to work. Exactly what that "something" is depends on the individual and needs of the community. Even if there are programs for each community to assist people with disabilities or elderly there obviously has to be a balance because you can't have a village of 30 disabled people and 5 able workers. The other thing that would concern me is what would define disability. I see able bodied people that could do "something" and not doing anything.

imho the method of creating 'assistance programs' that we have now is not a sustainable, interdependent way of dealing with disability. i also find it helpful to think of disability as a spectrum rather than a discrete category. the fact is, everyone has access needs - the difference between you and me is society is set up to deal with yours and not mine. in order for everyone - including disabled folks usually labeled 'low functioning' - to be included, their access needs would have to be taken into account. but that really isn't that difficult, to be honest. i do non-profit work in a community of disabled people with a huge variety of disabilities and access needs, and we get shit done. we just have patience and understanding for one another, and we don't expect each other to interact or do everything the exact same way. for example, there's a man who lives downtown in the city where i live and he is considered 'low-functioning' because he has a lot of difficulty with adls (adult daily living skills) due to his developmental disability. he would not be able to hold a job even using voc rehab services because most jobs are not willing to work with his access needs. but he does a billion different odd jobs for the stores downtown and the employees there take care of him and work with his access needs (having short, defined tasks - doing one task before being told to do the next one rather than working down a list - that sort of thing).

in my experience, the work of building supportive community among people with disabilities has a lot to do with not assuming that everyone does everything the same way and with being flexible and supportive in that way.