Published by The Royal Bank of Canada

The Disabled Citizen

For far too long, a large proportionof our population has been deprived offull participation in society. In thisUN International Year of DisabledPersons, it’s time for a change...

[] The figures are staggering. More than 500million people around the world are either phys-ically or mentally handicapped or both- nearlyevery ninth living human being. The ratio inCanada is about one in 10, despite the fact thatstarvation and disease rarely cause preventablehandicaps here as they do in poorer countries.

In the International Year of Disabled Persons, itis important for people to be aware of just howmany among them must go through life bearing adebilitating burden. Yet if we look at the problemonly in quantitative terms, we are in danger ofdefeating the purpose of this massive UnitedNations campaign. This is to gain "full participa-tion and equality" for handicapped people. It issomething that, in the final analysis, only theirnon-handicapped fellow citizens can achieve.

Most of us these days are content to let govern-ments and other large agencies deal with universalproblems. And indeed, the United Nations and itsmember states this year are taking strong newmeasures to improve training, guidance, rehabili-tation, research and prevention in the disablementfield. But, as an Ontario government pamphletexplains it, "The success of 1981 really depends onwhat happens on the community level. When itcomes down to it, the lives of disabled people canonly become more satisfying and productive ifindividuals take action."

The first action each of us can take is simply to

review our attitude towards the physically andmentally disabled. Public attitudes are the sum ofpersonal attitudes, and handicapped people willattest that the present public attitudes are any-thing but helpful to their cause.

They point to an "attitude barrier" which blocksthem off from participation in the social andworking lives of their communities. The barrierhas deep foundations in the way normal peoplelook at the disabled as a kind of breed apart.

"It is only in statistics that people are disabled inmillions," says Sir John Wilson, Director of theInternational Association for the Prevention ofBlindness. "Each individual is disabled individ-ually in his own predicament." Because the dis-abled are regarded as a monolithic group, peopleare disinclined to recognize the individuality ofevery disabled man, woman and child.

Instead, they attribute to them a standard set ofmythical characteristics. Among these are thatthey cannot be responsible for themselves; thatthey cannot hold down jobs; that they prefer eachother’s company; that they are incapable of normalpersonal relationships; that they need charity toget along.

Even those who have their best interests at heartcan fall into the habit of categorizing and stereo-typing them. According to Rodney Carpenter, ayoung Canadian afflicted with cerebral palsy,"Parents and teachers subconsciously, and some-

times consciously, treat the handicapped, regard-less of age, as a group whose members all have thesame wants and desires."

The aspirations thus ascribed to them usuallyfall far short of what would be expected of a normalperson. In words and deeds, it is impressed on themthat they will never be able to do this or thatbecause of their handicap.

It is understandable that those closest to younghandicapped people should cast themselves in therole of protectors. The world is cruel to the uncom-mon and the weak. A natural urge arises to sparetheir feelings. If their aspirations are not high,they stand less chance of being disappointed andhurt.

While a certain degree of protection from therough and tumble may be called for, over-protec-tiveness can be dangerous. A person who is notsufficiently exposed to society may develop anexaggerated fear of it, withdrawing into a shelter-ed and unfulfilling existence by associating onlywith his or her own kind.

Regrettably enough, this fits in convenientlywith the priorities of society. People feel morecomfortable when the handicapped are out of sightand out of mind.

In some countries, their seclusion gives rise topitiful conditions. "Negative attitudes towardspeople with impairments, causing children to behidden from sight, kept in dark rooms, deprived ofstimulation and normal social contact, ostracized,constitute much graver disabilities than the im-pairments themselves," UNICEF News reports.

In western nations, the pattern has been moreorganized but only a little less heartless. As AlfMorris, Britain’s first Minister for the Disabled,put it: "We made prisons on the edge of town forpeople who did not meet the norms."

At various stages in history, the handicappedhave been perceived as public menaces (witnessthe hunchback Quasimodo in Victor Hugo’s NotreDame de Paris), as being fit solely to be beggars,and as being permanently ill although they mightbe perfectly healthy apart from their disablement.

Large numbers of physically-fit handicapped peo-ple are still confined in hospitals or residentialinstitutions in Canada today. Mentally handi-capped people are not only put in institutions, butin wings of mental hospitals- because, it is said,there is nowhere else for them to go.

"If you’re not like all therest of us, to hell with you"

Most handicapped Canadians are less drasticallyisolated; almost 90 per cent of them live in ord-inary communities. But whether they are in theirhomes, schools, or sheltered workshops, far toomany remain segregated from the able majority.Despite any number of remarkable exceptions, thegeneral effect is that the handicapped remainhidden. Their absence from the social mainstreammakes it easy for the majority to overlook theirrights.

Handicapped people are discriminated against.In a recent magazine article, for instance, a womanwith multiple sclerosis described being told therewere no vacancies in a succession of apartmentbuildings although the "for rent" signs were stillon display. It is against the law in Canada todiscriminate against anybody on the basis of theirrace, sex, religion, national origin or colour. Butuntil recently in most provinces, no such specificprotection has been extended to the handicapped.

That situation is now changing, thanks partly tothe attention focussed on their concerns by theInternational Year. It has been recognized thatexceptional rights are needed for this exceptionalclass. But even when these rights are enshrined inlaw, the handicapped will make little headway ifthe public is unwilling to go along with the spirit ofthem. It will be up to the able people of the com-munity to see that the handicapped enjoy therights they deserve.

There is no denying that, as matters stand,the handicapped are second-class citizens. Theevidence of what a low value the rest of societyplaces on them is all around. Access to manybuildings and public transportation systems isdenied to physically handicapped persons by

escalators and doors that are impossible to nego-tiate in a wheelchair. Various other facilities aredesigned with no thought given to their specialcondition. It is almost like saying: "If you’re notlike the rest of us, to hell with you."

Their second-class status extends to findingwork. About 2.8 per cent of the Canadian labourforce is composed of handicapped people who areofficially classified as employable, though the truenumber of the employable handicapped is probablyhigher because many have despaired of findingwork and are not registered in the labour force. Ofthose who are, 50 per cent are unemployed, includ-ing 80 per cent of the employable blind and 90 percent of employable paraplegics. The only explana-tion for these statistics is that employers believethat handicapped people are indifferent and unre-liable workers.

A study conducted in 1975 by the CanadianChamber of Commerce reached the opposite con-clusion. In it, 85 per cent of the employers ofphysically handicapped workers reported thattheir production, attendance, safety and turnoverrecords were the same as or better than the rest.The quality of their work was at least as high asthe average. The contrast between these findingsand the unemployment figures indicates a prej-udice against handicapped people looking for jobs.

Let’s re-examine the questionof just who is inferior to whom

The prejudice against handicapped people ingeneral is quite blatant. It may not be conscious,but it is not at all hard to see. It shows itself inways that prejudice against any group alwaysshows -- in not wanting to be with them, in callingthem names (usually behind their backs), thoughtless jokes about them, in putting themdown as an inferior class.

~¢In our feelings toward the disabled we have notmoved a great distance beyond those many genera-tions of our ancestors who believed that a handicaplike blindness or a limited intellect was God’spunishment for sin," writes Robert Fulford, Editorof Saturday Night magazine. "The blind, thecrippled, the deformed trouble us emotionally.They dismay and frighten us, and most of us do allwe can to stay away from them."

The handicapped grow wearily familiar with thesymptoms of this state of mind- the mixture oftrepidation, embarrassment and stiff-lipped good-will which other people display in their presence.This is what the distinguished American authorand critic Wilfrid Sheed, a polio victim, calls "beingtreated funny." He writes: "Any affliction withinreason can be gotten used to. Being treated funnycannot. Cripples do not, as you might suppose, sitaround thinking, Tm a cripple’ all day. It takessomeone to remind them -- the kind of people whosay, ’I see you’ve got a new moustache,’ in caseyou’d forgotten."

The condescension which the handicappedendure from other people stems from the vaguefeeling that if they are handicapped, they must beinferior. Helen Keller, the famous author andlecturer who was both blind and deaf, touched onthe subject of who was inferior to whom. Shockedby the venality she encountered in normal circles,she wrote: "My darkness has been filled with thelight of intelligence, and, behold, the outer day-litworld was stumbling and groping in social blind-ness."

"If you’re not successful,your life doesn’t count"

The whole concept of inferiority and superiorityneeds to be re-examined in any sincere effort tomake full participation and equality possible forthe handicapped. It should be clear that superiorphysical or mental ability does not make oneperson morally superior to another, and in the endit is moral superiority--being a good man orwoman, whoever you are- that counts. But oursis a society in which material success is closely andmistakenly associated with superiority. Success ismost likely to come, of course, to those with a highdegree of mental and physical ability. It is acompetitive society preoccupied with winning,whether in sports, business, or education. Losersare none too welcome. We like people with ability,people who achieve.

The preoccupation with achievement is such thateven the media coverage of the International Yearhas consisted predominantly of success stories.Taking nothing away from those courageous indi-viduals who have overcome their handicaps tocompete successfully in the normal world, a morevalid picture might be given to the public if it weretold about the multitude of disabled people whohave never met with success, or come anywherenear it, because they have never had a chance.

"What really annoys me is this attitude manypeople have that your life doesn’t count if you don’thave a successful job, you’re not married or are notphysically attractive. There’s a cheapness aboutthe value of life that often shows in the way manyfolks treat handicapped people." So says JoniEareckson, who became a paraplegic when shebroke her neck at the age of 18.

Eareckson is successful in the popular sense ofthe term. Now 31, she is a best-selling author andsought-after public speaker. She is willing to goalong with the success-oriented system by usingher fame to draw attention to the plight of thephysically handicapped. ~Friends who are disabledlook on me as a bridge between themselves and theable-bodied population who, for the most part,wouldn’t give them the time of day," she told Timemagazine.

The success syndrome weighs particularly onmentally handicapped people, who are includedamong the subjects of the Year of Disabled Per-sons, although you would hardly know it fromwhat you see in the media. There are few successstories to be written about them. They are aneglected minority within a minority who areunable to make their presence felt except throughintermediaries. Yet their fundamental needs arethe same as those of the physically handicapped oranybody else: the right and opportunity to live adecent, dignified life.

It is widely agreed among experts that theanswer to most of the problems of both the phys-ically and mentally handicapped is to integrate

them as far as possible into society. The questionis: is the able population ready to take them in?The most that can be said on that score is thatthere has been some improvement lately in publicacceptance of the handicapped as part of a movetowards greater public acceptance of minorities ofall kinds.

"A tragic waste of humanpotential and productivity"

The special needs of the handicapped are gainingrecognition from governments and the media, andenlightened corporations such as the Royal Bank ofCanada have been trying to meet them. In astatement to the Bank’s annual meeting this year,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rowland C.Frazee announced a three-part program linked tothe International Year. It entails sponsoring a filmdesigned to raise public consciousness of the poten-tial of the disabled, further improving accessibilityto the Bank’s branches and offices, and furtherimproving its hiring practices towards the dis-abled. ~I think we can all agree that when disabledpersons are prevented from making their fullcontribution to society by unnecessary physicaland mental barriers, this constitutes a tragic wasteof human potential and productivity," Mr. Frazeesaid.

No one will ever know how much energy, talentand ingenuity has been lost to our economy byfailing to take advantage of what the handicappedhave to offer. But behind the practical considera-tions lies a question of social justice in a societythat prides itself on its humanitarian ideals. In ourcallousness towards the handicapped, we of theable majority have erected artificial barriers totheir pursuit of happiness. It follows that it is ourresponsibility- not theirs- to bring these bar-riers down.

So far in history, the handicapped have alwaysbeen expected to adjust to society. The time hascome for society to start adjusting to them. Thiswill not be accomplished without a deep re-examin-ation of our social values. It presents a test of howunselfish, humane and open-minded we are willingto be.