Remove the Roosevelt syndrome
Disability is not inability. This has been said and yes, proved often enough and in
areas as disparate as sports, education and employment. People with disabilities
themselves and concerned opinion leaders in all walks of life have trumpeted the
same truism using every kind of medium available.
But do people really believe in it?
It is not disgraceful to have a disability. Why, everyone knows that and say it.
However the behaviour of people with disabilities and so called normal people
reflects a totally different picture.
Disability is found in one form or another, clearly visible or not so obvious in some
people. Still very few people would care to admit they have any form of disability.
Some people go to great lengths to either conceal or minimise the extent of their
disability. This observable fact, which can only be understood as emanating from a
socialisation induced inferiority complex, has led to actions that sometimes border on
the unnatural.
There are of cause some people with disabilities who miss no opportunity to flaunt
their disability. Again this can be traced to internalised subconscious instability. On
the surface it appears these people do it mainly for preferential treatment or in more
deplorable cases personal financial gain.
However most people with disabilities tend to mask wherever possible their condition
in the vain hope they would be more acceptable to the rest of the community or
society. A person of note who did that with a measure of success is the late President
of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt. An attack of polio forced him to use
a wheel chair in 1921 at the age of 31.
It is worth noting that the press corps was instrumental in shielding his disability from
the public. This is evidenced by the fact that of over 10 000 photographs in his
presidential archives only four show him in a wheel chair.
President Roosevelt’s disability was eventually rendered inconsequential, as his
public image was that of a resolute war leader responsible for mobilising the greatest
fighting force in history that propelled the United States into a super power after
World War II.
All the same the prejudice driven actions of President Roosevelt and his press coups
can be reasonably excused because it was before the advent of worldwide campaigns
on disability rights and calls for more visibility and participation of people with
disabilities in social activities. People with disabilities at that time were labelled
invalids and were regarded as worthless to society.
Nonetheless that Roosevelt feeling, that persuasion, that internal self compelling need
to hide or at least reduce the visibility of disability by both the people with disabilities
themselves and society in general still persists to this day.
The effects of trying to conceal disability has had unwanted or unforeseen
consequences. By pretending that disability is of no significance in everyday life,
society has put itself in a situation where it is unprepared to accommodate or include
disability concerns in all its plans and activities.
It is therefore not surprising that people with disabilities are in the peripherals of
social interaction and development. They are not afforded appropriate health services
nor affirmative tertiary education and employment opportunities. This is quite
evident where their disability is deemed inconvenient, as the facilities and equipment
available were not designed for universal accessibility.
People with disabilities do not do themselves a favour by making abnormal efforts to
hide their disability. According to the World Health Organisation “a disability
(resulting from an impairment) is a restriction or lack of the ability to perform an
activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.”
The very act of concealment precludes society from being aware of the challenges
people with disabilities face as they strive to live normal lives. Society has sometimes
been unfairly accused of insensitivity to the plight of some people with disabilities. In
some instances some people with disabilities unwittingly or in some cases wittingly
have assisted in depriving society of information on certain types of disabilities and
societal handicaps that are peculiar to them.
A case in point is albinism. Before 1997 very few people were aware that albinism
was a disability. Even fewer people knew of the health and social problems people
with albinism endure. To cap it all the Government did not consider albinism as a
disability and therefore the condition was not officially recognised as such.
This meant that all assistance financial or otherwise channelled towards people with
disabilities did not include people with albinism. It took four hard years of extensive
and intensive educational campaigns by the Zimbabwe Albino Association to
convince Government that albinism was and is indeed a disability and was therefore
legible for state assistance. The same campaigns helped society to become
knowledgeable about albinism, its occurrences and effects.
Disability is a natural phenomenon. People with disabilities have no reason to let their
condition be the source of embarrassment. If anyone has to be ashamed it is society
that has turned disability into a handicap either by commission or omission and/or
ignorance. When a barrier free environment is created there would be very little to be
worried of let alone talk about on disability. Freedom of movement and independent
access to services and facilities will be guaranteed to people with disabilities as they
are to everyone else in the country.
-------------Richard Nyathi is an activist on disability issues. For comments and contributions,
please e-mail: mdlulizw@yahoo.com
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