A friend sent me the link to what I must admit are some of the cutest ads (Flash required) I have seen about disability. Produced by Leonard Chesire Disabilty, a voluntary sector organisation in the UK that provides services in support of people with disabilities, these ads are not only visually beautiful but, I am sure, will do wonders to give people a warm fuzzy feeling about disability.
But you know, being me, I can not help but wonder about some things. I mean, all that is really nice when you are in the comfort of your own living room, watching the late evening news, your feet all warm and cozy in your favourite phentex slippers and a nice cup o’tea by your side when an ad flashes briefly across the telly screen. “Ah, look at that, dearie”, you will say to the wife sitting next to you, knitting you some phentex mittens, “such a sweet doggie!” (a sweet doggie just about to go bungee jumping, by the way). But would you feel the same if you encountered a 52 year-old man drooling on his shirt who can not use the loo without a bit of help, let alone skydive? (And please, do not get all PC on me, I am just saying, and I know what I am talking about, disability is not always cute, and sometimes, for all sorts of reasons, it can actually be quite, euh, discomforting.)
And I will not even get into the idea of animated animals and other such creatures representing people with disabilities because that could be the subject of a whole other post. But then again, using animals and aliens, etc., to embody people is nothing new and certainly not the sole lot of persons with disabilties. So, while a lot could be said about this choice of treatment, I will not get too bothered about it (I will leave that to others because y’all know there will be others to get bothered). And to be fair, it should be pointed out that they have people with disabilities doing the voice-overs.
Anyway, the thing is that I am torn. On some level, I like these ads or better yet, I like what they have tried to do with them. And like I said, they are cute though I think they would be more appropriate for young children. And from what I have seen, the underlying goal, which essentially strives to present a more positive image of my gang and perhaps dispell a few myths, is ok though obviously the message falls victim to a number of clichés. And you certainly can not capture the reality of over 700 million very diverse people in a 15 second public service announcement.
But on another level, I hate them. I think they over-simplify things and present a picture that is far from realistic and rather one-dimensional. Personally, I think this may ultimately constitute a disservice. As we say here, “héro ou zéro” with little or no middle ground. I am also bothered by the fact that they choose to pull the heart strings and conveniently leave out the notion of equal rights. Does the UK not have disability legislation, i.e. the DDA? Isn’t that kind of important? Shouldn’t people be reminded that, for example, not only is access the right thing to do but that it is also the law?
But I think that what bothers me the most about these ads is that man!, they give the impression that we have not come very far if we still need to point out these very basic ideas to people. I have been disabled all my life, have been working on disability issues for the last 20 years and well, it seems to me that we should not have to point out, in this day and age, that just because you use a wheelchair, that does not mean you can not think for yourself or how disheartening prejudice or lack of access can be. Don’t people get it by now? And if not, what the hell is wrong with them?! It is kind of depressing, really.
And at the risk of being pissed on for saying so, I think that disability organisations are in part if not, at times, just as much to blame for this lack of evolution. We keep repeating the same things we have been saying for, like, forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, “a lot of people are ignorant about these things”, “it is not their fault”, “they simply do not understand and we need to ‘educate’ them”. I do not know how many times I have been told that. But you know what? Bullshit. At some point we need to stop making excuses for people. We have entered the third millenium and people with disabilities have been around since the dawn of time. News flash? I think not. It is way past time to stop pretending it is.
So anyway, I guess I should get out my phentex slippers (after all, winter has fallen upon us here this week) and brew me a nice cup of [herbal] tea. But maybe I should keep my ice climbing gear ready just in case?
Ironically, the statements about not being stupid because you are in a wheelchair are the ones I went, “Yeah, get it!” - becuase I guess this is my first year so I KNOW people don’t get it. Okay, let me try to stand back and objectify: I don’t like the ads. Why? Because when they explained the concept of the ads I thought, GREAT, here is the same company of Wallace and Grommit, what a great way to get children to understand disability issues. Okay, except that I have seen the four ads and really, NONE of the creatures are integrated into society, we see them as isolated individuals - yes the same style as in creature comforts but I think in this one it is important to show them in a backdrop of REAL LIFE, show them interviewed in the workplace, with people stopping by going, “Hey Bob…” looking at the camera and going “Oops” and then heading off - The message I got was that people with disabilities are sad, slow and isolated individuals. The turtle was so sad/pathetic I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t satire (that is representing all forms of amputee, a green turtle with crutches? A turtle saying, “That made me lose the will to go for sweets.” Wha?
Also, this is a picky point but I believe the majority of female wheelchair users are NOT spinal cord injuries. It irritates me when you always see the SCI guy who is saying, “Just watch what I can do!” I mean, first, in my experience, these guys have the same macho pre AB attitude, I haven’t found one yet who will talk about disability issues, indeed, I have had several say, “I’m not disabled!” and wheel away from me (and then go home in thier adapted cars). Well super. Show me the woman with Lupus or MS, wearing a cooling vest and spending more energy than Mr. Bungee cord because she is DETERMINED to weed her garden. That is my real experience talking to people in wheelchairs. I talked to about 6 guys; none of them would use the handidart system, it was independance, adapted vehicles or nothing. I went to an MS meeting - there were 3 vans full of handidarts bringing women to the meeting. There are guys out there who aren’t SCI who use wheelchairs, and there are guys who aren’t all “I’m not disabled” (though I asked several home care workers why I have and go to blogs of Chronic illness and there are zero to few guys there and they laughed and said, “Because they are guys! They don’t TALK. They don’t admit those things in public!”
So, that was my, er, extremely long review - great concept, I wanted a better execution - more women, more women in chairs, less SCI, more diversity, more showing people integrated into society.
Comment by elizabeth — November 24, 2007 @ 8:20 pm
Wow, that was a great comment, thanks for taking the time to write all that out.
And yeah, that turtle guy made me cringe. I think that was probably the worst one.
And actually, I have to admit that until you mentioned it, I had no idea creature discomforts was anything more than a strange trademark for that specific campaign (I mean, think about it, “creature discomforts” and disability, how coincidentally odd). I had no idea this was an established euh, line or franchise or whatever it is but then, this is outside of my habitual cultural references.
Anyway, I think this could have been interesting but unfortunately, they fell victim to all the usual clichés. And yeah, I agree, people with disabilities came off looking sad and isolated. Of course, some of us are sad and isolated but I do not think these ads were necessarily served by inordinately focusing on that.
As for gender, double yeah, there could have been more females. And actually, there could have been more types of disability. What about visual or auditory or cognitive impairments ?
And yeah, yeah, there are different attitudes between men and women wrt disability but I would add that my experience has been, beyond social conditioning, that a lot of this is influenced by when and how disability came along. Most men I have known who have been disabled from birth or early on tend to be less euh, macho about their situation and less prone to reject the disability identity.
So basically, a lot of “yeahs” to your comment that I really enjoyed :)
Comment by zara — November 24, 2007 @ 11:38 pm