Ableism: “Disabled people do not exist in the middle of our society”

In the following text, the term “Ableism” used. Ableism describes the discrimination of people with disabilities through unequal treatment, crossing borders and stereotypical assignments. The term is derived from the English “ableism”, originated from “to be able” (= German. Able to be) and the ending –ism (= German: ismus). “Ableism” should be reminiscent of the English term “racism” (= German racism).

I will be 30 years old in a few months. I live in a big city with almost two million people. I am traveling a lot. I can count the moments in which I have had contact with disabled people on one hand. How can that be?

“People with disabilities do not take place in the middle of our society,” says Laura Gehlhaar. She is an author and consultant and has been in a wheelchair since she was 23 years old. When Laura advises companies, she often hears that disabled people simply wouldn’t apply. In private life, many say they would like to have contact, but in everyday life they never see people with disabilities. When I explain to her that I feel the same way, she is not very surprised. Laura did not know a disabled person herself until she was around 30 years old: “I was the only person with a visible handicap in my daycare center, at school and in my circle of friends”. On the why Laura has a clear answer today: “Disabled people are structurally excluded. This exclusion occurs due to the lack of accessibility in all areas of life,” she explains. And she knows what she’s talking about.

When Laura’s muscle weakness makes itself felt in high school and she is bullied by other children, her teachers advise switching to a special school – “a school where I would have been among my own kind.” The bullied is unceremoniously declared a problem that is best solved by sending it away. But Laura stays where she is – and holds out until graduation. After graduating from high school, she would like to become an actress, but at that time there is no drama school in Germany that is barrier-free. When she was in a counseling session at the employment office with the desire to study psychology, she was advised to start training as an office clerk. “How do you want to help other people when you need help yourself?” – a question that stunned. When Laura tells her story today, she can laugh about it. Probably also because she was not deterred at the time and still studied psychology and social pedagogy in the Netherlands.

People with disabilities cannot choose freely

Laura now lives with her husband in Berlin and is committed to accessibility and the inclusion of disabled people. I wonder: Can it really be that bad for accessibility in our capital? Laura laughs. It recently took her several weeks to find a gynecological practice that is wheelchair accessible. And that is exactly their point: people with disabilities cannot choose freely, they have to take what they can get. “If I go to the theater and my husband has to sit two rows in front of me because no seat was planned next to the disabled space, that’s not inclusion.” When she complains to the organizer, she is told that she should be glad that she is even allowed to go to the theater.

A distinction is made between Laura, who sits in a wheelchair, and the others, the supposedly “normal”, who can choose any available seat in the theater and any medical practice in Berlin. People with disabilities are tolerated in our society, but they are not taken into our midst – statements such as those of the organizer show that. Laura explains that it is difficult for disabled people to step out of this role and raise their own voice. “We are taught by society, and sometimes also by our parents, to be quiet, quiet, grateful and humble.”

Laura does not suffer from her disability

The fact that these attributions so persistently shape the social image of people with disabilities can also be explained by the way in which they are discussed in public – rarely with them. “The media treat the issue of disabilities very one-sided,” explains Laura. Disabled people are portrayed either as heroes who are “brave” and “inspirational”, or their disability is portrayed as great suffering. What Laura makes clear, however, is that she does not suffer from her disability, she perceives it as something natural that is completely normal in a diverse society. “Of course I also know people who basically find their disabilities shit and suffer from it, but it cannot be that this is the only picture of disabled people because it is simply not the reality of most people’s lives.”

Advertising campaigns also repeatedly use disability as a horror scenario. The Federal Ministry of Transport is currently promoting more safety with motorway posters showing physically disabled people. A man in a wheelchair with the words “Because the other one had a beer” above. A man with a prosthetic arm, above the words “Because the other was briefly distracted”. The statement: don’t drive so fast or you could end up like these disabled people. Disability is used as a symbol of horror, regardless of who it affects. “That happens when you deny people with disabilities access to the job market,” says Laura soberly. She sounds like she’s been upset about the subject too often. “It is this deeply ingrained thinking that disability must be something terrible.” This is how all the judgments about her life that would just be made come about. “And then it’s my responsibility to fight it and that sucks.”

The fact that Laura finds clear words today when she speaks about Ableism is also due to the exchange with other affected people. Only after her studies, when she was already living and working in Berlin, did she consciously start looking for people who also have disabilities. In contact with them, Laura learned to recognize and verbalize discrimination and ableism. “These injustices that I felt at the time and experienced every day – and still experience – suddenly there were words and categories for them. That liberated and relieved me incredibly, because suddenly I had tools in hand to do something about it . ”

Less ableism due to changed laws?

Laura learned then that her handicap is not hers alone. “It also belongs to all those who help create it,” she says. These are the young people who bullied her, this is the career advisor who suggested training to be an office clerk. “It does a lot to your self-esteem when you understand that your disability has to do with your surroundings and with the outside perception of you.”

During the conversation with Laura I always have inhibitions about asking certain questions or using terms and I get insecure – I treat them differently than my usual interviewees. “Is my insecurity discriminatory?” I ask. “I think it is justified and also good,” says Laura. “Your insecurity means that work has already taken place. It means that people with disabilities raised their voices and said: ‘It just doesn’t work that way anymore.’ Breaking up old images – this shifts the imbalance at least a little. But Laura doesn’t go far enough, she wants to change the laws towards mandatory accessibility in the private sector. “Then we would take place in society, then the uncertainty would also decrease.” Laura could then use the local public transport in Berlin without restrictions, she could choose which doctor’s practice she goes to or in which café she eats a piece of cake. Their disability would be normal in a diverse society – and nothing less is their goal.

See in the video: Mathias Mester is a top athlete and track and field athlete. At the Paralympic Games in Beijing, he took silver in the shot put. In his #Voxstimme he advocates more togetherness and humanity.