LEST THEY (AND WE) FORGET

’m writing this in the throes of

Disability Pride Month (yes, I had no idea that July was Disability Pride Month either and wouldn’t have known without social media) and I have heard many people - disabled and non-disabled - ask, “what is there to be proud of?” Well, if I highlighted all the reasons why we should be proud of being disabled this article would become a book (publishers, take note) so I thought I’d focus on a couple of things that I think all disabled people should be proud of. In the news over the last few weeks, there has been story after story telling the public of the nightmares faced by many disabled people when flying. Big-name disabled celebs have been trapped on planes for hours; we’ve seen wheelchair users crawl through an airport trying to reclaim their chair; wheelchairs costing thousands of pounds being smashed, and the tragic death of someone classed as a PRM (person of reduced mobility) in an airport after he became separated from the assistance. The media has jumped on these stories as if this is something new faced by disabled people. I first flew in 1986, for a lads’ holiday to Ibiza. I arrived and found myself trapped on the plane while baggage tried to find my wheelchair. When I was taken off in the very uncomfortable aisle chair - that is still the type in use today - I found my wheelchair had been snapped in two during the flight. Luckily, my mate Trev spent a few days wandering the streets of Ibiza town searching for someone who could help. He found a Scottish bloke who had a motorbike repair shop and soon my folding wheelchair was welded solid. I spent the next two weeks having a great time, but I could feel the concern over the flight home rising in my heart. I can still see the baggage handlers out of the aeroplane window, jumping on my chair trying to fold it to put in the hold. On arrival, I was left without a functioning chair for six weeks. Ever since, I would say that out of every three flights, one would end in either a broken chair, being left on the plane for so long I was there when boarding for the next flight began, or both. I know so many disabled people with the same story. Yet it seems like the media wants to treat this as a new thing, not something endemic in the air industry. As disabled people, we have become used to our experiences being ignored or twisted to suit whatever the government or media see as the current big story. We have just got on with living, fighting for it to get better but still trying to live as best as we can. In lockdown, we saw so many non-disabled people crumble at being made to stay at home, but many disabled people face this exclusion and isolation on a daily basis. Again, they have found ways of getting on with life, despite the stress on their physical and mental health. For many of us, it’s so much part of our lives we almost forget that this isn’t normal. Most non-disabled people don’t live this way and can’t even imagine someone else might. We fight for change while knowing we will have to make do with a substandard quality of life, all due to the rubbish provisions we face around accessibility. We’ve also been written out of history, both recent and the kind taught in schools. I watch the media pat itself on the back for increasing its disability representation while forgetting that it started this journey in the 1970s. If they had really been committed to change, they would be far further forward now. However, if it acknowledged things like the Disability Programmes Unit at the BBC and the fact that there were senior disabled people making TV shows in the 80s and 90s, let alone the army of forgotten on-screen talent, it would also have to face how little it has really done. There are as many disabled people on screen today as there were when I started on TV in 1989.

This goes for older history, too. So many historic figures were disabled, but do our history books tell us of this? No, although there is a growing number of disabled historians reclaiming our history. You’d think from the way history is discussed that there were no disabled people at all. We’ve been erased from the past. Are our kids even taught about the recent struggle for disability rights? Or asked what being disabled actually means? Many disabled people don’t even know our history. Yet again, we go on living, fighting to enjoy our day-to-day lives.

Just these two reasons alone prove to me that we are amazing. We have qualities and strengths that many non-disabled people could only dream of. I really feel we have so much to be proud of. It’s one of the things I think all disabled people share: we have proved we are strong, resilient and adaptable. We’re great!