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Show 373 "We will know when people with disability have become part of society when the president appoints someone with a disability to a White House staff job or Cabinet position that has nothing to do with disability..." Julia has come into my room and is reading over my shoulder. She is smiling agreeably at the thought of having a secretary ofthe interior who is deaf or maybe another president who uses a wheelchair and would not feel the need to hide the fact. "We will know when people with disability have become part of society when television ceases to portray people with disability as caricatures, alternately angelic or demonic. Disability is not synonymous with inspiration, neither should it bring to mind the phrase 'out to get the system.'" Julia is telling me about a program with a character who uses one forearm crutch. It is not understood why she uses this crutch. I cannot bear to watch medically-themed television but I am impressed, nevertheless, that there are two barriers broken by this character - she is both female and has an obvious, yet unimportant to her job, disability. "We will know people with disability have become part of society when businesses realize that we spend money." Not that we have much to spend, as a rule. Though we do eat at the very least. But, generally speaking, we are a poor bunch. What a paradox, I am thinking - so many of us once forced "on |
