Just Because You See People Like us, Don’t Immediately Assume The Basic Obvious 

Last month in September a charity came under scrutiny over a photo collage that it used as part of a campaign it was launching. Now even the charity itself came under fire for what it did the concept, in my perspective, was quite an honourable one. The basics of it was to try and educate people from making assumptions about people with disabilities based on first appearances. Now as someone who lives with a Learning Disability I totally agree with the general gist of the idea.

Now just in case you are at odds with what the advert was about it was based on the negative connotations and the typical scenario thinking behind them. I’ll give you a quick example of some of the things I have experienced just to give you an idea of the sort of thing I’m on about. I myself am Autistic, and as an individual on the Autistic Spectrum a lot of people have frequently gone by the belief that we simply can’t cope with sudden changes in routine, don’t like crowds or noisy places and prefer to be left to our own company. Or be it limited.

Well first of all I will tell you exactly what I strongly believe is incorrect about all of that. First of all, I don’t mind noisy crowded places, it’s only when I need to think I’ll go somewhere quieter. I work in a profession where the working landscape can change at any given moment and I actually like those sort of challenges and welcome them. For me, it’s because I get to challenge my limits so I know what needs work and what doesn’t. Occasionally I’ll even change my own routine if I’m bored senseless by it. Where company is concerned I’m all for it, I even enjoy working with my colleagues as I’ve had moments where I’ve had to work alone, and I’ll be straight up about it; I didn’t like it at all. My reasons, I found it lonely, isolating and occasionally depressing.

The basic assumption i got, and quite often was, ‘we know you better than you do’. Basically I’ve had superiors who, for whatever reasons, believed that they knew more about my disability than I did. Like the advertisement, I had to challenge this head on, quite a bit. 

Let me give you another example of an assumption I had thrown at me, and this was one that I had when I was around pre-school/play group years. Also it was one that I had absolutely no idea had even been made and only learnt about it many years later.

Basically when I was a very small child and somewhere into being diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum, my parents were told by a Specialist Doctor (or someone) that I would never be able to read, write or talk properly. In other words I would grow up going through life not being able to do an awful lot for myself and that I practically be dependent on others for life no doubt. Now you can imagine what that must’ve been like for my parents to have been told that, and for me to learn that many years later.

Absolutely shocking.

Basically, due to a serious lack of knowledge and understanding I had been completely written off for the rest of my life before I had even begun it. All because of an ‘assumption’ which was fuelled by negative connotations 

I can recall a situation from my time at college which actually supports this. When I was doing an art course in the early 00’s a female student joined after a few weeks. We were informed in advance that she was hard of hearing. Now because of her problems we altered our verbal communication aka opening our mouths more when we spoke to her and slowed our speech a little.

Now there’s a moment I can remember clearly, and I have mentioned this in past columns I think. Me and a couple of my course mates happened to be having a conversation and our new course mate became subject of the talk. Another girl who happened to be something of a big gob openly made snide comments saying it probably wouldn’t matter if we slagged her (the heard of hearing girl) off as she’s deaf and wouldn’t hear it. As with all clichés the very same girl walked up behind her and I clearly recall saying how she wasn’t deaf but rather just hard of hearing before pointing out that she was in fact right behind her. I then pointed her out.

Little Miss Big Mouth went red with embarrassment. Oh how I giggled at the girl’s stupidity and all because she assumed the girl was completely deaf.

If you were to ask my advice I’d happily say this; don’t underestimate my intelligence and capabilities, I can do more than you think. Next time you see a deaf person, talk to their face, not the translator. Just because someone’s blind don’t go thinking they can’t move around independently.