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A Legacy to Stand On?

Posted: 23/10/2012 01:00

OK so we have hosed ourselves down, celebrated Jonnie Peacock, Ellie Simmonds and so very many more. But beyond our fading emotions, stirred in a way not one of us ever anticipated, what's left?

For myself, and I guess many others, I do consider disability differently, visible disability for sure. I'm not so sure anything has advanced with regard to the less visibly disabled people amongst us.

I was on my way to get my bike out at work the other day and found myself crossing the road with a man on crutches; he seemed to have a disability in both legs. I deliberately spoke to him, and asked him if he had noticed any change. He told me he had detected some small acknowledgements, he felt slightly less "invisible" he said, but "nothing revolutionary". Then of course I realised I had only spoken to him about disability, not about anything else.

Going round a castle in Spain last week I found myself lifting a Swedish tourist in her wheelchair down a deep step. Yes I think I made more of an effort than I might have done. But it is a pale beginning.

All this week with A legacy to stand on?, Channel 4 News is pursuing the elusive legacy of Paralympic joy.

Watch the video promo on YouTube:


Katie Razzall has been in Belfast looking at the powerful video diary of a man who has suffered severe victimisation due to his disability. This, on the eve of the day, five years ago, that Fiona Pilkington killed herself and her disabled daughter Francesca. They had suffered years of abuse and torment around their home in Leicestershire. There is a report coming out from the Equality and Human Rights Commission that criticises police failings in handling cases of disability hate crime.

For months now we have been tracking the difficulties that disabled people have with travelling in our No Go Britain series of reports. On Tuesday, C4 Paralympics Presenter Sophie Morgan films in Gatwick Airport which claims to be very disability friendly. This as the Muscular Dystrophy Society releases new figures on some of the difficulties disabled passengers have suffered when travelling by plane.

Then what about these fabulous state-of-the-art prosthetics that we saw being used to such effect in the Paralympics? On Wednesday we report the contrasting very limited choice of limbs that are on offer to most disabled people.

On Thursday, Keme Nzerem reports on how some of ParalympicsGB's stars are now anxiously awaiting the outcome of their disability living allowances assessments.

And finally on Friday, we will see Katie Razzall back with reaction to Monday's hate crime report - what does her film and the reaction to it, tell us about attitudes to disability? Undoubtedly, people with disabilities have more opportunity now - many more have personal and professional lives uninhibited by their impairments than ever before. And the Paralympics showed us a high-performance snapshot of the way medicine and technology have changed lives.

Those inspirationally uplifting Games finished just six weeks ago. They cast unprecedented light on a world of which of many of know nothing. The Games awoke us. This week on Channel 4 News we hope you will not only still be awake, but both watching, and listening.

Read more on Snowblog.

 

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12:21 PM on 10/28/2012
The irony is that a change of way of looking at diasability would also require a detached way of looking at issues. Are disabled people and their supporters, if I may use that term, willing to do this ?
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12:13 PM on 10/28/2012
The olympics and paralympics were circuses, as in "Bread and circuses"; an obscene extravagance of mis-spent money, self-promotion and aggrandisement.

So it took a circus for people to reassess negative/distorted views of disability? Then I would suggest this is symptomatic of an intellectual disability.
01:09 AM on 10/28/2012
Yes,Hi John i'm quite a fan!,i suffer from chronic recurrent depression,and without wanting to take anything away from people who clearly have a physically disabling disease or condition.However i have been hospitalised several times after suicide attempts,and during the years have met some really genuinely lovely people-patients-but the trouble is you can't see it,even a lot of people who self harm by cutting for example,feel shame and cover them.I don't know how society deals with this,but when i had to give up work several years ago,i understand my illness far better now,but back then some people would almost comment like "oh you don't look too bad today",and in my head i was virtually zombified,anxious,agitated but because i tried to save my career i suppose i put a mask on to a degree.But even afterwards people and i understand i can't just look at someone and say,poor man looks like his schizophrenia symptoms are bad,its just people with mental health problems we seem to be on the bottom of the pile,in funding,you hear all about Cancer,Heart Disease,Diabetes and yet i know its regards to the US,but in Andrew Solomon's brilliant book The Noonday Demon,he says that Depression at least kills more people than these all put together,this country just doesn't get it.However a good coverage and debates on CH4 regarding disability in general.
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09:16 PM on 10/23/2012
Jon, you met a friend of mine who works for BT who was a torch bearer.
He was delighted to meet you and said the whole paralympic event was amazing.

Thanks for your involvement in the events. You clearly went above and beyond.
02:12 PM on 10/23/2012
Did the Paralympics usher in a new dawn for the way we view the disabled? A more important question: Did it usher in a new dawn for the way they view themselves? There are lots of fairly normal things I cannot do, or can't do as well as lots of others, yet I do not view myself as disabled. In the stories of many paralympians there was a determined self-definition – wresting control of one’s identity from the judgment of others – that appeals to me on an intuitive level. Regardless, I struggle not to see disability when I see somebody without a leg or their sight.

Thanks for airing this issue. The problem of self-defiition strikes me as extending far beyond these athletes. I blogged on this elsewhere (http://www.humanicontrarian.com/2012/09/12/where-is-developments-dawn/) because it seems like a question for our times. Are countries like Sudan and Congo disabled because the people there can't do the same things as people in the UK or New Zealand? Or are they even more disabled because they believe that this lack -- of HDTV, schools and healthy children -- means they themselves are disabled?
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Felicity A Morse
04:33 PM on 10/23/2012
What an interesting perspective
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Sorab Shroff
01:47 PM on 10/23/2012
What a great, relevant blog post - can't wait to watch the reports on C4 news.