November 28, 2023
- Listen to the audio version of this message (https://bit.ly/47xMJFB)
Theo Braddy – A Black man with a bald head, a salt and pepper full beard wearing eyeglasses, sitting in a wheelchair. Theo smiles toward the camera during a 2023 speaking event.
This is Theo Braddy, the Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living, bringing you another message. This one I am calling “A Bright Sunny Day”.
It was a bright, sunny day! I always look forward to bright, sunny days.
As many of you know, I am a C-4 quadriplegic, and like most quadriplegics, we love to feel the sun on our faces. Our faces are not adversely affected by the spinal cord injury, and the sun feels wonderful on it.
So, on this bright sunny day, I was coming out of Kmart and decided to sit and sun gaze as I do so often. Right outside Kmart, I stopped momentarily, looking up at the sun.
Out the corner of my eye, I noticed a lady in her 40s with a little boy, probably 6 or 7 years old. They were about 50 yards away from me. I wouldn’t have given it another thought, but I noticed the youngster pointing at me and saying something to who I assumed was his mother.
As I wondered what was being said, I noticed the lady giving him something and then telling him something while they both looked at me.
Suddenly, the young kid started to walk toward me, skipping and smiling. He skipped and smiled all the way to me.
As he got closer, I realized what was happening, so I prepared myself to receive it well. He walked up to me and handed me a dollar bill. I quickly thanked him but told him to tell his mom it was not needed and gave it back. He ran off as quickly as he came. I promptly decided to do my sun gazing in another location.
This is a real-life example of ableism. It comes from a long history of misguided information, misbeliefs, and myths about people with all types of disabilities. It is very often learned from movies and television but more often passed down from generation to generation. It is learned thinking and behavior.
In my real-life story, this mother taught her son to pity people with disabilities by giving them a handout or, a better way of saying it, charity.
People with disabilities are often viewed as objects of charity throughout history, as seen on the old Jerry Lewis Telethons.
Think back and recall these telethons. Remember how Jerry wheeled out the cute, little, adorable kids in the oversized wheelchairs? It made you feel so sorrowful, and you felt pity for them, being thankful that your kids were healthy and so grateful that you reached for your checkbook and gave generously, just like Jerry asked. You see, Jerry knew how to pull your purse strings. He, too, was teaching us to be ableists. At its heart, ableism is rooted in the assumption that disabled people require fixing or are objects of charity.
Viewing people with disabilities as objects of charity has been around for a long time. Many say it is connected to an old law passed by King Henry VII, who stated that disabled veterans after the war were allowed to take to the streets with their “cap in hand,” begging for coins. Hence, the word ‘handicapped’.
People with disabilities, therefore, became known as ‘handicapped.’ This is one reason why ‘handicapped people’ are viewed as objects of charity and are an example of how ableist ideas get passed down from one generation to the next.
Ableism must end. It is the one thing that affects all facets of life for people living with disabilities. When people without disabilities continue to view people with disabilities as less valuable to society, we will continue to be discriminated against in employment, education, housing, transportation, healthcare, and all other essential services that are granted to people without disabilities.
When ableism ends, and I hope it will one day, the sun starts to shine again, and as I sit with the sun shining on my face, with the little kid skipping towards me, we can just have a great conversation on a sunny day.
Theo Braddy
Executive Director
National Council on Independent Living
About NCIL
NCIL is the longest-running national cross-disability grassroots organization, driven by and dedicated to people with disabilities. Since its founding in 1982, NCIL has represented thousands of organizations and individuals, advocating tirelessly for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities across the United States.