By William G. Stothers
It makes my blood boil. My local newspaper again ignored the participation of local athletes with disabilities while listing the participants in a major regional marathon.
Should I have expected anything else? The paper virtually ignored the local participants in last year's Paralympic Games, even those several who won medals and set world records. The attitude in the paper's sports section is that coverage of athletes with disabilities belongs not in the sports section but in some other human interest department. By that they mean soft and fuzzy and paternalistic coverage that rejects the idea that sporting events involving athletes with disabilities is as competitive, tough and compelling as any other sports endeavor.
I single out the sports department here because it is the most recent example in my town of this kind of coverage -- or lack of coverage. But, in truth, all sections of my hometown newspaper and other media (such as TV) do a superb job of ignoring people with disabilities and the issues that affect and concern us. It is the same across this nation.
When have you seen realistic coverage of the political or cultural issues of our community? Have you noticed any coverage of Social Security Insurance, or of entrenched work disincentives, or of the shameful lack of accessible housing?
Other than gee-whiz stories about Christopher Reeve, have you noticed any coverage of writers or performers with disabilities?
I worked at my local newspaper, The San Diego Union, for 14 years, in a variety of editorial positions, every one of which I did well and enjoyed. But I failed miserably in establishing any kind of understanding of disability issues. Disability continues to be thought of (when it is thought about at all) as something affecting an individual, a negative departure from "normal" everyday life.
Many people told me they did not think of me as being disabled -- which of course meant just the opposite. Only by seeing me as a person with a significant disability could you say that you didn't think of me as being disabled. Non-disabled people don't often say that to each other.
Other than syrupy coverage of Special Olympics and poster people, the only time we seem to merit coverage is when we get mean and disruptive.
A prime example of that was the astounding national demonstration by people with disabilities demanding the signing of the crucial regulations supporting Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (See Remember 504 in this issue) Those demonstrations produced the longest-ever occupation of a federal building by anybody. And the regulations were signed.
Occupying federal government buildings, picketing and general in-your-face activity stirs the interest of the media in this country.
And since those 1977 sit-ins, people with disabilities have taken to the streets when all else has failed. ADAPT blocked buses in Denver to force the city to make public transportation accessible. ADAPT chased the national public transit association around the country for years, disrupting their annual conventions to break down the barrier to public transit nationally. Now ADAPT chases the powerful nursing home industry association around to force changes that will free people with disabilities to live at home with adequate support instead of being trapped in oppressive conditions in institutions.
And in the 1980s, students at Gallaudet University demonstrated and protested against appointment of another non-hearing impaired president at the university. They students prevailed when the newly appointed hearing president resigned and a deaf educator, I. King Jordan, was named president. He is the first deaf president of Gallaudet.
Most recently, people with disabilities who fear the implications of physician-assisted suicide are demonstrating from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to the front door of Dr. Jack Kevorkian against making assisted suicide legal in this country. Next month, don't be surprised to see demonstrators with disabilities disrupting the opening of the new memorial for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a memorial that refuses to admit a statue of our longest-serving president showing his disability.
We live in a time and place where creative theatrics and disruption, or the threat of disruption of the status quo, are essential to attracting media attention. Sound bites and visual images are the grist of the media mill.
As Bill Bolt and Cyndi Jones made clear in last month's issue of MAINSTREAM, equality and power will not be handed to us on a platter. There is no telethon for justice. People with disabilities will obtain equality through a million small (or great) struggles in every city and town in America. And maybe, just maybe, the media will show up.
William G. Stothers is editor of MAINSTREAM.
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