Sir, When reading David Aaronovitch’s astute article (“Yes, but can we really imagine what it’s like? Aug 30), I was in the ironic and familiar situation of dealing with society’s phenomenal capacity for ignorance where disability is concerned. Sat on a packed plane, we waited at Pisa Airport in scorching August heat for an engineer to fix the plane’s radio. Despite arriving at the airport 4 hours before our flight, our party was split up; thanks to two kind passengers, my husband and I were able to sit with our non verbal autistic 5 year old son. The waiting was frustrating and annoying for everybody although none of us know what it was like for our mentally disabled son. For the young man sat immediately in front of our son, the random, autistic noises and occasional pushing of his seat gave rise to much tutting and glaring at my husband. When I asked the man’s partner if they would like to swap places with my teenage step children seated elsewhere “as they are used to our non verbal autistic son”, the response was, “it depends where they are sitting”. At least his partner managed to look embarrassed and say thank you when she accepted my offer but as our eyes met in that exchange I am not altogether sure which of us felt more sorry for the other.
Education needs to play a large part in changing the prevailing attitude in society of “we’re all right, Jack, disability doesn’t impact on our family”. It is disappointing, albeit predictable, that disability sorts friends into those worth keeping and those who run for the hills; are they worried disability is contagious? What is more disheartening than the above examples of prejudice is where the head teacher of a mainstream school acts as if “mainstream inclusion for all” is something that applies to other schools. Maybe the inclusion of special needs children “adversely” impacts on a school’s performance in OFSTED inspections and its position in league tables. It is all very well paying lip-service to special needs education, using the current terminology in school policies in order to impress OFSTED, the LEA and Church Council but it is completely unacceptable and nothing more than immoral to indirectly exclude and discriminate against a vulnerable child. It adds insult to injury if the school is a church school. And, it is illegal. In an ideal world, there would be no need to legislate to protect the rights of disabled people; however, our world is so far removed from perfect that disability discrimination legislation has not only to exist but be enforced. To our surprise, this discrimination has happened to our son in the last academic year.
The Paralympians do, indeed, provide magnificent, although very unusual, examples of what the human spirit can achieve in the face of adversity. Thankfully, our son’s new head teacher has said there is no harm believing in miracles. As a starter for society and at the beginning of the new school year, in order to begin to understand the day to day lives of disabled people, I would suggest the paraphrased mantra from the world of autism: “Disability is not the tragedy, ignorance is the tragedy”.
