This is one of those questions that everyone answers so quickly but never really a truly takes the time to contemplate it. Most people would say they would like to see some changes in the roles of government, in education, or even in our environment. All of those are important, but how can anyone decide? Every human would boil it down to this main thought: What is it that I (or my loved ones) need now…
After some careful thinking and searching my own heart what I would love to see in the future is a place where every person is invited to the table with respect and dignity. As a person with a disability, this is where I, as well as many of my friends, struggle. We get left behind and then told we aren’t. Sometimes, even by agencies and systems that were and are created for us.
A classic example is the public bathrooms. It makes me laugh that we once had to advocate for something basic like a bathroom that was functional to us. So they built in good faith and said, Now you’re welcome to use our facilities, except that they forgot a thing or two or six. lol One being that Wheelchair designs have changed, but the bathroom has not. Getting to that “coveted” stall is often too narrow and filled with broken up flooring (which could cause someone to flip or pop a tire), and the biggest one that was NEVER discussed was whether there is space for two to three people to help said individual be able to use the restroom? Society would have been better equipped if they talked to the disabled community regularly about ideas and building codes, etc. But we don’t get brought to “that table.“
But it’s more than that, as someone who not only lives in the disability sector, I work in it as well. Here is what I see: we (the individuals) are looked down on as “these poor pitiable people,” and they need “Angels” known as Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), but yet those said angels are often forgotten about in their own agencies/ companies. voices barely heard and not taken seriously. Society and our government focus on certain things to make DSPs look like they are celebrated and respected, but don’t really do anything to follow through with it. If more DSPs were truly able to come to the table and discuss what they feel they need, what would our future look like then? What would the workforce look like? What would our country look like? And what would the world look like? ( I do believe that someday this will happen, but it won’t be in my time.)
It’s a movement for change that affects everyone and everything. And it’s not as easy as saying, “Come sit at the big kids’ table.” It’s more like having a space where anyone can come, while the tables and chairs adapt around those who sit at/in them. Grow WITH them, listen to them, and then adapt WITH them.
My desire, hope, and dream for the future is that the next generations will one day look at the “systems” that we have now and say, “I’m so glad we are no longer like that. And that People that have taught me and become my friends and allies will fill the history books with the same dignity that all positive world changers earn and deserve.
(not my picture, please see the Disabled by Society for further explanation on the picture)
The Girl Who Couldn't Fit into A Box 