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Home / Thoughts / Sean's Thoughts / Apology gladly accepted

Apology gladly accepted

Written by Sean on Wednesday, May 3, 2006

As you may have read, I wrote a post for the BADD event, which included a refusal to include my post on a "blogroll" where BADD started in the first place. After posting my write-up, I then sent the link to the "Goldfish" (the owner of the blog that started it all). She sent a very nice response, in fact, and I gladly accept her apology.

This is in continuation of my BADD entry.

In fact, I’m not unhappy, I think perhaps another person with a "genuine" disability has come to understand the transabled thing a bit better, and that can only be good.

Here’s what she says, I’ll comment afterwards:

I am sorry that you felt patronised. I am certainly *deeply* ignorant about transabled people and BIID, which is why I used phrases like "presumably" and "as I understand it"; I have had a hectic and difficult weekend and had to make a decision based on what I could gleam from a short vist to your site and talking to friends. I was reluctant to exclude anyone, but I genuinely thought you were coming from an opposing viewpoint, especially as you clearly anticipated refusal.

As far as I am concerned, you are a disabled person, because however a person might explain your experience as whether it is a psychiatric condition or a genuine discrepancy between your "paraplegic mind" and non-impaired body, you are undoubtedly disabled by a society which is going to struggle to understand such impairments. This is how both myself the two friends I spoke to felt about it. That apart from the daily difficulties inherent in being a wheelchair-user (for any reason).

However, obviously, we also got the impression (probably from a combination of certain words, phrases and ideas on your site and our own prejudices) that differential treatement seemed to be a big part of the picture, which from what you say, it clearly isn’t.

I have read your BADD contribution and what you have written has enlightened me, so I have now added it to the blogroll on the main Blogging Against Disablism Day post and will mention it in the write-up when all the posts are in.

I hope you will fogive this misunderstanding; in other circumstances I would have given much more time to this, but I am working with very limited resources just now

Thanks,

You did indeed use those cautionary phrases/wording, which is why I discussed a misunderstanding. I can only begin to imagine how much work and energy went into getting BADD going, and I thank you for that effort. I’m glad we’ve clarified that I wasn’t offering/coming from an opposing viewpoint :)

I anticipated a refusal, simply because I’ve mostly been refused access to anything to do with the disability because of me being transabled. If you haven’t read it yet, you may look at my Open Letter, which was turned down by a big disability rag, just one more refusal to add to the list. Sadly, once you get so many refusals, you come to expect them. Which isn’t fair on the next person, and for that I apologise, but "Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide". You may have gathered that I’ve been actively involved in the disability rights community, but next to no one knows that I am transabled. I hate the lies involved, but very few are ready to accept, much less welcome this strange beast that this transabled person is.

I’m glad to hear that you consider transability as a disability. Even happier that you see the two levels of it, both experiencing it from a mental health point of view, and having the experience as a wheelchair user. I’m sure that the ADA never intended inclusion of people who are transabled, but I believe it protects three "levels" of people: 1- Those who have a disability, 2- Those who have a history of having a disability and 3- Those who are perceived as having a disability.

This means that even without a physical disability, the discrimination I encounter as a wheelchair user is just as real, because people *think* I’m physically disabled. So yeah, I/we get that side of the "experience" just as any person with a mobility impairment gets, just because of the hardware I/we use.

And it could easily be argued that we also get the emotional side, as there is something we so desperately want/need that we can’t get, whereas a lot of people with disabilities.

I must admit that differential treatment is, probably for most of us, at *some* point, a part of it. I don’t think it’s the main point of it, not by far. I would also like to draw attention to the difference between those who are "simply" pretenders, and those who are transabled. I’m not passing judgement against pretenders, don’t get me wrong. But there are those who just use a chair for the "fun" of it (and don’t want/need the impairment), and I suspect the different treatment aspect is of utmost importance to them. Whereas those of us who do want/need the impairment feel this way whether or not we use a chair, and the different treatment.

I noticed the link to my blog on your site. Thank you very much for adding it. I am looking forward to your write-up.

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