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Bites: March and April 2002

News

President says year looks exciting

Making significant practical progress on disability issues in 2002 is a 'potentially exciting prospect', DPA president, Bill Wrightson says. Bill says DPA's financial position has continued to improve, there has been an upsurge in new members and the organisation is well positioned to focus advocacy activities while taking advantage of potentially exciting opportunities.

Much of that progress has been due to chief executive, Gary Williams, and team, while an outstanding contribution from former vicepresident and NEC member, Lorna Sullivan couldn't go unacknowledged, especially for her work on strategic planning and DPA's new consulting arm, MAXEQ. New vice-president, Marion Wellington, is also an invaluable support for the encouragement she is able to offer, Bill says.

With our focus for 2002 on translating the NZ Disability Strategy into measurable guarantees for disabled people, positioning ourselves with a public profile for the general election and increasing our membership, particularly a youth component, we have a very important year ahead of us. The NEC (some pictured below) met in Wellington on Saturday 2 March 2002.

New three year plan

Our Vision up for revision

DPA's national executive committee has asked the chief executive to set down a proposed plan of action for DPA over the next three years. Members will have the chance to see that plan later.

DPA's mandate for the 1999 election. Our Vision, will be re-visited for the upcoming 2002 general election in November this year. A draft vision will shortly be sent to DPA regional assemblies for comment. After that consultation process the new vision will go back for adoption by DPA and be circulated in June.

Disability study wins award

A project on identity and disability won a University of Victoria Women's Studies 2001 Rosemary Seymour Maori Award for NEC member Huhana Hickey, announced in January. The judges said that of the two Maori entries, they considered that Susan (Huhana) Hickey's project on identity and disability was the stronger and better documented of the two applications.

OBITUARY — Agnes Sneddon

It is with great sadness that we record the death of NEC member Agnes Sneddon of Auckland who unexpectedly passed away during January 2002 after a spell in hospital.

Agnes became involved in DPA about five years ago and in her words 'took to it like a duck to water'. A vibrant, busy person, Agnes (of Ngati Kuri and Ngapuhi descent) loved life and fun. She first became involved in the disability community at Auckland University, then DINS (Disability Information North Shore) and DPA North Shore, after a spinal injury. Agnes made many friends in the disability community and was elected to DPA's national executive committee in 1999.

She became a member of the reference group advising the Ministry of Education on physical disability, was a member of the Maori DEAS (Disability Empowerment Advocacy Support) group for South and Central Auckland and was a member of DPA's Maori Advisory Group.

Only 'fortysomething', separated, and mother of two teenage boys, Agnes was determined to be in control of her life despite the spinal problem, diabetes, asthma, and chronic fibromyalgia. While her two children were her priority, Agnes wanted to make a contribution to the lives of other people with a disability, she found she thoroughly enjoyed her involvement in the disability community and was half-way through her second term on the NEC. We will miss you Agnes.

We Can — Can't We?

Christchurch DPA member Allison Franklin gives her view of terminology and the social model of disability.

The debate over the 'social model of disability' remit at the 2001 DPA National AGM was reported in DPA Bites (Dec 2001/Jan 2002) as being lost 'amid some uncertainty and confusion about what the social model of disability actually means'. As the person who led the debate against the remit, I can give a categorical assurance that I was not the least bit uncertain or confused about this model. As a former sociology student, I have never had difficulty understanding it, I just happen to disagree with it!

For the benefit of members who have joined DPA in the past few years, DPA was formed in 1983, seeded by money from the 1981 IYDP (International Year of Disabled Persons) Telethon Trust, and drawing together organisations such as the Co-ordinating Council for the Handicapped and New Zealand's affiliate of Rehabilitation International. The term 'Disabled Persons' originated from the United Nations, probably from American influence. It was quickly realised here that this term is not natural speech for New Zealanders (eg, we don't say '55 persons attended the AGM'). The term 'people with disabilities', contrary to Sara Georgeson's claim in the last DPA Bites was NOT developed by nondisabled people, but was a conscious decision on the part of members of DPA and those of us actively involved in Disability Awareness programmes (predominantly in schools) to ensure that the concept that we are people who happen to have disabilities, was accepted.

I was very annoyed to find when the Disability Strategy was launched that 'disabled people' had been chosen as the term used there, and even angrier when told (by an NEC member) that DPA had supported this. When did the membership give a mandate for this philosophical change? The explanation that society had now 'accepted' disabled people was naive in the extreme. Society (of which we are all a part) is constantly changing and evolving. People die, young people come up through the education system, immigrants come to live here. If we stop our disability awareness and positive promotion of disability issues, attitudes will slide back to the 'bad old days' of patronising pity.

The final 'nail in the coffin' for me was the remit proposing that this terminology be adopted for DPA documents. Yes, I got 'emotive' all right, witnessing an attempt to destroy two decades of work (by myself and many other people) in trying to ensure people with disabilities were seen as equal, participating members of society! It is not the role of DPA, or its members, to re-define the English language! I have cerebral palsy…that is my disability. It is a fact of life and something I accept and make the best of. I don't blame society for my lack of oxygen at birth and I deplore the mentality that does. This leftist nonsense wants to make us victims and tells us that everything is beyond our control. It is, I believe, dangerous and dis-empowering. DPA, at a national level seems, in recent years to have become increasingly 'political'. Whilst I acknowledge we have valid role in 'disability politics', I am concerned that our organisation is straying from its 'apolitical' stance in terms of party politics. This is dangerous for two reasons. Firstly because DPA must always be able to work credibly with whichever party is in Government at any time, and secondly because the members of DPA cover the political spectrum, and there is a risk of losing members and weakening the input from people with disabilities from all 'walks of life'.

I do not 'celebrate' my disability because given the choice, I could do without it (unfortunately it didn't come with a sale or return voucher!). I feel sorry for people who say they can't see the person before the disability and (any) discrimination they may encounter. They fail to see the true reasons to celebrate who we are as people. As well as people with disabilities we are family members, friends, lovers, people with senses of humour, each with our own personalities. Now THAT is worth celebrating! Suggesting that we should 'celebrate our disabilities' to me infers that we are setting ourselves up as being somehow superior to people who haven't got disabilities. This is ridiculous and will not enhance our efforts to be accepted as equal members of society.

I challenge the NEC to conduct a referendum in conjunction with the next NEC postal ballot to see which of the terms — 'disabled people', 'people with impairments' (most people have those whether they identify as disabled or not… I'm still waiting to meet a Perfect Person!) or 'people with disabilities' are acceptable to the wider membership. A full explanation of both philosophical stances would need to be included. I consider an AGM in Dunedin (with all due respect to Dunedin!) where a minority of the membership were in attendance to be an inappropriate forum to deal with such a vital issue.

In the mid-1980s DPA adopted the motto 'We Can'. It was chosen to show that collectively as people with disabilities we can make a difference, we can live fulfilled lives, we can achieve what we wish to (within the realms that all people, disabled or not, have to accept). DPA was founded on positivity, not self-pity and powerlessness. Let's reclaim our organisation and put it back on a positive path. I'm sure We Can!

Allison Franklin served on the regional executive of DPA Christchurch and Districts from 1985 to 1992, and on the National Executive Committee from 1987 to 1993, the final year as Vice- President. From 1997 to 2000 she was employed as Secretary for DPA Christchurch and Districts and now works as Consumer Advisor, for LifeLinks, an agency that provides needs assessment and service co-ordination for people with disabilities in Canterbury, South Canterbury and the West Coast. (Photo: Geoff Sloan, Christchurch Star)

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