Disability culture is something you are a part of — not something that is happening to you
CBC
This column is an opinion by John Loeppky, a disabled artist and freelance writer/editor in Saskatoon. It's part of a series called Taking a Sitting Stand about disability issues. You can see more of the series here.
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As a child, I was often ashamed of my disability.
I fell into the "bitter cripple" stereotype. I didn't want to be around people with intellectual disabilities because I thought I would be more independent if I ran away from the community rather than toward it.
I shunned disability culture.
Fast forward 15 years, and I was performing in a theatre show with Listen to Dis' Community Arts Organization, Saskatchewan's only disability-led disability arts non-profit. (It's an organization that I worked for and now consult with.)
We were already on stage. Then, the door behind me opened. A group from a local disability support organization had arrived late. In many performance spaces, this wouldn't fly – a metaphorical record scratch.
Not so here. I snuck my hand behind my back and waved them in. They sauntered through the stage area, and we carried on.
Later in the show, two of my castmates made a loud noise and I fell down. It was scripted – imitating what happens when I spasm as someone who has cerebral palsy. On this particular day, one of the audience members in the front row spasmed, too. The two of us shared a knowing nod, I made a joke, and we, again, carried on. It's an example of how accessibility can be built into art in the same way relaxed performances or surtitling are.
This experience exemplified what disability culture is to me: moments of validation and connection that allow us to see our identities not just in medical terms, not in terms of what society says we're lacking, but as a kinship built on shared lived experiences.
WATCH | Why John Loeppky wants you to see disability as a culture (ASL version below):
For disabled people, many of those shared lived experiences are frustrating, like the fact that Ontario's flagship accessibility legislation is still falling short nearly 20 years after it was passed; that disabled women are significantly at risk of intimate partner violence; or the multiple barriers to disabled people entering the medical field.
But disability as a culture is much more than shared trauma. It's the "shared community knowledge, traditions and art of the disability community" – or at least that's how I defined it for The Canadian Encyclopedia. It encompasses matters of identity, like how to understand yourself as disabled; how to build community; and how we recognize disability, like celebrating Disability Pride Month each July.
While his party has made a cause célèbre out of its battle with the Speaker, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has periodically waxed poetic about the House of Commons — suggesting that its green upholstery is meant to symbolize the fields of the English countryside where commoners met centuries ago before the signing of the Magna Carta.