What are the common mistakes non-disabled people make when they interact with people with disabilities?
Non-disabled people project all their fears about their own mortality onto the disabled people they interact with. To them, disabled people signify all that to label them as ‘poor things’. Once they codify them as that. They will think that it is enough if they have food to eat and a roof over their heads. What more do they need? They also don’t understand the need for us to do things by ourselves. People ask me: “Why can’t you stay quietly in one place?” “Why do you need to go yourself? Just send someone”. The signing of the recent UN Treaty on people with disabilities is in some sense a great victory. There are definitely achievements. There is much greater visibility. I was very impressed with the film Iqbal. Black and Taar Zameen Par. They had their problems, but even then they gave some more visibility. So hope is there. But the question is, where are we going from here? The Government report might say “number of ramps built in 2006” and give an impressive number. But try getting
