International Day of Persons with Disabilities
December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I want to position myself in this conversation. I hold a variety of privilege. I’m white, I’m middle class, I work full time, I am able bodied. However, I am also a lesbian and a woman and for those I do not hold privilege. For those of us who hold privilege in our societies, we must speak up about differences especially for those communities that are disregarded and almost invisible.
I first became aware of the issues of people with disabilities when I was caring for my mother who had ALS. Walking with her in her wheelchair around the neighborhood showed me the struggles people who use wheelchairs face every day. I have been to trainings on this subject and have educated myself as often as possible. I always learn something new every time. Our language has not really caught up with the diversity of human experiences and thus I will need to use the term person with a disability for this discussion. To put this all in perspective: 20% of all Americans live with at least one disability, 35% of working age people with disabilities are employed and 15% of people worldwide live a disability. The country of India recognizes 21 types of disability from blindness to Parkinson’s disease. The US recognizes 14 types of disability and uses broader categories than India, such as multiple disabilities to speech and language impairment.
Join me in a thought experiment now. Imagine a world where all the surfaces humans move upon are smooth and wide. Imagine that all doors have buttons to push or could work with voice recognition to open and were maintained constantly. Imagine all surfaces where people interact are at different heights to accommodate all heights of people with and without a disability. Imagine all public places have plenty of room for wheelchairs. Imagine that every movie, every TV show, every performance, every talk, every event had deaf translators or were captioned. Imagine sign language being taught at every college and high school along with other languages. Imagine every child having to learn at least some sign language. Imagine screen readers are ubiquitous and everywhere, all menus, signs, traffic indicators, documents, books, magazines, smart phones, computers are accessible or in braille. Imagine that invisible disabilities are found early and often and always included in planning events, spaces and in the media. Imagine people with autism or down syndrome feeling proud and confident in their lives. Imagine there is such a thing as disability clothing and fashion. Imagine that media of all types shows human diversity in all its forms often and truthfully, that people with disabilities are seen regularly living their lives in every day situations, falling in love, having sex, working, playing, parenting, growing. Imagine highly education helpers available to anyone with a disability that needed assistance, but only if requested. Imagine that all this is done by people with disabilities, who know what they need and could design it.
Imagine all religious facilities are welcoming and accessible to all abilities. Imagine our pagan circles and theologies include people with disabilities clearly and beautifully. Imagine people without disabilities have a responsibility to be present and understanding of people with disabilities. Imagine the intersection of racial identity, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin and disability being celebrated all year long as another flowering of human diversity.
All human lives are sacred to our Gods and Goddesses, no matter what shape, skin color, ability or any other identity. In the ancient Greek world, we find some Goddesses and Gods with disabilities but they would need to be reclaimed for modern interpretations. However, Larunda, the mute one and Tacita, the silent one as well as Tiresias, the blind, and Hephaestus, the one with deformed feet could all be reclaimed in our traditions to give people with disabilities the experience of seeing themselves in the divine. What if we saw Apollo traversing the sky in a wheelchair instead of a chariot? Or we called the wheelchair a chariot? What if Persephone was blind and could only smell the flowers and plants and needed help navigating her way in and out of the underworld? Oizys is the ancient Greek Goddess of anxiety, grief and depression. The Irish Goddess of the River Boyne lost an eye and an arm. In my teaching of Feminist Theology, I’ve used a text that is titled Broken Body, Virtual Body that explores Goddess feminism and cyberfeminists and how each could be expanded to incorporate “broken bodies” and how we could see the celebration of earthly, embodied womanhood expanded to include audacious, hybridized, erotic bodies: bodies without ovaries, transgender bodies, bodies with painful or sterile wombs. There is much work to do to include disability awareness in our pagan theologies with modern interpretations. Let’s begin.
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