MNHQ .. Can we talk about disability bashing?

[Brownsugarshortbread]

Over the years i have posted on and enjoyed MN.
Sadly there seems to be a growing culture of it being okay to have a go at disabilities, those who claim DLA and those who's children have 'invisable' disabilities such as ADHD and ADD.
The terms 'freak' and 'scrounger' have been batted around and comments from some posters IMO certainly boarder on harrassment and discrimination.

When certain posts or posters have been reported, some have been removed, yet a lot haven't.

And while I agree with free speech, these types of comment or reaction to these comments, are not an education for those bigoted posters. Nor do those whose lives are touched by disability wish to be used to educate those posters.

Disability Harassment

is unwanted behaviour based on disability,
impairment or additional need. Such behaviour may include comments that are patronising or objectionable to the recipient or which creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for people with disabilities. Disability harassment includes inappropriate reference to disability, unwelcome discussion of the impact of disability, refusal to work with and exclusion of people with disabilities from social events or meetings.

I agree, I think it is good to air this debate. Because if kids in school pick up from mum's usage that the words "retard" or "mong" or "spaz" are ok, they'll use them to abuse the not-so-clever or disabled kid in class. And mum may or may not be using those words ironically or something, but kids don't get that nuance. If you've ever seen a group of teens standing around taunting a helpless autistic or otherwise disabled kid with the word "retard", you'd never use it again. It is an ugly word and leads to ugly behaviour.

mary I agree that in that context the word should say, peachy used it to explain the abuse her child faces, so it is part of the back story so valid.
if the poster who used the s word in her thread title had said "my dh has just been rude to me" and then in her post said the s word, it would have held more validity, and not been so offensive as it would be a more omg I am shocked post iynwim.
but if someone is just trolling or making disablist comments, or using these words as insults they should be gone, if they are used in a thread title the thread should be deleted and the op emailed and told why, giving them the chance to start again without the word.

but do you know something MN HQ won't even come back on this thread so nothing will change

Great list, Justa.

Oneminute
Yes, you are right. My parents would have pulled me up for using those words back in the 70s. They were never acceptable.

"I agreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

In the correct context, ie Peachy's thread, yes. I think they need to stay.

Where as a thread in Relationships that might say 'DP says I catch like a spaz' needs to be dealt with by MNHQ.

trouble is a lot of people with cp don't have a voice or realise that people calling them spaz is a piss take, we have ot defend them(I have one of those)

I agree that Justa's list is very good.

I work as an adviser on disability and the Equality Act. Purely for information for this debate, the general advice I give to organisations is this: With the new Equality Act, the Government guidances gives useful examples throughout. website owners have legal responsibility for the actions and inactions of their staff, volunteers, and other service users for anything that creates a hostile or intimidating environment for people with a protected status (including ostracism). There is also the potential for bystanders to claim compensation if they are appalled by watching a disabled person being humiliated and a team doing nothing to stop it.

Max court award now standing at £750,000 if it affects someone's employment. Average court award £30k. Not small sums of money. It pays any and all website owners. small business owners, large corporates, service providers generally etc to review their terms very carefully, and make sure their staff are trained effectively on how to spot intimidating situations and act swiftly to resolve them.

On a personal note, having been called all sorts of names over the years for daring to exist and try to communicate with others whilst autistic, I'd be happy to see the word 'r***' erased from the dictionary altogether. Good to see that President Obama is backing the campaign to have the word removed from statute in the USA.

I didn't know that about Obama backing the campaign against "retard", Amber, that has made my day! American so-called comedy films fling that word around all the time. Obama is a big supporter of autism causes too!

amberlight, would you be able to advise how breaches of the Act can be reported?

:) have caught up again.

Thank you Amber for posting that. It makes thing very clear.

I like this list justa :)

and thank you to everyone for keeping this going, to those who have read and posted.

I knew about the passer by being offended bit with racism, I didn't know it stood generally with all things covered by the equality act.
Nor about being inactive!

So MNHQ won't come back to this thread. ?

Wonder if the words ' I may look into taking legal action then', will that shift a few bums over to the thread?
May work better than asking nicely.

I would also look into legal action, BSS. Hence why I asked Amber how to report breaches of the Act

I'd also like to see mnhq take a stronger stance on this. Mn has become so big recently I think some of the self regulation doesn't work so well anymore.

wow obama has just gone up in my estimation

Agree Ninja

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/1229411-BORN-TO-BE-DIFFERENT-is-back-on
if youw ant to see the response people get when they object look an the post below fanjo's

Shoesy - what did you expect? I'm not at all surprised that a poster made a snide comment about it being a freakshow, her post has now been deleted BTW.

I always say that people who have no SN children, or no SN themselves, no physical issues, mental health worries etc, they are the people who need to spend a day in our shoes.

Ignorance is bliss...... isn't it?

I honestly had no idea 'm**g' was anything to do with special needs Not that its a word Ive used for at least 15 years anyway, but it wsa always used in the 'stoned' sense. You learn something new everyday

I agree with the OP, something needs to be done to protect the dignity of those affected by SN. It is not appropriate to be sexist or racist and these sorts of posts would be dealt with swiftly and efficiently by MNHQ, so why not apply the same rules to those who are abusive to people with SN. Great topic BSSB.

Amberlight if we remove the word from the dictionary we won't be able to refer to certain technical/engineering situations. It has other meanings you know.

do you really think that the freakshow poster was saying the kids in that show were freaks, though? she palpably wasn't. john merrick was in a freakshow, he was much-disfigured and suffered terribly, but saying he was in a freakshow (a fact) does not mean that you are calling him a freak.
that poster, as utterly odd as she is, was making a statement in support of disabled children, against The Wrong Show. she was jumped all over, and she should have backed down. she didn't, so fuck 'er. but i think MNHQ should not have given in to mob rule and deleted that comment, i really don't.

i mean if 'freak show' is banned under the new regime i am out of here, i really am. and i broadly support the moves you want to make.

Aitch at the time it was deleted it wasnt at all clear that the poster hadnt meant it as an insult.

I read that post over and over and it really did come across as some hit and run troll shouting abuse. Of course the poster came back and denied it and although I belived her she refused to accept that her post was poorly worded.

So if the context had been clear from the beginning I dont think it should have been deleted but, as it was , it caused a great deal of upset so was probably wise to do so.

I tend to agree with aitch about the 'freak show' post. And I'm really not sure that MNHQ would treat 'my dh says I catch like a s' differently from 'So and so called me a pki'. I think in both cases they would start by making the point that the word was quoted not used; and then that they would delete just if the volume of complaints made that a politic thing for them to do.