Begin education with me please.
I suspect my position is not acceptable: though it seems very logical to me. I promise that I am not trying to be goady. My DD(12) is under assessment for aspergers/high functioning ASD and I suspect that were the same diagnostic criteria used when I was a child I'd be on the spectrum...as it is I'm just a scientist with low emotional intelligence.
Right: my position (which is based on what I was taught in the 80s I guess). People with a disability are firstly people and secondly a person with a disability. It is morally and legally appropriate that modifications are provided to (for want of a abetter word) counteract the disability as much as possible to allow the person to do whatever they would choose to do if they did not have a disability, but people should all be treated equally beyond that. yep
Thus, on the thread with the Dad with the child with a disability: my expectation would be that the employer would provide shorter hours or flexible working as necessary, the workmate would cut some slack if they were friends, but the Father himself should still do good quality work for the time that he is in the office/fulfil whatever contract has been agreed with management and workmates should not be disadvantaged. Is this disablist? no - the objections to the thread were based on the OP making massive assumptions with very little facts and blaming a carer for problems in the workplace when actually it was poor management. The OP didn't know what had and hadn't been agreed and the workload issues were down to management not assessing the impact of adjustments made in the rest of the team or monitoring a discipline issue as appropriate. In summary they were blaming the parent of a disabled child for something that should be sorted via and by management, does that clarify?
Or: at a music festival: 3 toilet cubicles in a portacabin, one accessible cabin standing alone. 20 people queueing. My position would be that everyone without a disability queues together but the accessible cubicle still gets used if it's available when someone gets to the front. If someone who specifically needs the accessible cubicle comes along they go straight up to it rather than joining the combined queue. Is this disablist?
yes and no - in theory this is a reasonable principle, in practice you always get those who will not let the disabled person 'queue jump' - having personally encountered this selfishness makes me more inclined to believe the one disabled cubicle should be used only by disabled people to preserve the dignity of those with urge continence issues. I'd far rather preserve dignity as its one really big issue when you have physical disability and the able bodied loo users have many more cubicles than one
ASD generally seems to be so different between people it's really difficult to make accommodation without asking for lots of information on the individual up-front. Is making presumption based on generalities in the absence of individual knowledge disablist? For example: I run a Brownie unit and we have had girls with ASD in the group. Each one is different but based on our experience there are a couple of things which all have had in common: if I tell a new parent that we have a quiet box in the kitchen away from the group or that we provide a coloured card for the girl to show to their nominated leader when they want to withdraw rather than having to put their hand up or make a scene, rather than just asking what they want initially...is this disablist ? no that's reasonable adjustment. One thing I would say though is rather than telling a parent what you offer it may be better to have a meeting with the leaders and discuss what adjustments would help the individual child. Some ASD adjustments trigger my DD. My eldest and youngest children both attend the most wonderful inclusive scout group and they are all about the individual rather than use a one size fits all approach according to disability
I would like to be a useful advocate. My DH used to be a care worker for young adults with a genetic disorder linked to a variety of traits/behaviours and disabilities. Overtly disabled language is banned in our house. I'm not convinced we're as informed as we should be.