News #3

How attitudes to disabilities have changed



On the programme there were two journalists - Peter White who was born blind and Melanie Reid who got paralysed after a horse riding accident. They were exchanging views on the treatment of disabled people in Britain. Peter points out that for him it is different because he was born this way. Hence, he would like to be treated normally, without compassion, however nice it might be. Melanie’s view is different: she didn’t feel good when a family pushed in front of her at the entrance of the plane. They also consider some aspects of language drawing our attention to the fact that while being more politically correct we often talk nonsense.

From my observations, I must admit that I agree both with Peter and Melanie. On the one hand disabled people sometimes are very demanding, on the other they do need our assistance. Many of them will never be as fast, as clever, as fit as we are. However, it’s extremely thoughtless to give them all a label “weaker”.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05dp9h9#play