Comments on: Working for disabled people, humiliating?

By: Along the Spectrum » Leading by Example

Along the Spectrum » Leading by Example — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:30:32 +0000

[…] Harriet McBryde Johnson is a lawyer, activist, and writer. She’s been mentioned in several other blogs recently, but when I read them, I failed to dig deep enough to get to know much about her. While I was not able to attend the public speech she gave last week in the area, an article in the Hartford Courant provided some insight to the person she is and the message she delivered last Monday. She is living her life in a way that leads by example. […]

By: Ettina

Ettina — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:36:13 +0000

“I went and read the original David Berreby post, and I really shouldn’t have. I should be used to it, but this is the kind of thing that makes me feel like someone’s slowly abrading away at my sense of self-worth with sandpaper. I have frequently had to struggle with guilt for receiving, not even assistance with daily living, but academic assistance from the university I’ve been attending. Because, after all, aren’t I merely eating up people’s resources and wasting their time? What good is it to expend the effort on me unless I can perform at the level of, say, Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking? If I produce nothing of world-changing brilliance, what is the point of pouring the time and energy into me? Those are the questions I go at myself with when I’m in a very decompensated mood and finding it hard to stand myself.”
I can relate. Three possible things can occur when I read something like that. Firstly, I might be able to reply in some manner and let it go (even if no one else reads the reply). This is the best thing. Secondly, I might get angry and start obsessing on it and be unable to let it go, possibly to the point of disrupting my sleep and certainly upsetting myself.
Thirdly, I could react by feeling helpless and hopeless because I mentally rebel but can’t get clear to myself how to argue against it and my attempts feel futile, sometimes because I’m questioning whether I really am a worthless excuse for a person. This last one I perceive as similar to the feeling you expressed (if it isn’t, let me know).

By: Alison Cummins

Alison Cummins — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:49:06 +0000

Wow. David Berreby’s projections are just so far from my experience. Like, the opposite.

I worked many years as an attendant for the physically handicapped. It was a great thing for me for many reasons. One of the most important was the aspect of working as a team. My brain didn’t work as well as I’d have liked – depression, executive dysfunction – but my physical function was just fine, thank you. I worked for handicapped people whose minds generally worked quite well, but who couldn’t walk or eat or get dressed for work without someone giving them a hand. Together we had a blast. I loved the work, most of the time; it kept me going through tough times; it kept me in good physical condition.

Now that I’m on meds that help my brain work more the way I want it to, I work in an office manipulating numbers on a computer. I’m physically out of shape, much more socially isolated, and often wonder whether what I’m doing is actually of any use. But I’m getting paid much, much more than I used to. I wouldn’t describe it as a blast though.

The experience of the people I worked for was not that they were drains on society, but that they had an important function integrating the marginal. Their employees were students, gay, coke addicts, new immigrants, depressives, PLWAs and people with ADD. Sometimes many of the above. (At one point they considered hiring a man who had recenly completed a term for murder.) By employing these people, integrating them into their lives, they gave stability and contact to people who might have had trouble finding these things otherwise.

My employers didn’t go out of their way to hire the marginal; not at all. They would often have preferred to have employees who required less management. But the people who apply for this kind of low-paid work are not people who have easy access to better paid work. So by default, giving stability and contact to the marginal became my employers’ contribution to society.

I can’t speak for Carmen, but if I hadn’t worked as an attendant I might have been… lying in bed at home wondering how to get up and walk the dog. Working as an attendant took nothing away from me but gave me a great deal.

By: Ettina

Ettina — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 02:23:00 +0000

Like saying “you did that well for a girl” isn’t much better than “no wonder you did that poorly, you’re a girl”. Yet people who don’t understand sexism often are surprised when the receiver of the statement “you did well for a girl” are offended. They say it’s a “compliment”.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:13:00 +0000

Errrrr… mixed feelings about that article.

“Wow I’m thankful I’m not like you” is something I hope none of my staff take away from their job.

Characterizing people with that particular list of difficulties as “unable to live on their own” is also misleading and typical of the group home industry. It’s likely I’m less able to do a lot of those things than they are, but I live on my own, it’s a matter of how the support is given.

I’m glad she likes her clients, and that they’re happy, but going the other way with the “wow this person is heroic just to be disabled” angle isn’t much better than the “pitiful” angle. In fact, it’s a variation on the pity thing, just more complex.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:30:00 +0000

For a different perspective, you might enjoy reading this article from today’s Globe and Mail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060406.FACTS06/TPStory/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:06:00 +0000

I went and read the original David Berreby post, and I really shouldn’t have. I should be used to it, but this is the kind of thing that makes me feel like someone’s slowly abrading away at my sense of self-worth with sandpaper. I have frequently had to struggle with guilt for receiving, not even assistance with daily living, but academic assistance from the university I’ve been attending. Because, after all, aren’t I merely eating up people’s resources and wasting their time? What good is it to expend the effort on me unless I can perform at the level of, say, Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking? If I produce nothing of world-changing brilliance, what is the point of pouring the time and energy into me? Those are the questions I go at myself with when I’m in a very decompensated mood and finding it hard to stand myself. And I’m sure I know what someone like Berreby would say to that: “Yes, it is a waste of their time and resources. Go and find a way to make yourself indistinguishable from the non-autistic people around you, because it’s not fair to them.”

Julian^Amorpha

By: Estee Klar

Estee Klar — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 12:05:00 +0000

Everytime I have an assumption of what Adam might do in his life, I always remember that the beauty of life lies in the unexpected.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:43:00 +0000

And being nearly any kind of nurse (one psych nurse told me a lot of psych nurses go into the field because it’s “the bucks without the bedpans”, so clearly not all nurses have to do these things regularly) means doing similar work for people who are only temporarily incapacitated, and I don’t see anyone regarding that as humiliating work either.

By: Kristina Chew

Kristina Chew — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:37:00 +0000

Being outside and doing physical work is something I can see Charlie doing (that's me making an assumption, but based on observations). I put up a post at Autism Vox on a Dept. of Labor study on this topic, It's all about our attitude.