Hearing the wrong voices

The current welfare reform activity means that disabled people are as much as in the news as we've ever been but where, asks Tara Flood, are our actual voices in all this coverage

I was listening to an interview on the radio the other day – it was part of the ongoing debate about cuts to disability related benefits and featured the CEO of a large disability charity.

I couldn’t help but think why we still had to have a non-disabled person speaking on our behalf. Surely there are lots of disabled people who are more than up to doing this kind of thing – I could name a few of those people without giving much thought to it!

So what’s going on? Is it that the media remain too scared to speak to disabled people, or is it that the big charities are still keen to keep the limelight for themselves whilst promoting their “cool calm and collected” approach to our issues! Either way, our voices are silenced in one of the most important debates of our time.

The entire framework of services and benefits that support our lives are in danger of being dismantled.

Meanwhile a “cool calm collected” approach is hugely misrepresenting how terrified, angry and attacked we as disabled people are feeling about the Government’s slash & burn approach to disability benefits and services.

Where are all these big charity people when disabled people are protesting in their local communities? They are certainly not out on the streets where their support is needed – no – they are on the television and radio saying “how concerned disabled people are” – the understatement of the decade!!

This misrepresentation has got to stop. The big disability charities have got to recognise that when it comes to being an ally – actions speak louder than words.

When was the last time you saw a man speaking on behalf of a women’s rights group or a white person speaking for BAME communities? It just doesn’t happen anymore and it must not happen anymore for disabled people.

An inevitable consequence of non-disabled people continuing to speak about our lives and our “concerns” is that the media are let off the hook. Our invisibility in debates about our lives also means that Joe and Jane Public continue to believe that disabled people can’t speak up for ourselves.

How many times do disabled people have to shout “Nothing About Us Without Us” for the big charities to get the message? It could not be more clear, if the big charities want to be our allies they must stop speaking on our behalf.