Knowledge about the disability
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One of the most important things for the seminar participants which is also most dominant in the descriptions of their daily life is how other people view them and their disability. For young disabled people, it means an awful lot how they are being met by their surroundings. Unfortunately, the participants often experience that they are being met with prejudices in the society surrounding them, e.g. by people talking about them in the third person and not directly to them, and that people speak to them in a condescending way. Especially mentally disabled young people or young people with developmental coordination disorder sometimes experience that some grown-ups patronise them. It is a general tendency that the young people have tried being judged on the basis of their disability, only:
“People may think that just because something's wrong with the legs, then they think that something's wrong in the head somewhere as well.”
Another type of reaction from surroundings may be fear of involvement. The participants relate experiences where people are afraid to approach them or ask about the disability - and several have experienced that people look away. But as one of the young people puts it: “It's better to be looked at than to be overlooked”. A crystal clear message from the participants is the following: see us as human beings and not as the disabled. Basically, the participants are convinced that fear of involvement and prejudices are, most of all, a result of lack of knowledge and understanding of what it means to have a disability. Generally, the young people call for the dissemination of more information and knowledge about what it means to have a disability:
“It's not at all because people are mean, I think. But it's just this thing about lack of knowledge. It's just the most important thing. At any rate, it's the basic issue of the problems that I encounter.”
The statements of the participants point out the following perspectives:
Generally, more information and debate about what it means to have a disability, perhaps in campaign form.
Young disabled people should go to schools, upper secondary boarding schools, high schools, etc. and talk about what it means to live with a disability.
Disability should be a theme included in all relevant educations: secondary and upper secondary school, teachers colleges, schools of social work, health educations, architectural schools and a number of other institutions for further studies.
