Good riddance to the Labor Day telethon [View all]

[KamaAina]

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/good-riddance-to-the-labor-day-telethon-1.10797771

As a person with muscular dystrophy, I'm relieved to know that this will be the first Labor Day weekend of my adult life without a muscular dystrophy telethon....

I spent many past Labor Day weekends joining other people with disabilities in protesting the telethon. We objected to the telethon's damaging narrative that depicted disabled people as nothing more than helpless victims. It implied that as long as we remain disabled, we have nothing to offer or contribute -- that our only hope was a cure....

I found this message to be not only insulting but also destructive. By pandering to pity, the telethon nurtured the very stigma of helplessness in which disability discrimination is rooted. It undermined the hard work of disability rights activists who have fought for decades to debunk that oppressive stigma.

These activists correctly portray people with disabilities as a community engaged in a struggle for our civil and human rights. They put forth the message that disabled people have much to offer, and that it is everyone's responsibility to create a society that welcomes and accommodates us as we are.