Comments on: Blogging against disablism day http://radioclare.com/2008/05/blogging-against-disablism-day-2/ Stories & Musings From A Duck Enthusiast Whose Life Is Stranger Than Fiction Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:05:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Sara http://radioclare.com/2008/05/blogging-against-disablism-day-2/comment-page-1/#comment-135 Sara Sat, 03 May 2008 12:41:56 +0000 http://radioclare.com/2008/05/01/blogging-against-disablism-day-2/#comment-135 Oh, I'm so glad you're thinking about it, and that you told this story. As a one-legged person, I will attempt to set your mind a little at ease by saying this: It is NEVER wrong to offer help. What is wrong is to insist upon "helping," to ask when help is refused whether the prospective help-ee is "sure" s/he doesn't want the help, or to assume that because a person has one leg or some other noticeable potential difficulty that s/he cannot possibly do X, Y, or Z and *must* therefore be "helped." I've used a lot of cutesy punctuation to make my point, but I hope I am clear. Wanting to help is always good, but not assuming you know what another person requires is also good, and not taking a rejected offer to help personally is just more goodness. For a lengthy discussion on the difference between helping and objectifying someone, I too shall offer an old blog post for you to read: http://movingrightalong.typepad.com/moving_right_along/2006/03/object_lesson.html Oh, I’m so glad you’re thinking about it, and that you told this story. As a one-legged person, I will attempt to set your mind a little at ease by saying this: It is NEVER wrong to offer help. What is wrong is to insist upon “helping,” to ask when help is refused whether the prospective help-ee is “sure” s/he doesn’t want the help, or to assume that because a person has one leg or some other noticeable potential difficulty that s/he cannot possibly do X, Y, or Z and *must* therefore be “helped.”

I’ve used a lot of cutesy punctuation to make my point, but I hope I am clear. Wanting to help is always good, but not assuming you know what another person requires is also good, and not taking a rejected offer to help personally is just more goodness.

For a lengthy discussion on the difference between helping and objectifying someone, I too shall offer an old blog post for you to read:

http://movingrightalong.typepad.com/moving_right_along/2006/03/object_lesson.html

]]> By: Lady Bracknell's Editor http://radioclare.com/2008/05/blogging-against-disablism-day-2/comment-page-1/#comment-130 Lady Bracknell's Editor Fri, 02 May 2008 09:19:38 +0000 http://radioclare.com/2008/05/01/blogging-against-disablism-day-2/#comment-130 I picked up on the fact that disablism is often unintentional and unconscious in my 2006 BADD entry, which may be of interest: http://labracknell.blogspot.com/2006/04/badd-entry.html. (See, that now looks as though I'm being really arsey and getting on my high horse because I SAID IT FIRST, damn you! It honestly WASN'T meant in that way...) I laughed out loud about the bricklaying thing :-) I picked up on the fact that disablism is often unintentional and unconscious in my 2006 BADD entry, which may be of interest: http://labracknell.blogspot.com/2006/04/badd-entry.html.

(See, that now looks as though I’m being really arsey and getting on my high horse because I SAID IT FIRST, damn you! It honestly WASN’T meant in that way…)

I laughed out loud about the bricklaying thing :-)

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