Learning about Disability Awareness from Activist Amanda Carter-Philpott

On the 10th of July, I attended a disability awareness event held by Women's Equality Party with guest speaker Amanda Carter-Philpott, who is a disability activist and social worker. This was a highly informative discussion and seminar that explained the principles of disability awareness, models of disability, basics of ableism, unconscious bias, gaslighting and intersectionality. Amanda elaborated on a lot of these concepts, but what I most interesting was her perception of what accessibility in the public sphere means. Typically accessibility is regarded by physical access to public buildings and locations with drop curves, ability to use the bathroom, ramps or elevators. However, in her experience as an individual in a wheelchair, barriers to access also greatly depend on attitude and the climate it creates. Whereby, discriminatory atmospheres and feelings of unwelcome cultivate a sense of inaccessibility to the building or location for persons with a disability. This also implies that the presence of any physical measures to supposedly facilitate entry is a superficial ticking of required boxes, rather than a sincere attempt to promote equality and fair opportunity.

Amanda also shared a lot of her own personal challenges with ableism, in particular people making assumptions of incapability and in her instance it was the notion that individuals with disabilities shouldn't have children. It appears that the nature of underestimating persons with a disability is systemic in society and contributes to the feeling of exclusion and questioning of self that the community often suffers from. I found Amanda to be truly moving in her talk and quite positive, especially in her suggestions that individuals with disabilities build confidence to seek solutions and turn the challenges into perks, rather than viewing them as obstacles. Amanda ended the discussion powerfully, with the principle that we should educate each other in awareness as a two way process and not be defensive in asking questions or answering them because mistakes are inevitable, it is accounting for them and understanding them that is important.