The sympathy vote

When the majority of one's closest friends happen to be disabled, one can sometimes lose touch with the dubious opinions about disability held by the majority of temporarily non-disabled people.

This thread on the BBC's Points of View messageboard has served as something of a wake up call to Lady Bracknell. (Readers who keep up with the Ouch messageboards may recall a similar opening post from the same gentleman who, unfortunately, can neither spell the word "strictly", nor articulate his point with any degree of clarity.)

The burden of the original poster's song appears to be a wish that a programme should be made in which the professional dancers from Strictly (or, as he would have it, "Stricky") Come Dancing teach disabled people how to dance. On the Ouch board, his suggestion was met mainly with confusion, as respondents were unable to unravel his actual intent. By the time his message was somewhat clarified, the thread had died of inanition.

Over on the Points of View board, however, its sister thread is still going strong. Amongst a welter of messages which, in a circumlocutary manner, effectively say, "Oh, God, no! You have got to be kidding! That would really put me off my tea!", message 24 stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to being particularly ignorant and offensive.


"People less-able have my sympathy ALWAYS but to suggest that those in wheelchairs could provide even minority "entertainment" is absolutely ludicrous."

Firstly, Lady Bracknell does not appreciate Croydon George's implication that the fact that she is disabled makes her universally "less-able" than her non-disabled counterparts. Admittedly, if the concept of being "able" were to be predicated solely on a capacity to dance, she would be somewhere near the back of the queue. But she is willing to wager that she is far more able in certain other areas than the man from Croydon.

Secondly, Lady Bracknell neither merits nor welcomes sympathy* from non-disabled people. In fact, far from welcoming it, she has a tendency to respond in an uncharacteristically (cough) tetchy manner when it is proffered. Any person attempting - even metaphorically - to pat Lady Bracknell on the head does so at his or her own risk. Why should impairment automatically provoke sympathy? Lady Bracknell's own life is immeasurably richer since she acquired her impairment, and she can cite without difficulty innumerable disabled friends and acquaintances who would say the same thing.

Thirdly, perhaps before making sweeping statements like, "It is complete nonsense to suggest that dancing in wheelchairs is viable in any way", Croydon George might wish to familiarise himself with the work of the Candoco dance company, or the blogosphere's very own aptly-named Wheelchair Dancer.

* Lady Bracknell is reminded of an anecdote relayed to the editor by her friend Pop. After spending an entire morning training trade union officers on the differences between the medical and social models of disability, Pop was approached by one of the officers who confided the following to him:

"The social model is good, isn't it? It's more ... sympathetic.".

Presumably the abrasions on Pop's forehead were the result of him banging his head against the wall in frustration...