With the goal of changing the conversation around inclusivity, aging and accessibility,
every month we will present a fresh approach by bringing together leaders in the
community to talk about any and all subjects. This month, we paired author and ageism
activist Ashton Applewhite and social entrepreneur and disability activist
Grace
Stratton to explore the intersections between Ageism and Ableism.
Here’s what they
had to say:/p>
Ashton: The reason I started trying to walk the walk about the intersectionality
of
ageism and ableism is because the pandemic made it so obvious, instantly. The original
messaging was “Don’t worry, the virus will only affect the old and the ill,” which was a
huge factor behind the lax global response. I posted the thought experiment below on
my Facebook page because I wanted people to grasp the lethal, global consequences of
ageism and ableism, and the fact that these prejudices impact us all.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: What would the infection rate, the unemployment rate,
and the economy look like now if we’d known sooner that the young and healthy
were vulnerable, too? #ExposeAgeism #ExposeAbleism
Grace: There’s still that kind of misjudgement that “oh, it’s not gonna be me,
it’s gonna
be somebody else who may be old, already sick, or disabled - so I don’t need to worry”
A: The good news is that there’s enormous potential for our communities to come
together and challenge people’s thinking.
G: Yes. I think we tackle this prejudice by recentering the conversation, which
is
something that lots of activists have been doing. Stella Young famously said that,
“being disabled does not make you extraordinary, but questioning what you think about
it does.” The center of the conversation for disabled people has always been that it’s
their disability that is the barrier to whatever you want to enter. Whether it’s a job,
relationship, participation in sports and we need to recenter that conversation. To instead
say “disabilities don’t need to change but what needs to change are these outside
forces, these social structures that are plaguing the experience of being disabled.”
A: Exactly. The disability rights movement has brilliantly succeeded in shifting
the way
we see disability, from a personal misfortune to a shared political and structural problem:
the problem is not that I’m in a wheelchair, the problem is that there are steps between
me and where I want to go. Likewise, the problem is not that we get wrinkles, but that
we’re discriminated against because of it. I couldn’t agree more that we need to recenter
the conversation. Oldschool.info is doing this for ageism. It is a clearing house of free,
vetted anti-ageism resources and a campaigns section, which is growing fast. Antiageism
campaigns are being created around the world, with the first national one being
in Australia. So, it’s real and it’s growing fast.
G: Why do you think it’s taken longer for ageism to be illuminated in the minds
of
the public. Do you think it’s because unlike wheelchair use for example, which is not
experienced by everyone, age is a part of natural life experience that everybody’s going
to get to?
A: You would think that because age is the only prejudice that everyone
encounters,
ageism would be tackled sooner rather than later. I always point out that ageism is any
judgement on the basis of age, and that younger people experience a lot of it too. I’m
sure people diminish your experience and your voice all the time, because you’re young.
That’s ageism too. The fact that everyone experiences ageism can make it harder to
mobilize against. There’s no “out group” to compare yourself to. But everyone ages.
As to why ageism has taken so long to bleep onto the radar, I suspect it’s partly because
it’s taken this long for my generation – I was born in 1952, dead center of the baby
boom – to acknowledge that we’re going to get old, even though we’re healthier and
more active than our parents and grandparents were, there’s a lot more denial. People
think, “If I eat more kale and do Sudoku that bad stuff isn’t going to happen to me.”
We need to accept that we’re going to get old, and that much age-related change
enriches us. Think of the potential if we could acknowledge the ways that ageism and
ableism compound one another, they expose and confront the dual stigma. I’m especially
interested in how older people could learn about adjusting to diminished capacity. I think
it has enormous movement-building potential. There’s a lot of old people in the world.
G: I think people make the mistake of saying or thinking that disabled people are a
small
group in society and that’s certainly not true. And, of course, a large amount of people
will experience disability when they’re older, which is why it makes sense to bring them
on board in the movement now.
A: Most of them are terrified of that possibility, and that’s what we need to work
on.
G: And I think it’s about asking, “Why are you terrified of it? People say to me,
“You
are not defined by your disability,” because they associate disability with terrible
things. I associate my disability with a lot of my positive qualities – resilience, courage,
compassion. So, I think it’s about working to undo the misplaced fear and judgement of
disability
A: You can also work it from the other end: help older people to see that we age
well
not by avoiding disability, but by learning to accept it and ideally embrace it. To see it
not as shameful, but as a source of self-knowledge and identity, even pride. That’s a big
ask. It’s a work of a lifetime, and we have to embark on it in the community. I do think
COVID-19 has woken up some of the general public to the way both olders and disabled
people are marginalized, that the consequences can be lethal, and that we can support
each other. For example, all the adaptations for working from home that disabled people
have been asking for for decades, suddenly become possible once the health of the
general public was at risk. How do we make sure they don’t become “impossible”
again? How can we stand in solidarity? There is something powerful about the levelling.
A: Right. A very tangible analogy is curb cuts, which were mandated when the ADA
passed. Of course, everyone uses them, whether pushing a stroller or a delivery cart, or
riding a skateboard, and because they were universal, there was no stigma. The things
that make a community good to live in for olders and disabled people, are the same
things that make it good for families, kids, commuters, for everyone. And, of course,
families and communities include people of all ages and abilities. Framing it that way is
so important.
When I ask people to name their criteria for diversity, everyone says, “race, gender,
sexual orientation.” I think people say ‘disability’ more than they used to, but most
people still omit “age”. But when I ask, “how about age?” they’re like, “why didn’t I
think of that?”
So, in a sense, we’re on the vanguard of pushing for an awareness of how these two
forms of prejudice compound and reinforce each other, and how we can build on that
awareness to reduce fear and stigma and foster solidarity. Especially in the face of
COVID-19.
G: I’ll be honest, it does bother me sometimes when people say, “old people are
going
to experience disability and that’s what makes disability more relevant.”
A: Yes. Younger people don’t deserve to have to wait until they’re old to achieve
voice
and access.
G: Exactly, yeah. We are stronger by coming together.