B.Read and predict the sequence of the sentences from the speech. Then listen to the lecture and write the correct numbers (2-5) next to each sentence.
C.Listen again and fill in the notes.
Script
I grew up in a very small rural town in Victoria. I had a very normal, low-key kind of upbringing. I went to school, I hung out with my friends, and I fought with my younger sisters. It was all very normal. When I was 15, a member of my local community approached my parents and wanted to nominate me for a community achievement award, and my parents said, “Hmm... That’s really nice, but there’s kind of one glaring problem with that. She hasn’t actually achieved anything.” (Laughter) And they were right, you know. I wasn’t doing anything that was out of the ordinary at all. I wasn’t doing anything that could be considered an achievement if you took disability out of the equation.
Years later, I was on my second teaching round in a Melbourne high school, and I was about 20 minutes into a year 11 legal studies class when this boy put up his hand and said, “Hey, Miss, when are you going to start doing your speech?” And I said, “What speech?” You know, I’d been talking to them about a certain law for a good 20 minutes. And he said, “You know, like, your motivational speaking. You know, when people in wheelchairs come to school, they usually say, like, inspirational stuff?” (Laughter)
And that’s when it dawned on me: This kid had only ever experienced disabled people as objects of inspiration. And it’s not his fault. I mean, for lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We are there to inspire. And in fact, I am sitting on this stage looking like I do in this wheelchair, and you are probably kind of expecting me to inspire you. Right? (Laughter)
You may have seen posts or images featuring disabled people and slogans like “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” Or “Your excuse is invalid.” And these images objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people. So, in this case, we’re objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. The purpose of these images is to inspire and motivate you so that you can look at them and think, “Well, however bad my life is, it could be worse. I could be that person.”
But what if you are that person? I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I’m brave or inspirational. They were just kind of congratulating me for managing to get up in the morning and remember my own name. (Laughter) It is objectifying. Those images objectify disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people.
And life as a disabled person is actually somewhat difficult. We do overcome some things. But the things that we’re overcoming are not the things that you think they are. They are not things to do with our bodies. I use the term “disabled people” quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what’s called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.
I really want to live in a world where disability is not the exception but the norm. I want to live in a world where we value genuine achievement for disabled people, and I want to live in a world where a kid in year 11 in a Melbourne high school is not one bit surprised that his new teacher is a wheelchair user. Disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.