Just Don't Choose The Psychopath
When Phil Friend was three years old he was diagnosed with polio and spent two months in an iron lung. On the walls of his hospital ward were the letters of the alphabet. A mirror attached to the metal contraption that was keeping him alive gave him a back-to-front view out of a window. He could see steam trains crossing a viaduct and, gradually, he came to mark time based on the frequency of trains crossing the bridge. To this day he's passionate about steam trains and he can still recite the alphabet backwards.
Phil, who is now chairman of the disability rights group came to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland this morning to talk to us about issues surrounding disablity and the portrayal of them on television and radio.
"I am a wheelchair user, " he began "but I'm also a bloke and a Father. I'm also a Chelsea supporter which is a worse disability than the polio that put me in a wheelchair."
For two hours Phil spoke to us in a chatty, conversational style which never felt like a lecture. He reminded us that some famous figures from history would now qualify as disabled under current legislation.
"Churchill had bi-polar disorder, Roosevelt had polio...and Hitler and Stalin were both psychopaths."
He suggested that we had a duty to recruit disabled people for the contribution they could make...but a responsibility to avoid the psychopaths.
The most telling moment came when Phil asked us to imagine a world where wheelchair users were in the majority and tall, standing people were regarded as abnormal. Buildings would have lower ceilings, smaller doorways and you wouldn't be allowed to crawl into polling booths because that would be a health and safety hazard. But the Talls - lovely people, most of them - would get to go on bus trips to to the seaside, although the buses would have no seats. Any attempt to modify the environment to help tall people would be rejected because of the costs involved.
Finally, he said, you would be offered the choice of leg amputation to help you become "normal".
And that, after all, was Phil's point. Many disabled people don't want a "cure" because they don't regard themselves as abnormal.
Just different.
