Celebrating Disability Pride Month – Jack’s Story

July is Disability Pride Month, an international initiative that celebrates the disability community. It takes place every July in the UK and is predominantly a celebration that highlights the creativity, resilience, and achievements of people who identify as disabled. It is also a time to celebrate the diversity in the disability community and to reject the stigma, discrimination, and ableism that prevents equality for everyone.

We invited Artswork staff who identified as disabled to share their stories with us, to find out more about their experiences and what disability pride means to them.

Kickstarter, Jack, tells his story below:

When I was in secondary school, there was a fence that separated my school from the school next to it. The school I attended was for students with special needs, it was an amalgamation of students with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and ADHD.

The school next door was a mainstream school, which in comparison dwarfed my school and seemingly had more promising prospects for their students, as the majority of their students did not need additional assistance to learn and had access to higher quality facilities, and education on the merit of a bigger awarded budget.

Despite these privileges and opportunities, this did not satisfy some of the students at the school. From my first year at my school, it didn’t take me long to notice there was a seriously nasty atmosphere between the two schools. The fence was almost like a physical manifestation of the actual divide between these two establishments of education. 

There were insults, usually aimed at our intelligence, there was the goading of students with ADHD into fights, which would almost always end with those students being made to apologise for sticking up for themselves, and then there was the throwing of golf balls over the fence at the students at my school. 

Because people were starting to get hurt, there was a group conversation between year 11 students at my school about retaliating, by all climbing over the fence and fighting the bullying students.  

On the same day that this discussion took place, a football from the mainstream school’s side accidentally made its way over to our side. I and a few classmates happened to be walking by when two boys started talking to us over the fence, we couldn’t make out what they were saying but one of my classmates noticed the ball and made her way over to pick it up. As she was walking over to it, one of these boys became impatient and then shouted angrily at her “Give me the ball, r****d!”  

She had picked up the ball by then and her back straightened up. We were all stunned by his attitude, but she was angry. She walked over to them with the ball under one arm, and told them “Is that how you ask someone for something?”  The two boys looked embarrassed, the one who insulted her suddenly had a look of shame wash over his face and apologised.  

She then said “Talk to me like a human being. Let’s try that again, ask nicely.”  

“Please could I have my ball back?” he asked. 

“Thank you, that’s better.” And she handed him the ball over the fence.  

From that moment, I learned more about how to confront ableism, than from anyone or anywhere else. She could have jumped over the fence, and hit him, she could have insulted him, she could have taken the ball, she could have done anything to hurt him, but instead she treated him like he was her little brother. 

She spoke to him like he wasn’t beyond knowing better, she was firm but fair, and that’s what hurt him, the realisation that disabled people are people too. I don’t know where that boy is now, but I don’t doubt that he learnt more about disabled people from that conversation than from his peers.  

At the end of the day, pride is knowing you deserve the same respect as everyone else, it’s about believing that you’re making a difference, even if its small and with pride, more meaningful conversations can be had, where we can learn to treat each other better. 

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