Archive for August 2007
Spokeout magazine
I have just received the latest edition of Spoikeout, lifestyle magazine for people with limited mobility published by the Irish Wheelchair Asssociation. As usual it is a bright,t well-written and helpful publication.
One of the things that attrtacts me to the publlication is that it is suffused with a spirit of hope. All the contributors are striving for a better life in spite of disabilities.
Hope is something that all people must have. It does not mean that one’s present existence is unpleasant. There has to be some motivation, something in the future, a goal, an inspiration, maybe a dream.
When I learned that I had MS I felt that I could more or less pull down the blinds on hope. I couldn’t walk anymore for a start, so what was the point of aspiring to anything? But then I discovered that I could walk again, though on crutches. And then I met my wonderful partner Rosie who has been able to open up a whole range of possibilities for me. There are so many things we want to do together, and so many places we want to go. My spirit of hope has been rekindled. There are all the books I want to write , not to mention all the languages I would like to learn, though i suppose I should try and relearn those I have learnt and subsequently forgotten. I would like to finish my law degree, not that I have any desire to practice as a lawyer and join the ranks of Iireland’s overpaid professionals. I also have s ecret ambition to gain an MBA, something I intend to do through an on-line educational provider. maybe in the US, but at the moment I can’t afford it
The magazine includes an interview with a lady from Irish Life and Permanent, telling of their pro-active policy regarding the employment of people with disabilities. This is certainly a change from when I was seeking employment fifteen years ago, when I often felt as if I had two disabilities:: visual impairment and a doctorate in history.I remember how I was asked at a job interview with a top-rank management consultancy company (now no longer with us) had I studied history because I couldn’t get the points for anything else. No one bothered to look at what I might have been able to contribute. Instead the externals i.e. that I was an “over-qualified” cripple, who wouldn’t fit in and who would scare everyone, held sway.
Would things bg any different today? I don’t know, and because I’m not looking for exmployment I don’t really care. The fact that I am the author and (joint author) of four books on business-related topics would pro bably not matter that much. Furthermore, I have two more disabilities now, multiple sclerosis, and the fact that at 41 I’m no longer a spring chicken.
This issue of the magazine contains a section by Klara Lynch on using the web. In particular she gives a link to online disability blogs and forums, something that naturally intersets me.
There is one dark spot in the magazine. There is a photograph of one of Ireland’s best known swindlers and crooks as the launch of a scheme which allows disabled people to “”shadow” able-bodied people who are in full-time employment. The individual to whom I refere is probably not the gresteest crook in the country, and he certainly isn’t the only one. As for the scheme, it is probably very laudable, but I’m always worried when I heard this word “shadow” being used in disabiity circles. We’ve been shadows for far too long, and the shadows is where we must come out from. In a cynical vein I wonder would disabled people, in their shadowing, learn about how some full-time and able-bodied workers don’t always come in on time in the morning, and how some never bother to show up at all on Mondays? How some spend an inordinate amount of time on the telephone to their mates, and how others never bother to show up at all after lunech on a Friday? But then that’sall mythology and it only happens in the public service.
Well done on a great and useful publicati9on.
