Crip Army

We ask that you either change this campaign so it is led by people with disabilities, or stop.

There is nothing about the campaign you have proposed that will do anything for people with disabilities. An awareness campaign will not allow us entry into the job market, or make the built environment accessible, or stop abuse, or discrimination. An awareness campaign will not find us accessible housing, or a way out of poverty, or opportunity to make our own decisions about how we live our own lives.

This is what happens when you design a campaign, without listening to disabled people, or even bothering to ask any of the loud and proud disability activists in our community. This is what happens when disabled people are not front and centre of any campaign about them. Disability is not an abstract concept, or a way to do good. It is about our lives.

There is no role for disabled people in this campaign, except as objects to be aware about. Any campaign about us must be built on a bedrock of real actions and social change involving business, community and governments. When we are locked out of education, employment and the vast majority of public venues, it logically follows that community members do not know people with disabilities, nor understand their concerns. We call for you, as Stella did many times, to work with us to fix these structural barriers, instead of hoping that an extra few conversations will.

A key part of the campaign you propose is to encourage people to ask people with disabilities a series of random and offensive questions. All of these questions are to be asked by people without disabilities. Disabled people are routinely asked inappropriate and intrusive questions in their daily lives, so encouraging more of these questions seems ignorant at best.

As with any group of people, a variety of media is required to access a variety of stories of people with disabilities. The StoryCorps app is not accessible using VoiceOver, and therefore prevents a blind person using it. In addition, those with difficulty speaking, hearing or comprehending are likely to produce poor content via this method. Your campaign has recreated the very barriers to access which stop us from participating in our communities.

The social model of disability takes the focus off an individual's impairment, and looks at how the world around us can be made more accessible and inclusive. These questions you propose and the framing of the campaign, does the exact opposite.

We are asking you to start this campaign again, but this time, with disabled people at the centre. We are not clients, we are not subjects, we are not your inspiration and we are not here to raise your awareness. Talk to disability activists, disability-led organisations, do some research, and listen to us.

Any campaign about disability must be led by people with a disability. Nothing about us without us.

Sign the petition and contact us if you want your name added to this letter.

https://www.communityrun.org/petitions/stellachallenge-was-to-fix-things