Should Deaf Organizations Work with Cross-Disability Organizations?
I just discovered that WordPress now allows us to add polls. I’m adding this one as an experiment, and also because I’m curious to know what YOU think: should Deaf organizations (i.e., organizations OF and REPRESENTING Deaf people) work in cooperation with cross-disability organizations (i.e., organizations OF and REPRESENTING people with all disabilities) when we share mutual interests in common. As one example, this could be to persuade country governments to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Add your comments about this poll below!
Learn vocabulary and feed the hungry at freerice.com
Since we are viewed as “disabled” by the Hearing world, we should take advantage of it by working with these groups in order to gain more political clout through numbers. BUT BUT BUT ONLY if these groups agree to put forth the DEAF perspective and agenda in working with us, not their typical assimilationist perspective for all “disabilities”
Don G.
20 October 2008
We can’t join with disability groups then determine a deaf agenda for them to support, they want us to include and be inclusive to them too, the reason there was considerable bad feeling in the UK toward deaf by disabled groups, is because the deaf here did all the taking and none of the giving, they rarely turned up for anything but their own issue and were not very forthcoming in supporting other disabled, or their campaigns, disabled felt the deaf were looking down on them, or at best really not interested in them except what numerical clout they could provide, it went right down, when the Deaf broke away from the disability rights campaign and went for the government watered down version instead, which forced a domino effect of small disability groups following the deaf lead. Since then the deaf have dropped out of disability groups, and gone back to roots as if nothing had happened, I doubt the deaf would get disabled support here, they are still blamed for the failure of a real disability Act being put on the statute books, and they are still forced to try and make the deaf accepted version work. If deaf are not disabled then no point askingthe real version to help them.
MM
20 October 2008