Rotimi Akinsete

Rotimi Akinsete is the Associate Dean of Students (Wellbeing and Inclusion) at the University of the Arts, and a licenced therapeutic counsellor and clinical supervisor with extensive experience in community and NHS counselling services. He is founder and director of Black Men on the Couch, a special interest project focussing on psychotherapy and identity politics of African and Caribbean men and boys.

Who said the Social Model of Disability couldn’t co-exist with the social theory of intersectionality?

Right from the beginning of engaging with this important publication, I salute and welcome the fresh approach to redefining the term. For many reasons, the 40-year-old definition of what makes a defines disability was always going to evolve into what makes a disabling society, as nothing worthwhile ever stays the same. And why not – especially if the current definition is only currently restricted to defining Anglo-American societal values and restricted to a narrow view of disability that goes beyond the physical? It makes complete sense in my mind that we would now take what Melanie Davies describes as a ‘Cultural Studies’ approach to show the criticality of inclusion.

A newly refined Social Model approach can only but help to defeat disability discrimination in the same way that a redefining of society using the cultural studies approach will eventually ‘help to defeat racism’. With this in mind, how are we not to be enticed by something that promotes inclusion and not separatism?

This particular question has to be asked: is it always good to start with The Social Model of Disability when discussing what makes someone disabled and the disabling society we find ourselves in? What about all the individual experiences contained herein and concurrently, how is it that these experiences can be expressed and still be socially relevant?

Working in an institution such as UAL I have begun to understand that any positive self-expression of those who identify as disabled, will help institutions to meet their legal obligations. The law around disabilities is indeed underpinned by The Social Model and it is clearly stated by services supporting disabled individuals that the focus of work and communication surrounding removing barriers within the environment (both physical and social) remains at its core. I have heard people say that commenting on individual experiences can lead to unhelpful generalisations or assumptions being made about what a disabled individual needs.

I am not sure.

In my opinion, actively listening to personal stories in an appropriate way will help negotiate the context in which the individual storyteller finds themselves in, whether the institution happens to be a hospital, university or government office.

Anyone who argues otherwise probably doesn’t know what they are talking about.

And if you think I don’t know what I’m talking about – then educate me.

Based on my professional experience of working with and actively listening to the stories of disabled people and working alongside those who support disabled people, I can only but concur with Rebekah Ubuntu – to say that disabled people are disabled and nothing else is nonsensical. We are all each within ourselves a multicultural, made up of things that we are very aware of, and things that we are not.

What is internal is external, and vice-versa.

We must strive to become conscious and thoughtful about how, why and when we choose to or allow ourselves to be defined by our intersections because when you make one of those characteristics a priority, you miss out. I really value and respect a view that that says an individual or a community is made disabled by a power structure, and ultimately that their opportunities are restricted by a western colonial zeitgeist. Who would have thought that this (somewhat invisible) disabling condition ever existed?

This realisation came to me clearly when working with black, disabled clients and reflecting on the experiences of those with mental health conditions and learning disabilities within my own family. The visceral (and disabling) discomfort I felt on upon my first visit to West Africa in the 1980s and witnessing disabled individuals abandoned in towns, villages and cities made me wonder how far we have come from being a communalist society that cared for all regardless of circumstances to being a community affected by the individualistic pressures of modern-day society. I am not sure how much this may have changed over the last 40 years, but I do know that it remains a common battle for the disabled community to be accepted as ordinary members of society, wherever they may be.

To conclude, I ask myself: ‘isn’t it the ultimate humiliation that it is us, able-bodied individuals who are the uncomfortable ones, projecting this discomfort beyond ourselves (as similarly contemplated by Ava DuVernay)? If so, perhaps we should spend more time considering how we might adapt our surroundings and our environment and not the individual who happens to have a disability. Collaboration is the key, and during the process of communication, the other is changed. Society is changed. As a therapist, I continually work in a way that allows me to immerse myself within the life experience of another, at the very least at an empathetic level. To immerse ourselves, as able-bodied people, into the world of someone else can only go some way to understanding the plight and the struggles of those with disabilities. Just as important however is an active acknowledgement that those with disabilities not only be defined by one aspect of themselves but acknowledging that we all have varied identities and belong to many communities and ‘can share a great deal if society includes all’ (Eleanor Lisney).

References:

Dyslexia: Naming pedagogic Differences in the Art School, a cultural studies perspective. Melanie Davies 2019 in Inclusion and intersectionality in Visual Arts education.