Suzy Byrne : "People with disabilities need to claim who they are, claim their space in society and be respected"
What does the phrase “Disability Isn’t a Dirty Word” mean to you?
It means that we need to reclaim the word and we need people who have difficulties in using the word disabled or disability, and that includes people who are not disabled as well as people who have a disability or who are disabled, to start recognising that the word is important. And other words that we try and find to… It’s not embarrassing, it shouldn’t be embarrassing but we hear so many people using the word “what’s your difference?” or “concentrate on your abilities rather than your disabilities”. It’s all this floundering stuff and it actually negates the fact that society as a whole disables us. People with disabilities need to claim who they are, claim their space in society, be respected for that, not be hidden away, not just have certain parts of their identity concentrated on and we just need to get over it.
It just seems that we are spending, a lot of people, disabled people seem to be spending a lot of time defending their existence and their identity and non-disabled people seem to be spending an awful lot of time going “you’re all great, and we love you all etcetera, and we don’t care what your disability is”. When actually it is important for everybody and we just need to get on with it.
What does it mean to you to identify as a disabled woman?
It is probably the most important part of my identity. It is something that has taken a long time to get to the stage where it is the most important part of me. I think its important that as people who experience discrimination and disadvantage that both parts of this identity are recognised by both people with disabilities in the disability community and also by women’s organisations and also by the state. The state needs to recognise that any of its actions towards supporting women need to take into account the needs of disabled women. That the service provision, be it in health, or in social welfare, or in employment, or in the environment – all of these things need to recognise the importance and the differences that gender and disability bring. I am very proud of my identity as a disabled woman and I think that is something that we have seen grow hugely in last number of years and it is something that we need to celebrate, look forward to, in some way, in the midst of all of this, being able to mark the issue, not only on the 8th of March but all the time.