Casual Day raises questions about the visibility and belonging of disabled South Africans - Despite policies on inclusive education, employing people with disabilities and anti-discrimination, not much has improved
Over the past few weeks, I have had the immense privilege to speak to high school learners at special schools about their lives, their experiences at school and in their communities, and their hopes for and concerns about the future.
Yet, facing significant challenges, these young people explained that it was their duty to be resilient and to counteract negative stereotypes about visual impairment and blindness so they would be included. I internalised a similar message as a young person experiencing progressive sight loss – that the world was not going to welcome me and that it was my responsibility to fit in.
Casual Day is an important campaign because it raises much-needed funds to support organisations that provide direct services to people with disabilities. Many such organisations have withstood further reductions in government funding in the last year, making funds raised from private individuals, companies and schools even more vital to their survival. Yet, this campaign, and others like it, raise uneasy questions for me about visibility and invisibility, belonging and not belonging.
For many who support Casual Day, disability will remain a distant thing, largely out of sight on the fringes of society, and inclusion will remain viewed as someone else’s responsibility. Awareness might be raised about the difficulties facing people with disabilities, but as long as those difficulties are viewed as more about them than about us , the status quo will remain intact.
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