Stories from the Edge - Volunteer Now

harsh conditions. Towards the end of the 19th Century Eleanor Marx, the daughter of Karl Marx, worked in Tillie and Hendersonsfor three weeks and described the conditions as ‘atrocious.’ By the 1960s conditions had improved a lot, due to a constantpressure on the bosses and management by the local trade unions. Angela was offered a post as a stitcher. At the time it wasconsidered progressive because disabled people were not considered good employee material. Angela insisted she was betterqualified for other jobs and refused to become a stitcher. The outcry which followed was expected since many unconsciously ifnot intentionally believed a disabled person should be grateful for any small mercy.It showed that the young Angela was determined that she wasn’t going to be shoved into a corner and forgotten. She appliedfor a trainee cytoscreener post at Belfast’s City Hospital, realising she was not qualified for it. At first, the staff interviewing herwere curious at the tenacity of this young disabled person. She got the job and moved lock stock and wheelchairs to Belfast. Itwas still not enough. Angela may have become part of the ‘ordinary’ world but those 13 steps still blocked her.She wanted to travel. There was one door open to her and that was sport. First she tried archery but found it was too costly.Then she tried table tennis and soon rose through the ranks to bring gold for Ireland back from the Paralympics.The world hailedthe young woman from Donegal for her achievement. It was the adulation she wanted but she is quick to point out that it wasearned. She admits "I hate attentionbecause of my disability but I loved thepublicity. I love people seeing me as aperson who achieves and not toassociate my success with my disability,”she said. Perhaps what really galls her isjournalists who used cliched lines such as‘wheelchair bound brave Angela.’ Otherattitudes treat her as a child who hasdone well and overcome adversity. Thereis the ‘pathetic’ point of view that putsdisabled people outside the pale ofhumanity. It is as if to be a human person“the cocky self-assuredyoung person must haveresembled a paraplegicOlivia Newton John”must concur to some sort of ideal type which has never existed. Angela believes that humanity does not conform to ideal types.It is a bewildered mass that includes everyone. It is this attitude that has sustained Angela and it is this that makes her hateanything ‘special’.Fencing off people into this or that special category alienates further those already isolated. Angela believes disabled peopleshould be integrated with so called able-bodied people. Young people should go to school with disabled fellow students. Peopleshould be like the young cub scouts and see the person, wheelchair and all, and realise she is a damn good shot with a bowand arrow.But there are always those 13 steps. Today they might not be as obvious since equality and human rights legislation now makesit mandatory for all buildings to incorporate ramps and other facilities that empower and allow the disabled to come and go. Itwas not always like that. Angela still remembers the hurt of being turned away from a cinema because there was no ramp. Butthe reality was that the proprietors did not want ‘my sort messing up their place’.