Press Release
Culture of risk aversion ‘reducing disabled people to second class citizens’, Massie
August 10th 2005
Misguided assessments of risk are reducing disabled people to second class citizens and limiting their choices to participate fully in society, the DRC Chairman Bert Massie said today.
Responding to the recent case where a couple were ordered by the High Court to place their children in care because they were deemed ‘too slow’ to parent them by their local social services department**, Mr Massie called for a ‘full and frank debate’ about the consequences that risk assessments were having on disabled people’s lives.
Speaking after the publication of the DRC’s discussion document Whose risk is it anyway? that catalogues the effects of risk averse practices and their impact on disabled people’s lives and forms a part of the Commission’s ongoing national Disability Debate, Mr Massie said:
“People may be forgiven for thinking that risk cases like these are the exception, but in our experience they are very much the rule. Throughout our lives risk is being used as the excuse to deny disabled people the opportunities to contribute and participate fully in society. In this case the experience of family life seems to have been denied. But in other cases we know of it is the right to remain in work, to live independently, or even to travel that are being constantly curtailed.’
Mr Massie continued:
“Imagine being told you couldn’t have a grab rail for the steps to your house because a local official has decreed that you might fall over while using it. Or not being given a napkin with your meal because of a worry that you may choke on it. Imagine being reduced to sleeping in your wheelchair for months because no one will risk lifting you out. All these are real examples of how risk is being used to discriminate against disabled people.
“Fear of litigation is replacing sensible action and the end result is disabled people being denied the chance to take decisions and weigh up risks for themselves every day. If disabled people are to become equal citizens, then the damage being done in all areas of life by the misapplication of ‘risk’ must be challenged.”
While the regulatory burden is a major concern for business, disabled people continue to face ‘acres of red tape’ in accessing the support and assistance required to lead an ordinary life. And while we all want sensible health and safety laws, the way they are implemented has shifted the burden of managing risk onto employers and public authorities and corroded support to disabled people.
As Mr Massie explained:
“Disabled people are commonly portrayed as posing a risk both to themselves and to the public and this attitude then dictates that all threat of risk needs to be eliminated. Yet this mentality ensures that the chances for a disabled person to live and work independently are virtually zero. For example, a deaf woman was refused entry to a dentistry course on the grounds that she wasn’t fit to practice. The reason: She would not be able to hear if a patient screamed out in pain!”
Mr Massie concluded:
“Disabled people must be allowed to manage their own risk and to balance their aspirations against the risks they choose to take. The fear of taking risks is creating a dysfunctional society in which bogeymen lie in wait round every corner, freedom is conceded to protect us from imagined dangers and individuals are encouraged to absolve themselves from the risks they take and instead to lay the blame on easy targets.”
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