Whenever I advocate for a system of supports that don’t focus on capacity building, I get told I’m being negative. Even within disability circles I’ve had this said to me.
As I say in the post I linked to above, many people with a disability know HOW to do something, we simply cannot do it anymore because our disabilities have disabled us. I don’t understand why reality of life with disabilities is being framed as negative.
I’m not anti capacity building being an option, I’m anti it being pushed on people who can’t do it.
Where does this “negative” viewpoint come from? Especially from within disability circles – is it internalised ableism? Is it fear of being seen as “the wrong kind” of disabled?
MECFS cannot be capacity built. You can read more about it in Emerge’s submission to the government, where I’m quoted a few times. And what about people with degenerative conditions?
If we can’t gain capacity, are we now unworthy of support?
Because when services are focused only on capacity building, that’s where my thought process goes. And that’s one hell of a slippery slope.
What are your thoughts on capacity building being unsuitable… being called negative?
[…] knowledge of disability in society, intersectionality, a genuine no wrong door approach, and capacity building being a choice not enforced. I do not believe any of these were written down (more on that […]