Sunday, August 28, 2005

Alison Lapper on Parenting and disability

BBC's Ouch! Has posted an interview with Artist Alison Lapper-- the model and collaborator on the sculpture chosen famous "fourth plinth" in London's Trafalgar square.

This interview focuses on Alison's experiences as a mom and as a participant in a televised study on parenting. Her thoughts are not only articulate and pithy, they bring to light experiences I believe are widely felt among parents with disabilities: The need to adapt, educate yourself and get help from experts to find methods that work, the guilt we feel when we perceive ourselves as judged or distrusted by able-bodied parents around us, and the ultimate need to trust our own judgement and our relationships with our children.

Alison mentions the fact that child-welfare authorities have "threatened" her when she didn't have someone able-bodied on hand to look after her son. What are we going to have to do to stop disability itself from being a reason for intervention in obviously loving, functional families?

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