The face of British disability is increasingly young and female. It’s time to hear from them | Frances Ryan

WWhen I started writing a book four years ago about life for the disabled women in Britain, I was not a guarantee that it was particularly localized. She stuck in bed with chronic fatigue and pain in the early thirties of my life, I wanted to write something that would communicate with other women who move in the science of birth control pills and heat platforms along with professions and relationships. Thus, I decided to meet more than 70 women and non-dual women from people with physical and mental health conditions-from the famous actors to legal and musical experts to psychologists. The result was a wide and varied catalog for the disabled life: from stories about the exact remedies in the workplace and good and bad dates on the applications, to finding freedom (and judgment) using navigation devices.

What I did not expect is that with the passage of months, the number of my word has risen, the obstructed group that I was writing will grow to include more and more women – many of them are younger than me.

Against the background of NHS accumulation, retreating mental health, and the cost of the living crisis, the disability in the United Kingdom increased in all fields; 16.8 million people now live with a long-term “large” case, according to the numbers issued last month-an increase of 700,000 last year alone. And if you are a woman, The risk of being among them is an increase.

These are not just the pain and pain that come with the aging community. One in seven women In the twenties of England and Wales, it was classified as handicapped in the latest registered census in 2021 – and the numbers show a significant rise in numbers children Under-24s have mental or physical condition. We forget Nan in the Bingo Hall, the face of disability in the UK is now the Zil Z in Greggs.

When politicians and the media mention the increasing numbers of women and youth with disabilities, we have heard to a large extent in terms of the amount of their cost. like Daily Mail recently panic: “You will swallow a draft law on the advantages of disease and disability through benefits through a quarter of the income tax amount by 2030.” until Government site It explicitly provides for the amount that is spent on social security for disabled people-equivalent to the equivalent cabinet to install a price on our wheelchairs.

This is not just a speech – it translates into politics as well. Just look at how Disabilities discounts It will arbitrarily mean that anyone under 22 years will not be able to claim the benefit of deficit to global credit. Meanwhile, common discounts will strike individual disabilities – They make up amazing 44 % From the loss, according to government figures.

It is not simply that this narration postpones the increasing number of young women with disabilities as a burden on the rest of society. This is also implicit, some of them were not handicapped at all. When the ministers discuss the upcoming discounts to the regular benefits of Under-22S, they usually do not call this “broken” group. The Minister of Labor and Pensions, Liz Kendall, routinely describes him as the Labor Party that takesThe option of life on the benefits“Far from”YouthAnd as if their disability – and the duty of society to support it – disappear if the word does not decrease loudly.

Besides this erasure Articles In recent months, it claims that social media Driving diagnosis From a lack of attention disorder in hyperactivity and chronic disease calculations, doctors wrote (yes, even doctors) assume that the problem facing the sick population is actually “” in fact “” “Excessive diagnosis“.

The UK disabled women are increasingly seen as statistics and stereotypes – completely reduced to our disabilities, or have been stolen from the dignity of belief that we have one.

For this reason, in writing my book, I made a conscious option to speak with women with physical and mental health conditions directly. Marketing also aims to raise the suspended talents: every digital fee or part of the goods is manufactured by a small or innovative company. I wanted to put the disabled women at the forefront of a segment of culture, to ask them about the inequality that affects her life – their career, families and body image – and highlighting their stability, contributions and humor, as well as inequality and conflicts.

Sherry Houston MBE shared how the doctors were ashamed of her for “the desire to be disabled” but she is now proud of her disability. Marsha de Cordova told me about the school principal, who believed that it should be addicted to it because it was blind – De Cordova was elected to parliament after decades. Sophie Morgan talked about moving in her relationship with friends after she was paralyzed (and fell from her wheelchair laughing with them).

This type of acting alone does not resolve the ability. In fact, the focus is often a great focus on the “vision” of the disabled at the expense of efforts to address the structural inequality we face. But the way the disability is depicted in our culture and the media – whose voices rise – have a profound impact on how the wider audience is shown, and as a result, the place of the disabled in the country. It is not a coincidence that deputies who will vote soon to reduce the advantages of disability will not be statistically disabled, just as journalists who never chant them will never bear pain in the long run, not to mention pain during poverty.

Since more and more of us face chronic health problems, I can only think that it is time to listen to a group of women with disabilities in their own words – and stop normalizing others talking about us or for us. It is possible to address the causes of Britain’s low health while recognizing the dangers of narration controlled by a dominant group that feeds on the idea that there is a “lot” of the minority.

Whether it is a book in the Waterstones window or a drama on the British Broadcasting Authority, there is a force in the ability to see the “other” as a whole person: a person with WhatsApp collection with friends and a favorite song and perhaps a model of benefits. The only way to win the supportive argument for a place of disabled – of any age or sex – is when it is seen as people, not less accurate or worthy than anyone else. It is easy to statistically starve, more difficult than decomposition and reject a neighbor or friend. Perhaps this is the real reason for highlighting the disability. Finally, women who are clearly disabled can be seen: not what they take from society, but everything they offer.