I grew up in a very small country town in Victoria. I had a very normal, low-key kind of upbringing. I went to school, I hung out with my friends, I fought with my younger sisters. It was all very normal. And when I was 15, a member of my local community approached my parents and wanted to nominate me for a community achievement award. And my parents said, "Hm, that's really nice, but there's kind of one glaring problem with that. She hasn't actually achieved anything." (Laughter)
Odrasla sam u gradiću u Viktoriji. Imala sam veoma normalno, skromno obazovanje, Išla sam u školu, družila se sa prijateljima. Tukla sam se sa mlađim sestrama. Sve je bilo veoma normalno. Kada sam imala 15 godina, član moje lokalne zajednice je prišao mojim roditeljima i želeo je da me nominuje za nagradu najvećeg postignuća zajednice. Moji roditelji su rekli: "Hm, to je veoma lepo, ali tu postoji jedan očigledan problem. Ona zapravo nije ništa postigla." (Smeh)
And they were right, you know. I went to school, I got good marks, I had a very low-key after school job in my mum's hairdressing salon, and I spent a lot of time watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek." Yeah, I know. What a contradiction. But they were right, you know. I wasn't doing anything that was out of the ordinary at all. I wasn't doing anything that could be considered an achievement if you took disability out of the equation. Years later, I was on my second teaching round in a Melbourne high school, and I was about 20 minutes into a year 11 legal studies class when this boy put up his hand and said, "Hey miss, when are you going to start doing your speech?" And I said, "What speech?" You know, I'd been talking them about defamation law for a good 20 minutes. And he said, "You know, like, your motivational speaking. You know, when people in wheelchairs come to school, they usually say, like, inspirational stuff?" (Laughter) "It's usually in the big hall."
I bili su u pravu, znate. Išla sam u školu, imala sam dobre ocene, imala sam jednostavan posao posle škole u frizerskom salonu moje mame, i provela sam dosta vremena gledajući "Bafi ubicu vampira" i "Dosonov svet". Da, znam. Kakva kontradikcija. Ali su bili u pravu, znate. Nisam radila baš ništa što je bilo neuobičajeno. Nisam radila ništa što bi se moglo smatrati postignućem ako izuzmete invaliditet iz jednačine. Godinama kasnije bila sam na svojoj drugoj seriji predavanja u srednjoj školi u Melburnu i bila sam oko 20 minuta na času treće godine pravnih studija kada je jedan dečko podigao ruku i rekao: "Hej gospođice, kada ćete početi sa svojim govorom?" Pitala sam: "Kakvim govorom?" Znate, pričala sam im o zakonu o klevetama dobrih 20 minuta. A on je rekao: "Znate, nešto kao, vaš motivacioni govor. Znate, kada ljudi dođu u kolicima u školu, uglavnom pričaju inspirativne stvari?" (Smeh) "Uglavnom u velikoj dvorani."
And that's when it dawned on me: This kid had only ever experienced disabled people as objects of inspiration. We are not, to this kid -- and it's not his fault, I mean, that's true for many of us. For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire. And in fact, I am sitting on this stage looking like I do in this wheelchair, and you are probably kind of expecting me to inspire you. Right? (Laughter) Yeah.
I tada mi je sinulo: ovaj klinac je imao iskustva sa ljudima sa invaliditetom samo kao sa objektima inspiracije. Mi nismo, za ovog klinca - a to nije njegova krivica, mislim, to je istina za mnoge od nas. Za većinu nas, ljudi sa invaliditetom nisu naši učitelji ili naši doktori ili manikiri. Mi nismo realni ljudi. Mi smo tu da inspirišemo. Zapravo, sedim na ovoj pozornici izgledajući kako izgledam u ovim kolicima, i vi verovatno očekujete od mene da vas inspirišem. Zar ne? (Smeh) Da.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you dramatically. I am not here to inspire you. I am here to tell you that we have been lied to about disability. Yeah, we've been sold the lie that disability is a Bad Thing, capital B, capital T. It's a bad thing, and to live with a disability makes you exceptional. It's not a bad thing, and it doesn't make you exceptional.
Pa, dame i gospodo, bojim se da ću vas znatno razočarati. Nisam ovde da vas inspirišem. Ovde sam da vam kažem da su nas lagali u vezi sa invaliditetom. Da, prodata nam je laž da je invaliditet Loša Stvar, sa velikim L i velikim S. To je loša stvar, i živeti sa invaliditetom vas čini izuzetnim. To nije loša stvar, i ne čini vas izuzetnim.
And in the past few years, we've been able to propagate this lie even further via social media. You may have seen images like this one: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." Or this one: "Your excuse is invalid." Indeed. Or this one: "Before you quit, try!" These are just a couple of examples, but there are a lot of these images out there. You know, you might have seen the one, the little girl with no hands drawing a picture with a pencil held in her mouth. You might have seen a child running on carbon fiber prosthetic legs. And these images, there are lots of them out there, they are what we call inspiration porn. (Laughter) And I use the term porn deliberately, because they objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people. So in this case, we're objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. The purpose of these images is to inspire you, to motivate you, so that we can look at them and think, "Well, however bad my life is, it could be worse. I could be that person."
U poslednjih nekoliko godina, bili smo u mogućnosti da dodatno propagiramo ovu laž kroz društvene medije. Možda ste viđali slike kao što je ova: "Jedini invaliditet u životu je loš stav." Ili ovu: "Tvoj izgovor je invalidan." Zaista. Ili ovu: "Pre nego što odustaneš, probaj!" Ovo su samo neki od primera, ali ima mnogo takvih slika. Znate, možda ste videli onu, malu devojčicu bez ruku koja crta sliku olovkom koju drži u ustima. Možda ste videli dete koje trči na protetičkim nogama od ugljeničnih vlakana. I ove slike, ima ih dosta unaokolo, one su ono što zovemo inspiracionom pornografijom. (Smeh) A namerno koristim termin pornografija, jer pretvaraju u objekat grupu ljudi u korist druge grupe ljudi. Dakle, u ovom slučaju, ljude sa invaliditetom činimo objektima radi dobiti ljudi bez invaliditeta. Svrha ovih slika je da vas inspirišu, da vas motivišu, tako da možemo da ih pogledamo i pomislimo: "Pa, koliko god da je moj život loš, moglo bi biti gore. Mogao bih da budem ta osoba."
But what if you are that person? I've lost count of the number of times that I've been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I'm brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile. They were just kind of congratulating me for managing to get up in the morning and remember my own name. (Laughter) And it is objectifying. These images, those images objectify disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. They are there so that you can look at them and think that things aren't so bad for you, to put your worries into perspective.
Ali šta ako ste ta osoba? Prestala sam da brojim koliko puta su mi prilazili stranci koji su želeli da mi kažu da misle da sam hrabra ili inspirativna, a ovo je bilo davno pre nego što je moj posao imao bilo kakav javni profil. Oni su mi prosto čestitali jer sam uspela da ustanem ujutru i setim se sopstvenog imena. (Smeh) A to jeste objektivizacija. Ove slike, te slike objektivizuju ljude sa invaliditetom radi dobiti ljudi bez invaliditeta. One su tu da biste mogli da ih pogledate i pomislite da stvari nisu tako loše kod vas, da pogledate svoje brige iz druge perspektive.
And life as a disabled person is actually somewhat difficult. We do overcome some things. But the things that we're overcoming are not the things that you think they are. They are not things to do with our bodies. I use the term "disabled people" quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.
Život osobe sa invaliditetom je zaista donekle težak. Tačno je da mi savlađujemo neke stvari. Ali stvari koje savlađujemo nisu stvari na koje vi mislite. Nisu u vezi sa našim telima. Koristim termin "ljudi sa invaliditetom" sasvim namerno, jer se slažem sa onim što se naziva socijalnim modelom invaliditeta, koji nam govori da nas više lišava društvo u kome živimo nego naša tela i naše dijagnoze.
So I have lived in this body a long time. I'm quite fond of it. It does the things that I need it to do, and I've learned to use it to the best of its capacity just as you have, and that's the thing about those kids in those pictures as well. They're not doing anything out of the ordinary. They are just using their bodies to the best of their capacity. So is it really fair to objectify them in the way that we do, to share those images? People, when they say, "You're an inspiration," they mean it as a compliment. And I know why it happens. It's because of the lie, it's because we've been sold this lie that disability makes you exceptional. And it honestly doesn't.
Živim u ovom telu dugo vremena. Prilično ga volim. Radi stvari koje su mi potrebne da uradi, i naučila sam da ga koristim do njegovih najviših kapaciteta kao što ste i vi, a to je takođe slučaj i sa onom decom na onim slikama. Oni ne rade ništa neobično. Oni samo koriste svoja tela u njihovom najvišem kapacitetu. Dakle, da li je zaista fer objektivizovati ih onako kako to činimo, da razmenjujemo te slike? Ljudi, kada kažu: "Ti si inspiracija", oni to misle kao kompliment. A znam zašto se to događa. To je zbog laži, zato što nam je prodata laž da nas invaliditet čini izuzetnim. A iskreno, on to ne čini.
And I know what you're thinking. You know, I'm up here bagging out inspiration, and you're thinking, "Jeez, Stella, aren't you inspired sometimes by some things?" And the thing is, I am. I learn from other disabled people all the time. I'm learning not that I am luckier than them, though. I am learning that it's a genius idea to use a pair of barbecue tongs to pick up things that you dropped. (Laughter) I'm learning that nifty trick where you can charge your mobile phone battery from your chair battery. Genius. We are learning from each others' strength and endurance, not against our bodies and our diagnoses, but against a world that exceptionalizes and objectifies us.
Znam o čemu mislite. Ja ovde opanjkavam inspiraciju, a vi mislite: "Pobogu, Stela, zar tebe ponekad ne inspirišu neke stvari?" I da, inspirišu me. Stalno učim od drugih ljudi sa invaliditetom. Doduše, ne učim da sam srećnija od njih. Učim da je genijalna ideja koristiti klešta za roštilj za podizanje stvari koje ste ispustili. (Smeh) Učim dobar trik da možete napuniti bateriju vašeg mobilnog telefona iz baterije vaših kolica. Genijalno. Mi učimo iz međusobnih snaga i izdržljivosti, ne naspram naših tela i dijagnoza, već naspram sveta koji nas čini izuzetnim i pretvara u objekte.
I really think that this lie that we've been sold about disability is the greatest injustice. It makes life hard for us. And that quote, "The only disability in life is a bad attitude," the reason that that's bullshit is because it's just not true, because of the social model of disability. No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. Never. (Laughter) (Applause) Smiling at a television screen isn't going to make closed captions appear for people who are deaf. No amount of standing in the middle of a bookshop and radiating a positive attitude is going to turn all those books into braille. It's just not going to happen.
Zaista mislim da je ova laž koja nam je prodata o invaliditetu najveća nepravda. Ona nam otežava život. A taj citat: "Jedini invaliditet u životu je loš stav", razlog zbog kojeg je to sranje je zbog toga što to prosto nije tačno, zbog socijalnog modela invaliditeta. Bilo koliko smeškanja stepeništu ga nikada nije pretvorilo u rampu. Nikada. (Smeh) (Aplauz) Smeškanje televizijskom ekranu neće učiniti da se pojave titlovi za ljude koji su gluvi. Bilo koliko stajanja u sred knjižare i zračenja pozitivnim stavom neće pretvoriti sve te knjige u knjige na Brajevom pismu. To se jednostavno neće dogoditi.
I really want to live in a world where disability is not the exception, but the norm. I want to live in a world where a 15-year-old girl sitting in her bedroom watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" isn't referred to as achieving anything because she's doing it sitting down. I want to live in a world where we don't have such low expectations of disabled people that we are congratulated for getting out of bed and remembering our own names in the morning. I want to live in a world where we value genuine achievement for disabled people, and I want to live in a world where a kid in year 11 in a Melbourne high school is not one bit surprised that his new teacher is a wheelchair user.
Zaista želim da živim u svetu gde invaliditet nije odstupanje već norma. Želim da živim u svetu u kome se petnaestogodišnjoj devojčici koja sedi u svojoj sobi gledajući "Bafi ubicu vampira" ne pripisuje postizanje nečeg zato što to radi sedeći. Želim da živim u svetu u kome nemamo tako niska očekivanja od ljudi sa invaliditetom, da nam čestitaju na ustajanju iz kreveta i pamćenju sopstvenih imena ujutru. Želim da živim u svetu u kome cenimo istinska postignuća ljudi sa invaliditetom, i želim da živim u svetu u kome klinac na trećoj godini srednje škole u Melburnu nije nimalo iznenađen time što njegov profesor koristi invalidska kolica.
Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.
Invaliditet vas ne čini izuzetnim, ali vas čini prespitivanje onoga što mislite da znate o njemu.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)