Trust and movement at the Scottish Government Networks Conference

It’s a huge honour to open a conference, but one that comes with a degree of fear. As the first speaker you have nobody to follow. Following others speaks to the heart of trust. Trust is my touchstone today.  In the absence of another’s footsteps I’ll need to trust my own direction for the next short while.

I’m a paid pest! Well a pest anyway! I have spent a number of decades now delivering disability equality, and working on research relating to disability, accountability, Human Rights and emancipation.  [Everyone needs a hobby!]. As a pest I shake things up, this means I disrupt conversations - sometimes just by being in the room. More than that I’m an activist, I specifically question those conversations that present disability as a deficit, a problem attached to an individual, and an illness to be cured. When I became an activist I chose to step away from viewing disability solely as the personal experience of impairment. I needed more, so reached for what I now understand as research evidence and movement politics. Together these elements of evidence based knowledge came together to complete a view of disability that many call ableism - a social oppression.

It was not a choice that was straightforward, it took years, and the trip was fraught, the journey torturous. Along the way I came across the Four Thought podcast of Alan Bissett, talking about his awakening to feminism as the contradiction he sought to his growing addiction to porn. In the programme he talks about the difference between identity and politics, and he explains how he now sees feminists as an united group with shared and diverse interest. For him feminisms were important to his understanding sexism. In much the same way as the Social Model of disability, for me, represents an extensive list of interests disabled people may share.

Bissett's view of feminism was more than one that linked identity to women's personal experience, it was about a shared history and many ideas. Most importantly, he had to put his trust in women's voices to help him change his thinking radically. He saw this as a choice - a right to stand in opposition to the oppression that is sexism.

The trust we place in others is critical to our networks, if we are to move from ‘me’ to ‘we’.  Having an impairment is only a small part of our own tale, a critical part undoubtedly, but the pursuit of shared interests makes us more powerful in a joint storytelling. As in other civil rights movements, there have been many activists, thinkers, movers and shakers in a disabled people’s voice. What I think defines us as an anti-ableists is shared struggle for Human Rights set against vast structural and societal inequalities.

Personal experience is part of the understanding that drives my work, but so does a shared knowledge of disability equality and much research evidence that informs a whole manner of things relating to the interests of the disabled population. Explaining how these ideas intersect is beyond my ability here - I trust you’re getting a picture! For me, the idea of being part of a network is about belonging to a much bigger crowd. There are many ways to be disruptive: trailblazers, radicals, politicos, unionists, activists, educators,  policy-makers, all sorts... librarians!  The power and strength I’ve gained from moving with the crowd is huge. I feel stronger and less vulnerable knowing I am one of many. It is also energising knowing I am part of a storytelling that has a history, many voices and hundreds of ideas. Some I may disagree with, but all are anchors on turbulent seas.

The trust I gain from being part of a network, a movement, has offered a home, a language and a sense of belonging. Our shared stories are a growing library, an evolving tale of endurance in a disruption that weakens injustice!

Thank you to everyone that made this a fantastic event.