Will Earthquake Alter Chinese Attitudes Towards Disability?

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Rising from the ashes of the recent earthquake in China are thousands of amputees, survivors whose limbs were crushed or who had to give them up to be pulled from the rubble. Estimates run as high as 50,000, ranging in age from young children—30 to 40%–to the elderly. These newly disabled face major psychological and sociological challenges, in a country where physical difference is regarded as shameful and people with anomalies are shunned. One official guidebook for Chinese volunteers at the Beijing Olympics said it all when it referred to physically disabled people as “stubborn and controlling.” (After complaints from activist groups, the commission that prepared the guide apologized.)

Dealing with the physical challenges of their sudden condition will be hard enough, especially since prostheses aren’t widely available, at least in China’s rural areas. One 22-year-old daughter of rice farmers, for instance, worries about finding leg prostheses, knowing she’ll have to wait in line with other impoverished amputees. Despite the fact that 83 million Chinese people are disabled, few schools have wheelchair access or any other services for kids with disabilities. Government financial support in rural areas, where the majority of quake victims live, amounts to about $15 per month per individual. Many earthquake amputees suffered deep shock and trauma, trapped in darkness for hours, undergoing surgery, and waking up without an arm or a leg. They’re going to need psychological counseling, another service in short supply.

When I read about the amputees, my first thought was, “Well, I guess they’ll have to change their attitude.” That’s the bright silver lining in this cloud—with a suddenly higher population of amputees in their midst, Chinese attitudes will simply have to evolve. It’s inevitable.

That’s what happened in the United States. When I gave birth to a child with a disability over four decades ago, the social atmosphere was stultifying. Nobody dared mention his condition to me, except in terms of how brave and strong I was. I knew few people with disabled kids, and no adults with disabilities at all. The secrecy and silence created an aura of shame from the get-go. Services were a joke; a visiting nurse who was more intrusive than helpful popped in to see me once or twice after I came home from the hospital. Even though I met with school officials well before my son entered kindergarten, they waited until he got there to decide he couldn’t use the playground equipment without a doctor’s letter–his first days at school were spent watching the other kids play while he sat on a bench next to the teacher. It was all downhill after that. When Special Ed arrived it was hailed as a Great Leap Forward, but take my word on this, it was pathetic. For an hour a day they threw my kid into a room with everyone else in the school who had any kind of disability. The developmentally disabled kids were mixed in with behavioral problems, cerebral palsy, speech impediments, etc., and they were overseen by two allegedly trained teachers with barely enough time to work individually with them. None of it made any sense. Nor did it accomplish much, except to confuse the kids about their identities, what with all disabilities lumped together.

But things have changed dramatically in this country. Although I still hear horror stories coming out of tiny towns in the Heartland, in most areas near or in big cities the picture is quite different. When a baby’s born with a disabling or chronic medical condition, social services spring into action with a whole slew of coordinated programs. And although those nasty sidelong glances are still occasionally directed at PWDs in malls and restaurants, we’re a nation that’s becoming accustomed to, maybe even comfortable with, physical difference. As in China, this is the silver lining in the huge cloud of a burgeoning disabled population, primarily caused, I’m convinced, by the toxins in our environment. Autism alone has increased 172% since the 1990s.

Based on the American experience, I’m guessing that attitudes in China will of necessity evolve. With an increased number of amputees in the population, the sight of PWDs will become more common and therefore less shocking. It will be more difficult to keep PWDs out of sight and therefore out of mind. As their ranks swell, PWDs and their parents will demand more services. Necessity is the mother of invention.

And let’s not forget that, with China’s current frantic rate of growth they’re discharging more and more toxins into the environment, which is bound to cause an increase in birth anomalies and adult afflictions. What a sad paradox: in order to become more enlightened around disability, greater numbers of people have to become disabled. That silver lining I’m seeing is probably mercury.

Relevant Websites:

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/environment/

Hands On China: How To Help

http://news.surfwax.com/health/files/Amputees.html (Amputee site)

http://www.univie.ac.at/cga/art/patients.html (Amputee Art)

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Filed under Current Events, Disability

Tags: amputees, Chinese earthquake, environment, people with disabilities