Hello there- yes it is me again. Last Saturday I was at Fem 05 in Sheffiled (which was an awesome event- well done to Kat B and the crew) where I spoke about women and disability. A couple of women at the event asked me to put up my speech so here it is- enjoy!!!!

My name is Sian Davies and I am the NUS Students with Disabilities Officer and proud to be a woman who is disabled. I am here to talk about the multi identity of women who are also disabled and the impact that this has upon their lives.

To be honest it has only been the last couple of years that I have had a realisation about the impact that being a woman and having disability are connected for me and the impact the two have had on my life. You see it was at NUS Women’s conference a couple of years ago when I was talking in a workshop about disability that it hit me about the fact that being a woman and being disabled were actually interlinked- in fact in a strange way you could say it was some people’ s reaction to me as a woman that caused my disability. When I was younger I got seriously bullied because of my body shape- it seems that men of this world think that if a woman has big boobs then they have the right to oogle her, touch her up in the street and even pin her down in class and try and measure her. Because of this bullying and the way I was treated as a woman my confidence and self-esteem were eroded and this was one of the main causes of my mental ill health. So that is why I am proud to be speaking her as a disabled woman- because for me the two are linked- as they are for so many disabled women.

Yet in the 21st century women’s issues are still forgotten about by the disability movement and disability issues are still been forgotten about by the women’s movement. But what actually do we mean by disabled women?

Disabled women include all kinds of disabilities, women with physical, hearing, visual and mental impairments, visible or otherwise, including women with mental illness and mental health problems, learning disabilities, and various chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart or kidney disease, epilepsy, HIV, diseases predominantly affecting women such as breast cancer and arthritis.

The notion of multiple discrimination on grounds of gender and disability is complex. Multiple simultaneous oppression is another expression, describing what disabled women confront in various situations. It can however also be experienced as developing into multiple strengths. Disabled women can experience discrimination in relation to non-disabled women and men and in relation to disabled men. The struggle for equal opportunities must therefore take place on different levels and in different places simultaneously. Examples of multiple discrimination of disabled women can for instance be based upon age, ethnic background, and sexual orientation and socio-orientation background. Many women are deprived of their rights as citizens, and in this way society is also deprived of their abilities and knowledge. Forming part of two disadvantaged and minority groups they find themselves up against a double discrimination.

Many women contend with the notion that they are helpless victims and powerless- a notion that is enforced upon them by society. Even in the twenty first century society sees disabled women as weak and victims of their condition, where disability is a personal tragedy. Disabled women can still be ignored or portrayed as passive victims.

Disabled women face discrimination because of their gender and because of their disability in all areas of their lives. Today I am going to look at a number of those different areas including sexuality and education.

Historically barriers have always existed in the female’s quest for education. From Victorian times, girls have been raised with the conception of self-sacrifice while boys have been encouraged to be independent. Women were unable to gain entry into universities until 1920 for Oxford and 1947 for Cambridge. These days though women are able to access higher education they still have to contend with the stigma that they are challenging the social system, even though the disability discrimination act has come into full force.

Too often women with disabilities, especially those that have disabilities that are not visible, have to try and justify themselves. A stomach churning experience when you have to offer some sort of proof to explain how your disability interferes with your capacity to study. Even if you are disabled, people still challenge the validity of your experience.

Education for a disabled women is not just about physical barriers, but social ones too, where the implications of being different or seen as asking for favours or being termed as someone who is constantly moaning or never satisfied is a constant trail. It is a sad fact of life that when you are a woman who has a disability people find you hard work. Serious students are looking to find advantage in alliances with those of their own speed and level- not those that they perceive are held back by a disability. Women students are ignored and come also intimidate/ frighten theirs fellow students in a presentation. People fear the unknown. They do not know what is coming. They do not know how to react to a deaf student, a student who has cerebral palsy etc. so what they do is rather than confront their fears- they shy away from what they fear- the disabled woman.

And now let us turn to sexuality. Disabled women are not asexual. They have the same desire as their non-disabled sisters. Yet disabled women have been presented as socially flawed able-bodied people, not as disabled women with their own identities. The message is clear that disabled people are sexually dead. Nineteenth century women were seen to be prisoners of their reproductive system. Society tried to de-sexualise women and therefore control their mind set. Even though women now in the 21st century have the liberty of talking about menstruation, women’s dispositions are still identified through their reproductive organs.

It is common for disabled women to feel that they are no more than a spectacle for the public to prode, and in a different more physical sense, dehumanised into a piece of meat by the medicinal profession who have a right to probe. Some disabled women have been commented upon publically as an exhibit for medicinal students. Their bodies are not their own, public property. They might not have been sexually harassed by they are still being violated in the their deepest place, and by the bland, blank unspoken denial of their sexuality and womanhood. Research has shown that many disabled women have a negative view of self worth through comparing themselves with images of perfect bodies. Disabled women have little sense of self worth and this affects their status in society. When they go to the toilet there are some that want to go to the mirror and check hair and lipstick after the toilet function. Yet in the 21st century many women cannot do this. Go check the accessible toilets in your Union. Are there mirrors there? Are women able to access sanitary products and condoms and if not why not? People think that us disabled women do not have sex, sexually desires or want to look good- well I might shock you but guess what we do and have the right to access sanitary products, sexually education and have the right to be sexually healthy.

And what about disabled women who choose to be mothers- they have the right to do this but there are still those in society who think that we shouldn’t. A stranger asked Tanni Grey Thompson, the famous paraymplian, if her children were hers and how did she have them. She replied by having sex with her husband just like thousands of women who were married. On hearing this the stranger turned around and said that she should not be allowed to reproduce. How can people claim we live in an equal society when disabled women face this abuse and discrimination on the street? ALL women, not matter their disability, sexuality or race should have the right to be a mother if they so choose.

And let us not forget the Pro choice debate. On campuses around the country disability is being used an emotive way of trying to change the time limit- but we say that we must defend it. ALL women have the right to choice and people who use disability, as a tool in the debate must be told that this is wrong. I stand here as the NUS SWD Officer being proud to be pro-choice and warning pr-lifers that many disabled women will no longer people using there as an emotive tool in the pro-choice debate. ALL women have the right to choose- full stop!

So why I am proud to say that I am a disabled feminist? Because it is a disabled woman’s right to make an informed choice yet even in the twenty first century disabled women are still fighting the right to choose what to do with their bodies. Because disabled women are still fighting for the right to have and keep children and because disabled women are still fighting to be seen as women at all, rather than as being seen as genderless and asexual and finally because disabled women suffer the highest levels of violence and abuse, but have the fewest safe spaces.

The NUS SWD Campaign believes that disabled women have the same rights as their non-disabled sisters and are facing the same discrimination, in education, employment and through their personal lives. Until disabled women are portrayed in the media as strong and indepdent individuals who should not be patronised, until we are able to make our own choices about our own bodies and until we are able to have the access to education and employment that is our right then we will continue to fight. That is why I stand here today proud to be the NUS SWD Officer, proud to be disabled, proud to be a woman and proud to continue to fight about the double discrimination that women like me face.

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