It is with relief I look at the TV listings & don't see great chunks of it devoted to the Olympics & Paralympics. As non-sport enthusiasts this summer has been a matter of endurance. Even the couple of weeks break between the two lots of games was overshadowed by the awareness the next lot would soon be coming.
The coverage of the games has been thorough. Two whole channels were devoted to the Olympics. Every news channel, current affair programme, celebrity interview type programme on radio or television was dominated by them. Great if you're sports mad, a bore if you're not. The Paralympics wasn't quite so thorough, with only the one TV channel devoted to the subject, but nonetheless substantial coverage was to be found elsewhere.
So now it comes to an end & life gets back to normal. The one remaining question is the legacy of the events.
Personally I can't help questioning if there will be any long term legacy. Certainly the morale of the nation seems higher but once people get back to earth, & are once more concentrated on the reality of austerity Britain & the problems the country, the world, face, I wonder how long that will last.
As for the Paralympics, they seem to think they will have raised the standing of disabled people. I can't help wondering about this.
I'm sure the appreciation that disabled people can have value, however severely disabled they may be, will remain with some people, especially if they have had more, closer contact with disabled people. However, I fear that some people will come away with the view that disabled people are really just as capable as non-disabled if they just put there mind to it.
What the average non-disabled person doesn't seem to realise is that the type of wheelchairs & prosthetics needed to partake in sports cost thousands & are not supplied by the NHS. Without expensive aids & assistance, even the most eager disabled person remains disabled, incapable of pushing themselves long distances.
Equally I suspect that these disabled athletes are the exception rather than the norm. Most disabled people suffering with severe pain & fatigue just couldn't begin to think of being so active.
As for locally, I somehow cannot imagine if I turned up at my local sports centre, council run or otherwise, it will suddenly have the facilities to enable me to participate in anything, any more now than before.
What I fear is that this more positive, rosy-tinted attitude towards disabled people may end up making life even harder for disabled people. Are they to face more abuse for being lazy scroungers of the benefit system? Are they to be told they can get up and walk just by dint of will & if they can't it's their fault for not making the effort? I hope not. It is not a choice. If I had the choice I would be fit & healthy once more, able to do whatever I want, capable of coping with any adversity that came my way, be once more independent. But I know wishing won't achieve that.
No comments:
Post a Comment