Chris McCausland

A stand up comedian who is totally blind has just won Strictly Come Dancing here in the UK.

His success surely can’t be anything but positive?

Actually no.

Already the “if he can do it why can’t others” rhetoric is starting.

Also the he wasn’t the best dancer he only got the sympathy vote rhetoric.

People are arguing about all aspects and that includes people who are being rude about the way people voted because they did or didn’t vote for Chris.

There’s also a lot of rhetoric stating disabled people can do anything they put their minds to.

So why did Chris succeed?

Going on my own successes and ignoring the hard work, skills, and willpower he brought to the table he had the correct support, with the adaptations he needed in place.

Dianne Buswell his professional dance partner in the competition changed her teaching method from “Watch and copy” to describing the movement and guiding Chris’ body into position.

I only caught what was shared on social media as I no longer watch tv and my brain couldn’t interpret the dancing it moved too fast with too much to keep track of.

One clip I watched a few times Dianne was guiding Chris off the dance floor to backstage and they were chatting about the performance. As they approached the stairs they needed to climb Dianne as naturally as breathing told Chris they’d reached the stairs and he without pause was ready and they continued their conversation as if nothing happened.

Why did it work so seamlessly?

I’m betting it didn’t without work on both sides as they found the best ways for Dianne to guide Chris and for Chris to trust Dianne. I don’t know if Dianne was taught her guiding technique by Chris, or by an mobility trainer, but it certainly wasn’t by the person who thought she was teaching me to use a white cane by telling me to watch her.

It’s certainly possible for a person to adapt to do a lot of things. It took me 9 months to adapt my cooking, housework, road crossing, and shopping skills while I was waiting for assessment of my needs by my local department. How much simpler and less distressing it would have been if that help would have been there soon after my diagnosis rather than my being left to sink or swim.

I’ve had to adapt and adjust how I sew myself and don’t feel I do too badly… certainly no worse than when I was sighted. Most times I messed up like in the photo below it’s where I rushed and I’d done similar when sighted.

However though reasonable adaptations are required by law in education and employment many disabled people find themselves unable to complete coursework because of inaccessibility (images not described, texts given in unreadable formats, etc); and they are unable to take a job offer because an employers software is inaccessible to a screen reader.

Right now the government in the UK is doubling down on the policy to get more disabled people into work by proposing changes to the benefits without making sure the Access To Work department works in a timely manner.

On social media people share their experiences of how education and employment work to solve inadequacies in their inaccessible nature and find often the policies aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Which brings us back to the start.

Chris winning the trophy was a blip not because he got the sympathy vote but because Dianne’s adaptations to make her teaching accessible to him isn’t the normal experience that disabled people have. It’s not unusual to have have people say disabled people are acting entitled if we ask for reasonable adaptations (ramps to get into a building in a wheelchair, audio description of visual media, braille, sign language interpreters, etc).

We just want a chance to do the things others do without a second thought.

Until next time