An open letter to the powers that be

ABSTRACT

This paper examines a case of discrimination against a deaf person at senior management level in education to illuminate the mechanism of discrimination and how, even when challenged, it can become a full-blown and deliberate victimisation and oppression. It questions the status of non-disabled ‘experts’ who mislead disabled people by encouraging them to adhere to unrealistic role concepts and expectations in pursuit of the perfect role model of the skilled disabled professional who can function in the absence of appropriate support, by isolating them from their own context, self-image and sense of humanity as disabled people. It further attempts to show the nature and extent of language abuse, institutional cultural monopoly and double standards which relegate disabled people to third class citizenship within diseased institutional frameworks, and suppress the possibility of a diversity of knowledge, skills, understanding and learning which makes for a more healthy ‘affective climate’ in education and society at large.