There is a whole class of disabilities that are by nature not readily visible. Some people have disabilities that they struggle with every minute of every day, and only when they fail to overcome the dysfunction that assails them do we see the results of their disability. People with these disabilities cannot be accommodated unless they “SELF-IDENTIFY” their disability. Epilepsy, Diabetes, Hard of Hearing or Deafness, these are all examples of disabilities that we can and do accommodate once we know they exist.

There is another type of disability that we say we need to accommodate. The disability I’m referring to is mental illness. Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, and Depression are only the tip of the iceberg of mental illness. It is not, however, an easy matter to make the changes needed in order to accommodate it.

I know how hard it is to accommodate someone behaving “inappropriately”. I also know that if someone has told me they have a mental health disability, that by the time I see it, they are not in control of their disability but rather it controls them. I frequently want to tell people in this circumstance that they need to control themselves. I also know in hindsight that saying this is unreasonable. If they could have controlled their behavior, they would have. The loss of control is the reason that a mental health problem is a disability. When you have a mental health disability your ability to control behavior is ‘DIS’abled. Yet we often ask people with mental health disabilities to do the very thing their disability prevents them from doing.

Those of us that have Mental Health disabilities frequently choose not to identify it because it often results in people being afraid of us and being less accommodating out of that fear. The truth is that the frequency of violent behavior in the mentally ill is not statistically any higher than in any segment of the population. When we ask for accommodation we frequently face the assumption we are stupid, although statistically people with mental health disabilities are on average significantly above normal on all intelligence evaluations. When you do see us behaving appropriately, each minute of each day, it is because we have accommodated ourselves. When you see us behaving inappropriately, that is when we need accommodation. I think it just makes sense to communicate and work in the way that leads to the least amount of conflict and confusion, the way that is least problematic.

When I speak of accommodating mental health disabilities, I speak only in terms of consumers that have obtained a diagnosis, participate in their treatment and work at modifying the degree to which they lose control as a result of their disability. I say this because there is a difference between accommodating and enabling. In providing an accommodation to someone who has not identified, you take away a person’s ability to recognize the need for treatment. You do them a disservice that enables them to avoid confronting and dealing with their disability. In accommodating them this way you are really accommodating the disability and ignoring the person.

It seems that the reason we accommodate is to include as many people as possible in social functions. Western culture, particularly the culture evolving here in the United States, places a high value on diversity. We recognize that the contributions of any member of our society are important.

The diversity brought to our culture by the mentally ill is important and their contributions to western society are astounding. Michaelangelo’s David and The Sistine Chapel, the works of Mozart and Beethoven, and DaVinci’s contributions to art, medicine and science, would all be lost if we chose not to include the mentally ill in our society. The literary works of Poe, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway to name but a few would be lost. Some of our greatest statesman would have languished in obscurity; men like Lincoln and Churchill. Technology as we know it today would be impossible without the contributions to the study of mathematics by Isaac Newton . While these contributions seem astounding, also consider the contributions made every day by millions of people living with their disability as best they can. Their acts of kindness humility and courage show the strength of all people in facing adversity.

Sometimes I wonder if we know what we mean, when we say accommodation or reasonable accommodation. Is it doing this thing... not doing that thing… is it building ramps or offering a hand up. Is it leveling the playing field, does medicine play an important role or no role. All these things make it hard to know. Sometimes I wonder, but right now, in this moment I know it means giving a person the dignity and respect of being human when they are most in need of it.
                                                                 

If you liked this article "Accomodation", please check out the article "Appreciation".