I noticed this poster at work last week, and it struck me as odd verging on offensive. It seems to be one in a series of work, health and safety (WHS) encouragement posters that appear from time to time in the building where the WHS unit is located.
Just to be clear, I have nothing against WHS per se - it is a noble, worthy and legislatively necessary cause. I should know too - in 22 years of employment with my current employer, I have been hit by cars at work, not once, but twice. I guess that's only once every ten or so years, but still I have managed not to get hit by cars in any other life domain. Fortunately on both occasions, the cars were travelling slowly and my wheelchair took the brunt of the impact.
But I digress ...
Let's unpack this poster's message. The benefits of staying injury free are not entirely obvious from this poster, despite its stated message. Is it trying to say that people with an injury or disability will not get the benefits of:
- A partner/spouse/husband/wife (and an opposite-sex one at that);
- Kids;
- Walking barefoot along the beach.
Whilst TV programs like Channel 4's "The Undateables" certainly show that's it's harder for disabled people* to find love and relationships (and there are many valid criticisms of the show itself), it is definitely not the case that these are out of the question for disabled people. And new plastic beach mats plus beach wheelchairs are making strolling along the beach (whether barefoot or not) in reach of more folks than ever before.
So by all means, encourage safety in the workplace, but don't reinforce ableist assumptions about disabled people in the process or use outdated and unfounded fears of disability to make your point. After all, some of us work in your workplaces too.
* Note: I liked this article by Jax Jacki Brown "#SayTheWord: Why I'm reclaiming the word 'disabled'" so much, I'm reclaiming 'disabled' too.