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Peter White

When ability is a disability


Beijing

The Paralympic Games is probably the only place in the world where you can be discriminated against for being able-bodied.

As soon as the Games began, we had the first example of this.

Australia's Jess Gallagher planned to take part in a number of events, including the sprints and long jump, and had hopes of gold, but they were dashed when she was told she could see too much.

This really is the one place where you could be devastated by being told that your sight was better than you thought it was.

Australian athlete Jess Gallagher

There is no suggestion Jess was cheating; the margin of error is tiny and it only applied to one eye.

But it is enough to get an athlete removed from the village. If you don't qualify as a Paralympic athlete, you can't stay.

It was only by a bit of nifty Aussie thinking that budding osteopath Jess joined the support staff, and therefore still got to see the Great Wall of China.

Irish soccer player Derek Malone is in a similar position but in his case, the improvement which the testers say has occurred in his cerebral palsy, is, irony of ironies, the result of playing football.

He is convinced that his range of movement has been improved by his sports training. But that's dangerous!

After a good game while the testers were watching, it was deemed that Derek's disability now didn't have a "substantial impact" on his football.

It has led to a standing joke in the team. As soon as someone starts to play well they get a warning from the rest of the team in case the classification police are watching. There is no way round it.

Everyone, the athletes in particular, accept that if they want the Paralympics taken seriously, classification must be adhered to rigidly.

But where else would people like Jess be writing home saying: "Dear Mum. I don't know quite how to tell you this. They say I can see better than I thought I could".

Peter White is the BBC’s Disability Affairs Correspondent and will be reporting for You and Yours on Radio 4 which he regularly presents. Our FAQs should answer any questions you have.


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  • 1. At 02:42am on 15 Sep 2008, dustnbones wrote:

    The Paralympics is not the only place where you can be discriminated against for being too able-bodied. I've had CP for 47 years. For the last 23.5 years i never bothered to re-new my disabled persons bus pass. The reason being that I didn't need it due to being employed but now I've been made redundant I need it. But I have to go for an assessment with an occupational threapist to determine if I'm 'eligible'. What makes it even more ludicrous is that the issuing council encourages you to get a Doctors stamp and signature on the application form but Transport for Londons guidelines to Councils state:
    Using an applicant's GP to verify that an individual meets the criteria for a
    concessionary travel pass is regarded as an unsatisfactory arrangement for both the GP and the administrators of the scheme. The main argument against this approach is that it compromises the doctor / patient relationship.

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  • 2. At 12:19pm on 15 Sep 2008, batsgirl wrote:

    There's a similar situation for blue badges, disability benefits, help from social services... many people fall into a gap where they're too disabled to lead a 'normal' life, but not disabled enough to get any help.

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  • 3. At 02:31am on 16 Sep 2008, hongkong_onelegger wrote:

    The irony of the blue badge scheme for me is way you have to be medically assessed every time you apply for some disabilities but not others.

    I am an amputee and as such my blue badge gets renewed automatically with one click of my mouse. My friend who has CP has to be reassessed frequently to determine if he deserves his badge.

    I played hockey for my school and a club side alongside able bodied players. He struggles with some everyday tasks like going to do his shopping.

    Effectively it is discrimination against people with a disability who might get better. Not a genuine assessment of who needs assistance.

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  • 4. At 4:54pm on 16 Sep 2008, cptwoofus wrote:

    Anybody know a way of stopping M Sarkozy of France from claiming the medals won by GB athletes during the Paralympics were 'won for Europe'. He tried it with GB Olympic medals.

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