The following is a speech given at the United Nations at an event celebrating the International Day of People with Disabilities and the opening of the exhibition WANTED: A World for One Billion.
December 2nd, 2022
Thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor to have my art amongst the work of all of these incredible artists and activists. I’m speaking here as an artist but also as a disabled woman here in the United States, a country where access to sexual and reproductive healthcare is so precarious. My work in this exhibition is titled Blueprints for a Fallen Angel. They are intimate self-portraits, depictions of my experience living in this body. My body. I make art as a way of processing, a way of coming to terms with the physical reality of my disabled body. These photographs are cyanotypes, a process that uses the UV rays from the sun to print these brilliantly blue images. While most photographers seek the perfect polished photograph, I fell in love with cyanotypes because of their physicality. Their imperfections are part of the work and the reasoning behind it. They speak to the public perception of disabled bodies as imperfect, but those imperfections only add to the work. I fell in love with this form of image-making because it allows me to work within the constraints of my disability and still create work that is really meaningful. In both process and product, these cyanotypes mirror my constant state of uncertainty, unsure of what will happen with both my physical and mental health and my access to health care itself.
In many ways I’m lucky. I live in Vermont, a state that voted to codify access to abortion into our state constitution after Roe v. Wade was overturned this summer. I have health insurance, and crucially I am financially secure enough to afford my insurance deductible. In America, healthcare is an expensive commodity. Sexual and reproductive health care is healthcare and without the systems in place to access basic healthcare needs we need to radically change our healthcare system. The World Health Organization reports that people with disabilities are three times more likely to be denied healthcare, four times more likely to be treated badly in the healthcare system, and 50% more likely to suffer a catastrophic health expenditure. Without equitable and accessible healthcare, disabled people are dying. Creating systems where health care is accessible is vitally important to keeping disabled people alive Our current system isn’t working, for disabled people or frankly for anyone else. But we can’t move forward if we can’t stay alive.
Unfortunately, we’re struggling against a system that was constructed by capitalists and eugenicists. Between 1907 and 1963 over 64,000 forced sterilizations took place in the United States, mostly disabled people. The writings of California eugenicist Paul Popenoe were widely cited by the Nazi regime as justification for their own mass sterilization of those that they viewed as mentally ill. Many of these practices were outlawed in 1978 but 1978 was only 44 years ago. This isn’t ancient history, this is our legacy. And we can do better We need to grapple with this legacy, recognize it, and begin working to move forward. Disabled people need more than this lack of institutional harm, we need actual institutional support. In the United States qualifying for federal disability benefits is a form of forced poverty that many people cannot survive in.
I dream of a day when income and disability are not tied to each other. When every person, regardless of work-eligibility or familial wealth can have equitable access to health care. When dental coverage is not a luxury. When people do not need to choose between their health and their rent. I dream of all of us, not just those of us who are disabled having access to healthcare, access to employment, access to independence.
I dream of a future where the idea of uninsured and underinsured people seems like a fever dream. I dream of a future when going to the doctor does not feel like a minefield of hidden expenses. I dream of a future where disabled bodies are seen as people. Equally deserving of healthcare, access to services, and education around sexual and reproductive health. I believe that these dreams could be a reality. I hope you do too.