Society makes people handicapped.

HAPARANDA. Make Resistance against discrimination, injustice and abolish the word handicapped. The is what Lars-Göran Walden advocates, he is one of the lecturers at the “available-week” in Haparanda.

-No one is handicapped until brought before a situation one can not handle, Walden says.

To be handicapped, no functional disability is necessary. Everyone can be handicapped in the wrong situation. That is what Lars-Göran Walden claims. He is a journalist, self-employed and bound to his wheelchair.

If you were to be put behind an aeroplanes joystick, I can guarantee you would feel handicapped, compared to what a real pilot would feel, Walden says.

He wants to abolish the word handicapped from dictionaries and vocabularies.

No one is handicapped until brought before a situation one can not handle.

A life on wheels

In the lecture “Life rolls on”, he describes life seen from the perspective of a person bound ti a wheelchair. He works through his company with accessibility, treatment and gives lectures to schoolchildren, municipal politicians, architects and to the public.

He asks for more requirements on accessibility for everyone and a society where all people can live independently.

“Should be punished”

Disabled people should go to war against injustices. Am I sitting in a wheelchair? Yes.
Am I disabled? Yes. Am I handicapped? No, I only become “handicapped” when I am confronted with a situation I can not manage.
All who discriminate and create handicapped should be punished, and I think the handicap symbol should be abolished.

“Useless rules”

The community has rules that are available for everyone. But Walden says that nothing happens when the rules aren’t followed.

Take the toilets for an example. There are three types, one for men, one for women and one with a handicapped symbol. Discriminating and special treatment. What would happen if someone put up a toilet sign with a redhead woman as a symbol?

During the two hours Walden lapped with humour, irony and stories from his own life with pure facts how it is for a disabled to live in a community that isn’t suited for all human beings.

By Andreas N and Tobias