Wheelchair Users -- Leave Out The Sentimentality In Coverage Of Disabled People

That's it, I've had it. The Times' consistently patronizing coverage of people with disabilities is simply unacceptable. A recent case in point occurs in reporter William Gough's article (Nov. 10) on the "Care to Dance" benefit dance marathon for AIDS care programs: "Music boomed from the dance floor and strobe lights bathed the dancers. People in wheelchairs joined them, swinging back and forth to the music."

Excuse me, Mr. Gough, but the three or four of us who were participating in our wheelchairs at the time that you were there were dancing, just as everyone else was. One of us is in fact a professional dancer. People who use wheelchairs dance, play sports, work and are active in politics. Contrary to the image conveyed in this story, our participation in these activities is not "special," nor do we wistfully join in larger events on a cute but lesser basis.

This one article would not have motivated my protest were it not for a much larger pattern of stereotyping in your newspaper. Wheelchair athletics are covered as human-interest stories in the Scene section, and never by sports reporters.

At least once a month some disabled person is portrayed as "inspiring" and "heroic" for "overcoming" their physical problem and working, going to school or making themselves breakfast. Finally, you continue to admit the obnoxious phrases "confined to a wheelchair" and "wheelchair-bound" into your coverage. (Actually, no one has been padlocked to a chair since at least the abolition of slavery. On the contrary, many of us find our wheelchairs useful, even fun, life-enriching tools.)

The subtext to all of this is a media tone of condescension and pity, and I'm sick of it. Perpetuated by The Times and others, this attitude is nearly as maddening a form of discrimination as the absence of ramps or curb-cuts, but there is no section of the Americans With Disabilities Act that can force reporters to re-evaluate their predilection for cheap, oppressive sentimentality in covering disabled people.

Until they do, this is one wheelchair-user who would rather get no coverage at all than the coverage we now receive. - Steve Marquardt, Seattle