Oliver ‘Jimbo’ Scicluna has twice ranked fourth in international breakdancing competitions. But every time he goes on local television, it is his condition of spina bifida, not the dance moves, that gets presenters marvelling.
One PN work scheme is available to ex-inmates, drug addicts, recovering alcoholics and us
“We end up being defined by our disability,” Oliver, a founding member of NGO Breaking Limits, said. “And it’s so patronising.”
Breaking Limits is a disability NGO with a difference: one which has no time for saccharine portrayals of disability or the incess-ant tugging at heartstrings.
“We are not a charity NGO,” Oliver said. “We are here to fight for our rights as equal members of society, and to educate people about that.”
In practice, that means anything from helping local sporting associations to organise accessible sports such as wheelchair basketball to working with local councils to build and install wheelchair swings, at 25 per cent the price of the €3,000 they usually cost. Group member Clifford Portelli is now working on getting beach furniture, including a floating wheelchair usable on sand, made available for rent.
But fighting for their rights also means ruffling feathers. The National Commission for Persons with a Disability, for instance, is “too passive”, in need of “a mass-ive reshuffle” and “concerned with policies rather than action”.
The Labour Party has met with the group, “but Joseph Muscat told us it’s ‘not the right time’ to bring disabled people to the forefront of educational initiatives,” Oliver said.
And as for the Nationalist Party, “they didn’t even bother to get back to us. They have a strong relationship with the National Commission, so perhaps that ticks their ‘disability’ box,” said Rhoda Garland, a Brit who was active in the UK disability movement in the 1980s and 90s.
Both parties’ proposals, the group said, were decent but conservative, and both had “copied proposals from Alternattiva Demokratika, who we’ve also met with”.
“One PN work scheme is available to ex-inmates, drug addicts, recovering alcoholics... and us,” Oliver said wryly.
Accessibility problems abounded, the group said: ramps were often too narrow, disabled toilets often doubled as storage space, and many people were not deterred by the paltry €15 fine for parking in a disabled spot.
“They ’ve just redone the road leading up to Naxxar church. And there’s not a single ramp on the pavements. It’s unbelievable,” Rhoda said.
Noel Aquilina has been dreaming of a national wheelchair day, with people from all walks of life, “especially politicians”, he specified, made to spend one day in a wheelchair.
But barriers were not only physical. “You get so-called ‘normal’ people deciding on our behalf all the time. The assumption is, if you’re disabled, then you need to be spoon-fed.”
Christian Camilleri, a fully-qualified PSD teacher who has been unable to find teaching work, gritted his teeth. “I had a Learning Support Assistant all the way through sixth form, and they can help. But they can also make you lazy and dependent. We need to be pushed, instead of having our hands held.”
One memory stuck in Oliver’s mind. “We had suggested having disabled singers and musicians perform one hour’s worth of entertainment on L-Istrina. But we never heard back. Instead all you get is sob-story videos set to depressing music.”
“Perhaps,” Rhoda quipped, “that’s what gets people dipping into their pockets.”
The comment had Noel – a hand cyclist who has taken part in triathlons and cycled 318 km across Sicily in three days – nodding in agreement.
“We’re willing – and able – to be agents of our own change,” Oliver said. “We don’t need people to do things for us. But we’re not even given the opportunity to do so. We find ourselves begging for the chance to improve our own lives...” he tailed off.
Clifford agreed, adding, “nothing will change unless the disabled themselves are directly involved.”
Oliver has plans to broaden Breaking Limits further, collabor-ating with other NGOs and hounding politicians for change. “A movement,” he is fond of saying, “has to keep moving.”
It will not be easy for Breaking Limits to crack the mould of the disabled as objects of pity, but one gets the sense that the group is used to challenges.
“Politicians – whoever is elected next month – are in for a shock if they think they can just pay us lip-service,” Rhoda said. Oliver looked up and across the table. “We know we can bring about the change we ourselves need. And we’re not stopping until we do.”