Here at Simply Equality we’re all about moving from raising awareness of the challenges faced by disabled and LGBTQ+ people to empowering individuals and organisations to take active steps towards creating a truly inclusive workplace and society. Our focus on the “so what” factor in all the work we do is what we believe is one of our core strengths and which allows us to really add value to the organisations we work with.
This focus on action over awareness was brought home to us in a recent coaching session we were part of. During the session their was some quite intense discussion of the meaning of the word “inspiration” and it really hit a nerve with us. As queer disabled entrepreneurs we are all too familiar with the everyday challenges faced by people simply trying to live their best lives whatever that means for them. This is inevitably why we have such a strong reaction to the “I word” as we call it and why when we’re told “You’re such an inspiration” our response is to say thank you but to respond by asking what it is we’ve inspired you to do differently in terms of how you think or behave towards disabled and/or LGBTQ+ people.
Don’t get us wrong, we do understand the reasons why people say this and we’re certainly not saying you shouldn’t tell someone that you’re inspired by them but having reflected on this further we believe the key here is whether or not being inspired by someone leads you to take some form of action to change your way of being or thinking towards that person and others like them. We all have people who we look up to and who through simply being themselves challenge us to examine our own beliefs about our own potential and this is something to be celebrated. Perhaps going forward however we should think more of how ‘inspiractional’ rather than ‘inspirational’ someone is.
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