Hailing disabled people as heroes is ‘inspiration porn’

DISABLED people are not all “heroes”, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, the former Paralympian has said as she pushed back against the concept of “inspiration porn”.

The 54-year-old wheelchair racing champion said disabled people are often treated as if they are “brave and marvellous” simply for getting up in the morning.

The Welsh life peeress recalled how her wheelchair user friend who is an accountant was once described as an “inspiration” by a stranger.

She told the

podcast: “I was with a friend a little while ago, who is a wheelchair user as well, and somebody came up to her and they recognised me as an ex-athlete and that was lovely. And they said to my friend, ‘Oh you’re inspirational as well’.

“She’s an accountant, I’m not sure you generally call accountants inspirational.”

The Baroness, who won 11 golds over 16 years, said the perception “gets a bit complicated” when it comes to sporting figures. She said some disabled people will struggle to get out of bed in the morning and struggle to work. “There’s also a lot of non-disabled people that will struggle with that. Just because we have an impairment, it doesn’t mean to say we’re heroes.”

She went on to criticise “virtue signalling” and the misconception that the 2012 Paralympics in London “changed the world” for the disabled.

“As much as I loved the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, I worked on the bid, I worked on delivery and I worked on legacy, it was amazing – that has not changed the world for disabled people.”

“People say ‘Oh 2012 changed the world’, because it makes them feel better. Well it’s almost like we don’t have to do anything else because we had the Paralympics in the UK and I get really annoyed by that.”

She said the “reality” is that people don’t know “how hard life can be for disabled people”. “Train access hasn’t improved, inspiration porn hasn’t improved, education for disabled children is still a struggle, access to sport facilities is still a struggle,” she said.