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	TX: 20.05.08 - Dr Rowan Williams, what disability means to him PRESENTER: PETER WHITE

	Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 麻豆约拍 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WHITE All this week we're asking people to ponder what having a disability means to them. The series - the whole series is available on listen again and as a podcast, details of how to access these in a minute. Later in the week we'll hear from motor racing commentator Murray Walker and from Gwyneth Lewis but - Wales first national poet, who didn't consider her depression a disability until we put the question to her. But today our case is Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. WILLIAMS I've got what I suppose could be described as a very, very mild minor disability in that I have a completely non-functioning left ear, it's there purely for decorative purposes. And what strikes me about getting used to living with that, which I've had since I was two years old, is I suppose the need to explain an invisible problem to people and to do that in a way that doesn't immediately put them at a disadvantage. Do you start a conversation at the dinner table by saying incidentally I shan't be able to hear a word you're saying, I'm deaf in my left ear? And where do you go from there? But I'm also aware of how it impacts on other things - the fact that in a strange way it helps me sleep better because I only have to put one ear on the pillow and that it also gives me a strain in my neck and shoulders if I'm turning round at an odd angle to listen to people on public occasions. So this very, very small experience is one that sends out tendrils in different directions. It makes me think about invisible disability - what is it that I don't see that's likely to be a problem; it makes me think about how something apparently very trivial and very local can actually affect the whole of your body without your quite realising it. The business of invisible disability and how you explain also makes me think a bit about disability and communication and the fact that quite often people feel, in a very metaphorical sense, disabled when they meet people who have a very visible, very obvious, disability, they don't know what it's like and they don't know what to say. And one of the most common problems, I think, that people feel when they're introduced, let's say, to somebody who has cerebral palsy, cases like that, people don't know how to talk to them. They can be jolly, they can patronising or they can just be dumb and sometimes all of them at once in different degrees. A friend of mine who has a very severely challenged son, who's now a young adult, once said that her experience was it wasn't her child who had learning problems, it was she who had learning problems, she didn't know how to learn what his life was like. And in a different degree I think that's something that comes home to anyone who's had to deal with the question of how to communicate and for me quite a turning point, as when I was a student many years ago and I used to go and work at weekends at a residential home for children with cerebral palsy and the struggle to understand what they were saying and to work out what it was that the uncoordinated movements of the limbs were about always left me feeling utterly powerless, helpless and stupid. And I wonder if that's not what people are sometimes afraid of. When you're with people who have real challenges, deep disabilities, you're left being put in touch with your own vulnerability and your own uselessness, your own lack of omnipotence. And that's quite hard work. And in a society which really does value being on top of the situation, being cool and powerful and in charge, it's very threatening and that's why I think sharing that experience with someone who has real challenges, that's something that's actually pretty good for us, for our maturity. WHITE The Archbishop of Canterbury. That and yesterday's what disability means to me instalment from rugby star Kenny Logan, he was talking about his dyslexia, are available as disability podcasts from our website and there's a listen again facility for the whole series. Go to the 麻豆约拍 website, follow the path to Radio 4, then to You and Yours where all is made clear. And do let us know your personal experience of disability, you can e-mail us or call on 0800 044 044. Tomorrow's instalment, by the way, is Wales national poet Gwyneth Lewis. Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 麻豆约拍 is not responsible for external websites

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