Stigma:
1) The recognition of difference based on some distinguishing characteristic or mark;
2) A consequent devaluation of the person
Quiggles: A made-up term (by famous sociologist, Erving Goffman) to identify all of the variations and differences of the human body which occur either from birth, daily wear and tear, accident, or illness which can be, and will be stigmatized.
By this time you've probably been reading several of the blogs on stigma and you might well be asking yourself just why all the fuss about a subject that quite frankly, you'd never before heard anyone comment on or you'd even thought about yourself. Hopefully over time, "Living with Quiggles" will prove to be one of your favorite blogs and you will believe, as I do, that stigma in healthcare is a very important topic that needs to come out of the closet.
Although I have been working in healthcare for over two decades, just last week I discovered an impact of stigma that I hadn't run across before. The organization I head is holding an international conference in just a few weeks time. Our Director of Special Projects requested a ramp to the stage so that some of our panelists who use wheelchairs for mobility could sit at the table with the rest of the panelists on a stage where everyone in the audience could see them.
Simple enough request in this day and age, right? Just telephone the conference venue and remind them that we need a ramp to the stage. One phone call later, I couldn't believe what I was being told. It seems that first the hotel did not have such a ramp; second, supposedly they'd never before had a speaker who used a wheelchair (large conference hotel mind you) and the final straw - our not-for-profit would have to bear the additional expense of renting a ramp (one which met their insurance specs) - which would mean locating a company that would rent, deliver, set up, take down, and pick up said item.
Can you guess how things escalated from there? Admittedly, I did my part! First, I suggested that the entire sales department take their lunch break in the company's personnel office and spend it reading the Americans with Disabilities Act - then we'd revisit this subject. Needless to say, within a short time a ramp did magically make its appearance at their facility. Problem solved, right? Nope.
Now it seemed that "ramp awareness" had set in and they had all been studying the conference ballroom which led to the determination that the platform had to be relocated along one of the sidewalls to accommodate the newfound ramp. They intended to allow access from one side of the stage for wheelchairs and stairs would be put on the other side to allow access for able-bodied people - based perhaps on the assumption that people who can climb stairs cannot walk up ramps?
A room layout change at this late date would not only reduce the number of attendees the ballroom would hold (when we were already close to capacity), but their newly-proposed layout would also make it difficult for several in the audience to actually see the screen and people on the stage, which was the whole point of the exercise in the first place.
