An Open Letter to the Arthritis Foundation

From Service Dog Training

Dear Arthritis Foundation,

A number of years ago I ran a Jingle Bell 5K run that benefited your organization. Since that time, I’ve been on your email list. In November, I received another email from your organization. The subject was “Tiffany, Your independence is at stake.” Intrigued, I opened the email to find this question, “Tiffany, Are you scared of arthritis?” I answered “no” in my head and scrolled down to find the answer, in bold type, all caps was “YOU SHOULD BE.” The email goes on to explain that with arthritis, my every movement would be “shattered by pain” and that having arthritis would affect my independence, my mobility, and my quality of life. The email then asks me to donate to help in the battle against this “dreadful disease.”

Let me explain why I’m not scared of arthritis. I’m not scared of arthritis because I’ve had arthritis for years. Arthritis is not a walk in the park, but it’s not the end of the world either. I still have my independence, I still have my mobility, and I still have an outstanding quality of life. How could this be with such a “dreadful disease?” It’s simple. I adapted. I learned to manage my chronic pain with medication, chiropractic treatments, and massage. I learned to increase my mobility with a service dog and crutches. I learned to organize things in my house so I could do as many things as possible without assistance. I’ve made a few modifications at school and in my job to ensure I can be just as productive as everyone else. In short, my life is very average. I go to graduate school, I work as a teaching assistant and a dog trainer, and I go grocery shopping and do my laundry.

I refuse to be scared of arthritis, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else be scared of it either. Sometimes arthritis can be prevented, and for those people, that’s wonderful. Mine could not be prevented, and that is true for many others as well. For those of us that cannot prevent arthritis, and even those who can but choose not to, it is counterproductive to have an organization that purports to assist us insist that we need to live in a constant state of fear that we might one day lose our independence, mobility and quality of life, especially since this is not true. This email is, quite simply, a fear tactic aimed at convincing those who do not yet have arthritis that if they do not give money right now, they may one day have horrible things happen to them.

In addition to the deplorable use of fear tactics to attract donations, this campaign presents a skewed view of people with disabilities like arthritis. People with disabilities have enough trouble with social acceptance already without having an organization like yours perpetuate negative stereotypes about the independence and quality of life of people with disabilities. People with disabilities are unemployed and underemployed at a much higher rate than people without disabilities. Much of this is due to negative stereotypes of people with disabilities. What could prompt an organization like yours, designed to help people with one of the more common causes of disability, act in a way that directly undermines the social acceptance the disability community has worked so hard to obtain? From the looks of this email, the answer is simple. Money. If it gets donations, you’ll say it, with no concern or consideration for how many people it may hurt along the way. In the long run, organizations like yours that stoop to such level end up hurting the disability community more than they help.

--Tiffany Huggard-Lee 11:47, 6 February 2010 (CST)