I’m currently reading Lorna Hallan’s history of disability in Australia, and I’ve just come across this remarkable anecdote. In the late nineteenth century, there lived a man by the name of James Thomas Wrench, who, despite being born with a severe physical disability, was still able to achieve quite allot in his short life.
According to Breda Carty, in her history of disability in Australia project, Wrench;
“was born without arms, and with no knee or little toe on his right leg (he may have had a form of phocomelia). He learned to write and paint with his feet, and was a published author and artist. His autobiography, written as a young adult, is a most engaging document, and offers many insights into both the restrictions and possibilities for a person with a physical disability in mid nineteenth century rural Australia …”[1]
Now you might be wondering “What’s so special about that? We see this form of ‘inspiration porn,’ as Stella Young would call it,[2] all the time as we scroll through Facebook and Instagram?”
I guess what really struck me was the fact that this was the nineteenth century when most people like Wrench would have been institutionalised and/or abandoned, never knowing their true potential. During that period, allot of families would have considered a disabled family member as a great ‘shame’ that needs to be hidden away from the rest of the world.
Clearly his family didn’t see it that way, as his “parents and seven siblings always included him and encouraged his social participation, learning and artistic work.” In his autobiography, Wrench “makes it clear that this familial support was essential for his achievements.”[3]
His success goes to show the difference a supportive family can have on someone regardless of the circumstances of their birth.
Now it’s easy to look at the life and achievements of Wrench and think disabled “inspiration porn,” but usually “inspiration porn” is when non-disabled people are inspired by disabled people who are simply doing mundane tasks and going about their day like everyone else, and it can get incredibly annoying for a disabled person to receive perpetual patronising, condescending applause for doing the bare minimum.
However, Wrench wasn’t doing the bare minimum, he was achieving in ways that most non-disabled people aspire to do but never do.
This man had severe physical limitations since birth and he was still able to achieve more in his brief life then most people do without such handicaps.
I mean, how many self-described artists, without any such limitations, are still postponing and delaying projects that they insist they’ll finish but never will due to procrastination?
[1] Quoted by Lorna Hallan, Disability in Australia: Shadows, Struggles and Successes, (Disability Royal Commission, 2021). Pg. 33
[2] “TED speaker: Stella Young.” See: <https://www.ted.com/speakers/stella_young>
[3] Lorna Hallan, Disability in Australia, Pg. 33