I was watching (the original) Star Wars recently when I noticed something quite cool about the Death Star. For the most part, it’s wheelchair friendly. Barely a stair in sight, with wide corridors and large lifts to ferry people between floors. Wow, I thought, even the bad guys have embraced accessibility.
But it’s our heroes, of course, that take the prize for more broadly demonstrating diversity and inclusion, especially within a disability context. Let’s take a look at the motley crew that saved the galaxy.
Its leader? A woman.
Two pilots, at least one of them - a criminal, the other - mostly non-speaking except for a well-placed yowl.
He’s not the only hero that doesn’t speak the common tongue. R2D2 communicates entirely through computerised beeps and whistles.
His robotic side-kick, while “fluent in over six million forms of communication” is completely clueless about social behaviour.
And then, there’s the farm boy and his strange “outdated” religion.
Had these people existed in our world it’s very unlikely they would have met at all. To begin with, Chewbacca and R2 would have been placed straight into 'Special Ed' where they may have had to contend with what’s been coined the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’.
C3PO might have sat on the margins of a mainstream classroom and would likely have spent lonely lunchtimes hiding from bullies in the library.
Leia would probably have been given an excellent education but may have struggled to convert that into a leadership role in the corporate or political world, not to mention wage parity.
And Luke? There's every chance we'd mock his beliefs, at worst, we’d fear them. Perhaps we’d even campaign to remove him from our community.
Thankfully, in a galaxy long ago and far, far away, people – both good and evil – weren’t so hung up on other people’s differences. They just got on with it and played to each other’s strengths. Which makes sense, really, if you’re fighting for the fate of the universe.
I, for one, am grateful Vader’s progressiveness didn’t extend beyond his accessible Death Star. That, while he was creating carbon copy drones, Leia and her gang were embracing diversity to bring the Dark Lord down.
I can only hope it won’t take a galactic war for the people of Earth to do the same.
On this day – and every other – May the Fourth be with you.
Briana Blackett
Briana Blackett is a journalist and advocate for her two children with disability. After more than 20 years in TV news, she now works for Hireup as part of its Communications and Advocacy team.