Raul Krauthausen: “Only through encounters can prejudices be broken down”

Lack of inclusion is a deeply rooted structural problem that makes social justice and thus equal opportunities impossible in our society. Due to a lack of representation, people with disabilities are not given a voice and live in a parallel system that urgently needs to be broken down. We spoke to inclusion activist Raul Krauthausen about this. In the interview, he tells us about his first experience of discrimination, the everyday barriers that prevent access to powerful positions and his demands on politics and the majority society.

Social justice means that everyone has the same opportunity to develop skills and talents and to achieve goals and desires. Everyone starts in the same position. What problems do you face as a person with a disability? In which areas of everyday life are you treated socially unfairly?

Social justice is a nice concept, but it is lacking in implementation. Just look at the access conditions for all of these places where talents are developed and goals and wishes are achieved. The most important educational institutions - from primary school to university - are not at all geared towards disabled people. But I can't get into public transport, flying, apartments, events, doctor's offices, shops, restaurants - anywhere.

I regularly have to deal with Deutsche Bahn's travel companions. The only thing that is set right is segregation into parallel systems and isolation. But that is exactly what we need to get rid of!

When and where did you first realize that you do not have the same opportunities as people without disabilities?

In fact, I didn't realise until quite late that I was being discriminated against. Fortunately, my parents were able to enable me to attend a regular school. When playing with my schoolmates, it was never about whether I had a disability or not, but about whether we had fun together. At school, I had the same experiences as many others - good and bad grades, being popular or unpopular, everything was just like many other schoolmates. And so I didn't have to worry about whether I had different opportunities because of my disability.

It was only when we went to the career information center biz in ninth grade and my schoolmates were allowed to choose their careers based on their interests, while I was led into a separate room with a man who showed me the workshop for disabled people, that I realized that I would probably have very few options.

What do the opportunities of disabled people depend on? In your opinion, what is the most important factor in making the world fairer for people with disabilities?

For many, it depends on whether parents allow themselves to be talked into sending their children to a special school or whether they succeed in getting their child into a regular school despite all the odds. A good education sets the course. But the struggle doesn't end there, of course. It takes a lot of effort and assertiveness to gain a foothold in the world of work, even outside of a workshop for disabled people.

Everywhere in our society - in the cinema, restaurant, shops, our friends' homes - there are barriers that ultimately prevent true participation. The system for disabled people therefore exists outside of these areas of the majority society. The first step is a legally anchored obligation for accessibility. This opens up important participation spaces for us disabled people where encounters can take place. Only through encounters can prejudices be broken down and other social spaces opened up.

For people with disabilities, additional dimensions often come into play, for example if they are affected by poverty, are female or have a migrant background. How can inclusion be thought of in a more intersectional way in relation to social justice?

Today, inclusion should only be thought of in intersectional terms. Because where people with a certain discrimination characteristic are to be actively included, there should actually be no exclusion based on another diversity characteristic. An important step is always to deal with the experiences and needs of those affected and, above all, to believe them. This can be done through self-taught research, scientific collection of data and research, or through personal contact.

I always like to recommend Karen Catlin's newsletter "Better Allies" . It gives 5 tips every week on how to best behave as an ally of marginalized groups. She also often takes the intersectional perspective into account, so it's a really good starting point.

What do you think it takes to achieve something approaching social justice? What can or must we do to highlight the injustices more clearly?

Those affected must be heard and given a platform to speak from their own perspective. There are still far too many non-affected people who believe they can speak and debate for marginalized groups. The largest, most common charities that advocate for the needs of disabled people are run exclusively by people without disabilities.

They have been running campaigns and raising awareness for over 60 years and disabled people have still not disappeared from society's parallel and marginalized sidelines. Hardly anything has improved. Instead, welfare industries have become powerful economic actors that enrich themselves from the issue of disability. The focus is simply on the wrong narrative and is oriented towards the wrong interests.

In addition, we also need disabled or marginalized people in positions that can influence overall social, political and legal developments.

Why do you think social justice, especially in relation to people with disabilities, is rarely reported publicly? How can more attention be drawn to this important issue?

Disabled people do not have an influential lobby. This is because disabled people are segregated into parallel systems in society and are barely represented in the public sector.

Furthermore, there is no uniform group of disabled people, even though we are the fastest-growing minority. Every life situation is different. The way in which a person is disabled is different for every person. This is why it is difficult to form a common, strong current within the disability movement. All of these factors make it difficult to even reach the public and present a powerful and united front.

In the media, disability is portrayed as something tragic and terrible, or everyday life with a disability is portrayed as inspiring and heroic. But neither of these is correct. We recently introduced a topic service in my association; on the website www.leidmedien.de , journalists can find topics that really affect people with disabilities. Perhaps that would be a small start if you want to continue your journalistic work there.

Portrait: Anna Spindelndreier