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HANDICAPPED FUTURE

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THE SITUATION OF PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

There, you've almost got it.

Really tight, tight Susanne, really tight!

There are a total of 4.5 million handicapped people living in the FRG,

of those, 470,000 are school age children.

According to surveys,

the majority of the German citizens don't want to live with them.

How are they living? And where?

And what do we know about them?

What opportunities does society give them?

Or is our behaviour towards them perhaps an additional handicap?

- Dagmar, how old are you? - Six.

- Have you started school already? - Nursery school.

Well, I don't play very much at home,

just a little bit.

But during sport in the afternoon,

I'm bored,

and then I paint or play something.

Do you think about things a lot, or what do you do,

for example in the afternoons?

In the afternoon

I just imagine things for myself.

What do you imagine?

Well, something about... also with Indians.

And... about walking...

if I could walk...

Yes, what would you do then? What do you imagine?

Well, I would bring Richard down to school.

You would bring Richard to school?

- Yes. Downstairs. - Yes.

And then I would go and walk up the stairs.

Because I'm afraid to use the lift by myself.

So you would walk up the stairs?

And what else would you do?

Well, go inside, and...

then either walk around,

or listen to records.

Well...

I don't exactly know...

Do you dream a lot?

Well, when my eyes are open, yes.

But afterwards, around five, I run out of ideas to dream of.

So you don't dream much at night, but during the day?

Yes, but... Yes, but then...

I can't think of anything to dream of.

I don't notice it anyway.

And what do you dream about during the day?

During the day?

Well, what I said before, from the Indians and such.

- Do you have friends here? - Yes.

- Who, what's his name? - I think his name is Thomas.

- What makes him different to you? - Hm...

He doesn't have any arms or feet.

Is what he has bad, or...?

- Yes, it's bad. - Yes, they're disadvantaged.

But for you, he is just as much of a friend as someone whose arms are long,

or is he someone completely different for you?

It's hard to say, but... he looks different.

But actually he's the same, except for the arms, the short ones.

What do you think?

He... he is almost the same as us,

only at birth he became different.

Do you think that that's bad,

or that it gives your friendship a different meaning?

Yes, it's bad, because they can't eat so well.

- I see. - And they can't play well.

Have you had a lot of interaction with physically handicapped children?

Yes.

Can you tell us something about it, about your thoughts?

Yes, I even sit next to one at school.

And she's quite good at gymnastics.

But our teacher always does things,

gives us things to do, where she can't participate.

Sometimes yes, but not most of the time.

And she is very, very good at writing.

If I want to, I can write, too, but I don't write as well.

And dressing,

well, she needs a bit of help.

And otherwise...

she is quite good, on the whole.

- Are you her friend? - Yes.

In 1968, the Pfennigparade established a community facility here in Munich,

where for the first time an attempt was made

not to isolate physically handicapped people in institutional homes,

but to house them together with the healthy members of their families

in specially furnished apartments...

The complex includes an elementary school and a secondary school,

medical facilities, a gym

and a workplace with computer facilities from the Siemens Company.

A second such house is being constructed adjacent to the first.

Gymnastic exercises are done here to train balance.

For without arms,

the perception of the body and of balance are completely different than we know it.

Turn around... You stay seated, OK...

- Then I have to jump off... - That's very good.

- But I've never done it before, have I? - Oh, I think you have.

- Uh-uh... - When you were smaller,

- I'm sure you did it. - Oh yes, in... in the Kapuziner Street.

We try to stimulate the children at least as much as in other schools,

actually I try to stimulate them even more,

so that they are not later employed on the basis of pity,

but on the basis of their qualifications,

and therefore have a better chance to somehow enter into an occupation.

And we have to see to it that all the children learn an occupation,

because they can't just rely on pity all their lives.

Hey, stop it... you jerk.

Dagmar, why would you like to go to America?

- Because I want to see the Indians. - Why the Indians?

- Because I want to see them in real life. - Mm-hm.

Where have you seen them before?

- In movies. - And what did they do?

- They captured Shatterhand. - Really?

- And the son from Winnetou too. - Imagine that, imagine that...

And what happened then?

Um... then there was the time...

where Winnetou was supposed to die.

A-ha!

Yes and... and, er... who is your favourite Indian?

- I would say Winnetou. - Really?

And what else do you want to do in America besides look at Indians?

Hm...

What would you do if you saw an Indian?

- Not much. - Not much?

What do you think that the Indians look like today?

- What I think? - Yes, what you think.

They still have a headdress and feathers,

but they are just dressed like the white people.

A-ha! So...

Today we have... I have brought you some more nice things.

No, that's... that's a "Kalbste", or something like that.

"Kalbe" or something...

Many practical things are difficult to access for the children

due to their restricted freedom of movement.

Therefore there is a class especially for general knowledge in the school.

When asked, where potatoes come from, one girl said,

"From the potato mine."

They have to first learn what a pine cone,

a horseshoe or a bank note is.

Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue, it's on the tip of my tongue...

That's a pine cone.

- A fir cone. - Oh yes!

Ho... ho... horseshoe from a horse!

- Wow, Günter is right. - I knew that too.

- You knew that? - That's what I meant... you have to...

- Give it to me, I know where to put it! - Well, then!

That, that has to go down there on the feet, like that.

Like that...

And then you heat it up and it gets welded,

they weld it,

and then something gets put on it,

and when it's finished, then they put it,

they put it down somewhere.

And then they put it, on the hands, and...

I mean on the horses, over them,

but actually, that hurts them

- walking around barefoot. - Good!

Do you think that that is a hundred mark bill?

That... that... yes...

- Is this a hundred mark bill? - Yes!

And can you buy something with it?

No, you can only buy something with it in English.

- Only in English? - Or in Africa, you can do it there...

In Africa? Do you think, that that...

Just who is that there? Do you think that this is our President?

- Yes. - Yes?

Yes, that's him. Look, he has a round face!

- He isn't for real! - I have another one here.

What could that be?

A five hundred, a five hundred!

- A six hundred! - What was that?

- A six hundred. - Hundreds of?

Marks.

Is that so, you think that that is so much money.

Can you tell us what you do to take Monika out in public?

Yes, first of all, we go shopping with her,

as well as that we take her wherever we go,

we drive up to the mountains

or to the lakes with her or take her into restaurants for lunch.

And above all, we maintain contact with families

that have children with normal limbs

so that she grows up amongst normal people.

And now she's going to a swimming course.

And they were also in a skiing course, Moni, Hansi and Helma,

three of the children from the house,

the other children didn't participate in the ski course.

Well, how do people react if you ski without poles,

what do the people say to you then?

Mostly the small children around seven or six,

they come over and ask, for example,

why don't we have any poles and such.

And then we stand up for ourselves

and just say that that's the way it is

and try to get rid of them.

Because they just bother us.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the misconduct of outsiders?

Yes, especially when we go for a walk or even in a shop, the people stare.

I think it's more the older ones, the oldest generation even,

like around sixty or seventy,

not the forty-year-olds,

and that is of course always very painful.

Yesterday I was, for example, taking a walk with the two of them.

They didn't notice that Monika didn't have any arms

because she was wearing a little cape.

Andrea was wearing a cape too, but she had her arms out.

And I could notice that the people were constantly staring at Andrea,

although Andrea is really such a nice, delightful girl.

Well, and maybe they think that Monika can't do anything,

I know that from one of our neighbours,

who has often been asked what Monika does all day long.

And she always said that she can do this and that and whatever.

People maybe have the idea that the children sit around the apartment

and can neither play nor eat nor write.

So, does anyone need anything else?

OK, the first self-portrait is hanging on the wall.

- Who did that? - Rudi.

Now we've hung it up. Afterwards we'll think about who it is...

Mrs Gartenberg, what should I paint now? I'm finished with my picture.

Oh, I've forgotten my hair.

Do you remember that we drew ourselves already once last year?

- Mm-hm. - The carnival picture? Yes?

How did you draw yourself there? Today's picture is completely different.

In that picture I have a really. I drew a really colourful patchwork skirt.

Yes, and how did you look, how did you draw yourself?

I think that this picture is very different from last year's picture.

I've painted it a bit more clearly now,

and the face, I've done that very differently,

and I've made the hair very messy.

Well, the greatest difference to last year,

is that it is more differentiated.

Last year, she drew herself more babyish,

but with normally developed limbs

and she didn't leave out her toes.

Since then she has become much more conscious

about her type of handicap,

and the toes have taken on a greater importance.

The first self-portrait is hanging up, everybody look here now!

Nice.

Who knows who this is? - I... I... I know...

- Who is it, Robert? - Rudi.

Rudi, what do you think is very characteristic of yourself?

The hands.

Well, what is it especially that you notice there?

Well, I only have three fingers on one hand and four on the other.

Exactly. That's how I would have recognised you too, right. Good.

Gitti, look at me.

Listen, you painted pictures of yourselves today in art, right?

This girl painted a picture of herself...

and then wanted the finished picture back so that she could paint in some tears.

- Do you like it? - Not bad.

You think it's not bad?

Do you think that the picture looks like you? Yes?

The face is pink, I can see that, yes.

And brown eyes, that's right too, but what is the blue there?

Those are the tears.

Oh, those are the tears.

First you gave me the picture without the blue.

Do you remember? And then you wanted it back, right?

- Why did you paint tears on it? - I don't know.

Why did you paint tears on it?

Is there a reason?

When you go away from home, then you cry sometimes.

Did you go away from home recently?

Were you home on the weekend?

Were you thinking about it?

I have some of the pictures from some of the children here,

where a big problem is noticeable,

namely the problem of isolation, that the children feel of course.

For example here, this picture, this is from an eleven-year-old girl.

She draws herself down here, incidentally not handicapped,

but rather completely healthy, but isolated from...

these are three fish here, from life around her,

around which she draws a circle to encapsulate it.

And I have a very interesting picture here

from a ten year old boy.

He drew himself...

well, not himself, but a snake behind bars, in prison.

And he told me, when I asked him what the meaning was,

he said, "That's a boy that the snake just gave birth to."

And the bars in front show how he feels.

He just feels as if he is imprisoned through his physical handicap

and he feels isolated from the other playmates, from the environment.

And the same child painted here, as well, a prison in the rocky overhang.

This here is depicting a rocky overhang, and this is the prison,

and there's nothing other than that on the picture except his name, Robert.

His name, Robert, is up here.

It is always the same image that is communicated by the children,

the isolation, the loneliness.

Hey Bodo, wait, catch me.

Bodo, too bad that I have this apparatus on,

because if I didn't I could show you my handstand.

Yeah? Oh, too bad.

No, that won't work, I can't.

Or should I try it with the apparatus?

- It works! - No, it doesn't...

The problem of isolation isn't terribly noticeable on the playground.

The question remains, if the construction of the community facility

can eliminate the isolation at all.

- How old are you, Kurti? - I'm ten now. Ten years old, yes.

- He turned ten in August. - On August 21st.

And how is it here, how do your pals treat you?

- Well, none of my pals are here. - Badly, from those his own age.

Only from the little ones, from the little ones,

the second, third grade, it's all right with them.

Those who are in his class, they don't accept him at all.

They call him the little mashed guy, or the electronic dwarf...

and give him other such names.

And that makes me angry.

He comes home often during the week and tells me about these things.

And it makes me angry.

Do you go out, for example, with Kurti maybe to a restaurant?

No, I haven't done that very often.

- Why not? - Well, I'd rather avoid the excitement.

I'm a nervous wreck,

and I just can't take it, it's too much excitement.

If I can avoid it, I avoid it.

And why do you do that?

Well, like I said, the excitement, the staring, the whispering.

You notice that when you're sitting at a table

and the whole restaurant is staring at you.

And then they whisper and gossip and you know exactly why.

That upsets me.

Then I have to get up and go. So I don't go there in the first place.

I'll say, "Let's go for a walk this afternoon,

"today is a lovely day", but he says no every time.

He says, "No Mama, I won't go with you,

"because you get yourself much too upset".

He goes with his sister and with his brother.

He goes with them, but not with me.

Because he wants to keep me from getting upset,

he understands that, you know. He wants to avoid that.

With me he doesn't go anywhere.

Do you suffer as a result?

Yes... terribly, terribly, I'm already emotionally distressed.

Emotionally I'm... it's ruined me.

Emotionally it has brought me... to my wits' ends,

the way they react...

So, when you're out with Kurt in the department store, for example?

Well, of course they could,

and there are some, if they had enough tact, then they do it too,

but some of them, they have none whatsoever.

- How does that manifest itself? - How it manifests itself?

First of all, they stare at you directly, and then they say something stupid to you.

Some of them come to you with the stupidest things.

They say something dumb.

"Is that a Thalidomide child?" and "Why did you take that stuff?"

That's what I have to listen to.

"I didn't take anything while I was pregnant,"

and "This child will blame you some day."

And so on, that's the kind of thing you have to listen to.

- In front of Kurt? - In front of Kurt.

They say it in front of Kurt. Of course they say it.

Just don't listen to them.

"Don't listen to them"... Of course I don't listen to them.

I have to plug my ears shut outside. And then...

What about during the birth?

During the birth? How he was born?

Well, I didn't see him at all. They didn't show him to me at all.

They only told me briefly, "The child is not properly developed."

I couldn't imagine what they meant.

Then, they took him away from the clinic.

And then for ten weeks, until the end of October,

he stayed in the Lachner Institutional Home.

And then I said, now I'll just try to see if I can take the child myself.

If the treatment is quite difficult, then you can still do it.

But everything went just marvellously, just marvellously.

And then the winter came...

And why were you so shocked?

When I picked the child up from the children's clinic to take him home,

and I hadn't seen him once before then,

and I was all alone, abandoned, completely alone,

and then you're supposed to take the child out of the baby carriage,

and unbundle it, and look at it or not.

And I thought hard about whether to or not,

but there was no other choice.

I can't leave him in the baby carriage all year long.

I have to take him out.

So I took him out and unbundled him on the couch in the living room,

and I saw what happened to him.

Without anyone telling me anything before or showing me the child.

I hadn't seen the child before and it was a terrible shock.

And then I was happy that it was winter

as the child could lie in the baby carriage,

and you could cover him up without anybody saying anything.

But then spring came

and you can't cover a child up to its neck.

Did you try to hide him?

Yes, I did. I never took him out.

I just kept him in the bedroom, over by the window.

And then there was a social worker who came to visit me every two weeks.

She looked after me very well.

And what about now? Do you still try to hide Kurt?

Well, of course, if I have to take him somewhere,

then I'm terribly nervous when I go shopping,

because of the way people stare and whisper.

Do you like to go on walks with your mother

or going to a department store or something?

Alone, yes. I once went alone to Rewe.

He goes alone to Rewe.

But with Mama, well...

First of all, it's a long way if I have to walk,

and secondly, I don't like to go with the stroller

because the people stare and think, "Oh! Such a big lad sitting in a stroller."

He sits in a baby carriage and then they stare, don't they?

Yes, they stare.

And if I walk, then they can see it with their own eyes that I can walk.

And then they once said, "Aren't you ashamed?

"Such a big lad sitting in a baby carriage?"

That was in the winter and he was covered,

they didn't see the legs,

and someone said these dumb things to us in passing.

Aren't you ashamed?

Such a big lad and you let yourself be pushed in a baby carriage!

He was shocked.

He pulled back his head and closed his eyes,

he was so shocked at what the man had said.

And I thought to myself, "My God, what a stupid idiot!"

I thought, if you only knew why, you wouldn't be asking me.

I can't wear a sign around my neck that explains why.

And that's why I avoid going out with him if I can.

Mrs Hennes, can you tell us a little bit about Dagmar?

Yes, Dagmar was born with a double femur fracture

and was brought directly to the clinic, the children's clinic.

And Dagmar came home, quite a while ago,

when she was two and a half or almost three,

and was completely frightened, spoke very little,

was afraid of strangers

and screamed during the night without any apparent reason,

and it took my husband and I quite a lot of patience and effort

to slowly explain to the child that she was now in an environment

where she wouldn't have any more pain,

where she would be cared for gently,

where she would also be loved and not just tended to,

which was also very important.

We immediately told both children, Richard and Dagmar,

as soon as they were aware of their handicap,

what was wrong with them,

how the chances are,

so that they were able to learn quickly to live with their handicap.

Especially in order...

to give them a positive outlook on life,

so that they learn to get around in spite of their handicap.

They have family duties,

they help me, they wash the dishes by themselves.

They're able to do that here, dry them and help clean up,

and they keep their rooms tidy.

We think that it's absolutely necessary

that they have duties and responsibilities within the family,

because, if you didn't demand anything of them,

then you'd be bringing them up to be inactive in a wheelchair.

We've just spoken about the handicapped environment.

It seems as if the handicapped practically belong to a group.

Yes, it shouldn't be like that.

In my opinion, the illness should be treated as a secondary matter.

Especially so, because the illness in itself...

well, it debilitates one, in that it isn't possible to run so quickly

and you have to take care of your health more than others, perhaps.

But I think that is completely secondary,

because a physically handicapped person, in my opinion,

is just as capable at work or in life as anyone else.

And education should be carried out accordingly.

And what is being done wrong here?

It's miserable for the physically handicapped in other places as well.

But I think that it's the same everywhere, because I was in another institution,

and I'd say it was almost worse there.

Ludwig, can you tell us about this film project, please?

Yes, we had the idea,

or rather, I had the idea and suggested it to the others,

that we should steal something from Wertkauf or another department store

and simultaneously film it.

And we wanted to show

how people react to the physically handicapped.

Like, that they aren't considerate, and at best stare at them and say,

"Look at the poor fools," or make other stupid comments.

And why didn't you make the film?

Well, I can't film and steal at the same time,

and the others wouldn't do it.

Well, even if people had noticed our little theft action,

I don't think that they would come over to us

and say, "What have you taken there?" or something.

They're constantly surrounded by an invisible barrier,

and they have to somehow overcome themselves

before they can speak with us at all.

And I think, that with cheaper things that could be stolen,

they would, if they even noticed, pay absolutely no attention to it.

With more expensive things,

they'd get caught up in a moral dilemma with themselves.

Pity might play a role, but it's not only pity.

They just don't know enough about us,

or they think that we're abnormal.

Since we're always kept in institutions.

That's why we seem abnormal, because it's so seldom that we get out.

It's like when the crazies are on leave.

"Why don't you address the chemical factory that sold Thalidomide

"without having tested it beforehand.

"Here's where the really guilty ones are,

"for whom the taxpayers have to pay now.

"Besides...

"Euthanasia would be a blessing for the poor creatures that have been affected,

"they would be released from their suffering

"that cannot be considered a life worth living.

"A friend of humanity."

- What do you think about that? - A great friend of humanity...

How is that anything to do with being a friend of humanity

if you want to kill another human being?

- Or if you want to "humanely"... - ...put them out of their misery.

Have you come up against something like this often, an attitude like this?

Yes, quite often.

Hansi has a good example, he was there...

Yes, that was at Sonnenzug,

Georg had a respirator.

He had difficulty breathing.

And there was a paramedic standing in the doorway and he says to a nurse,

"Oh, those poor ones, it would be better if they met a quick end

"before they have to suffer so much."

And he said it so loud that Georg could hear it. He did, too.

In order to find a future that isn't made more difficult by society,

a physically handicapped person must sometimes go as far as California.

Living there is the young German scientist, Adolf Ratzka,

who contracted polio at 17 and spent several months in an iron lung.

Even today he uses an artificial respirator at night.

Nevertheless, different attitudes and technological aides make it possible

for him to work as a Scientific Assistant specialized in Social Sciences

at the State University of California.

He's currently working in the state redevelopment programmes.

The handicapped have been integrated here,

and all of the public buildings are accessible with ramps.

The doorways have no thresholds,

and there are small ramps throughout all of the sidewalks.

This is Adolf Ratzka's room in a student dormitory.

His roommate overtakes the work of washing and dressing him.

Otherwise, Adolf Ratzka is practically independent.

The attitude towards a physically handicapped person here

is substantially more unprejudiced than in Germany.

A handicapped person is accepted here,

and he lives together with others

just like someone who might have broken a leg in our country.

This is the respirator that is hooked up during the night.

During the day, breathing is a conscious activity.

Purely structurally, I would say...

that maybe because the country and the city here are younger,

than for example Munich, where I was previously,

that there is an absence of architectural obstructions

like the ones I found in Munich.

The houses here don't have any pompous stairways for the most part,

public buildings all have elevators,

and in publicly sponsored buildings,

facilities for wheelchair users are mandatory.

What I noticed here was

that the Americans, as far as I've got to know them,

confront the matter of disability with a much more objective attitude.

You don't sense pity

or Christian mercy here - thank God.

In this achievement-oriented society

one is judged by what one can do.

In my opinion - besides the purely physical things

like therapy and technical aids

such as wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs and above all cars -

the most important thing is to give the handicapped a goal that they can achieve.

Another case, that I am not familiar with personally, but through my work,

is a professor at the University of Wisconsin

who is so paralysed

that he has to turn the pages of his books with a long wooden stick

that he holds in his mouth.

And I've been told that it looks pretty wild

when he swirls through the pages with this wooden stick,

surrounded by his assistants.

He teaches, he is active in research,

appears often at conferences

and in addition, he is a businessman

who runs a successful building company.

Whether integration with an achievement-oriented society

should be the only worthwhile goal, is questionable, of course,

because there are many who cannot or will not achieve this.

This is Adolf Ratzka's car.

A technology class reconstructed a normal delivery car for him

as their term project.

And it is now simple to rebuild from the applied basic concept.

Now I'm going to fasten my wheelchair into my car,

so that I don't slide while I'm driving.

I drive the car completely with my hands,

all of the controls are up here.

And my left hand is somewhat weaker,

that's why I drive with the right hand.

I have very sensitive power steering.

With the left hand I can control the brakes,

this turning movement is the brake.

Here, on the manometer,

I can read the respective pressure level that still remains.

This here is the accelerator.

I have an automatic clutch.

Very simple.

Up here is the horn.

Down here is a shortwave radio,

just in case the car breaks down and I need help.

I can contact amateurs on the same channel.

And here is the key.

On the Los Angeles Highway,

Adolf Ratzka is indistinguishable from any other driver on the road.

Here in California he has been granted mobility and social participation.

In ten years, this girl will be twenty years old.

Only, the way things are, her future prospects look rather bleak.

It will probably take a long time until the Federal Republic of Germany

attains a status that is generally achieved in the USA,

because it is less an issue of means and more an issue of alternative thinking.

Until then, we will only be able to offer handicapped children

a handicapped future.