I don’t know how many people reading this will watch the BBC Breakfast show, but it’s usually part of my morning routine, glanced at as I gulp down copious amounts of coffee. On this morning’s program, there was an item which, to be honest, I don’t really know what to make of: it was about Patrick McCabe, a sixteen year old with fairly severe Cerebral Palsy who has recently sat his GCSEs using eyegaze technology. Quite a bit was being made of his perseverance, and the fact that his exams took so long to sit. On one level, of course, it is indeed a remarkable achievement, and McCabe deserves all the credit he gets; yet the cynic in me can’t help detecting a whiff of ‘pity porn’ about it. After all, I have GCSEs, A Levels, a degree and a Master’s, and I didn’t get invited onto national breakfast TV – nor did I expect to be. I’m afraid there was an element of a condescending ‘didn’t he do well’ mindset to the item which ultimately does more harm than good.

If McCabe and guys like him are going to get anywhere in life, achieve independence and get a decent education, they’ll have to keep their heads down and just get on with it. It’s all too easy to get sucked into this ‘I’m so special’ frame of mind which ultimately leads to complacency. I don’t want to be seen as extraordinary, and nor should McCabe. If anything, part of me still feels like I underachieved because I never did a Phd. Treating people like us like exhibits in a freakshow just because we have done the exams everyone else our age does simply pidgeonholes us and puts us down, as it implies we have achieved all we are going to. We are not freaks: we are as intelligent and capable as anyone else, and thus ought to be treated like anyone else.