What is Disability?

Retell

 

Disability Definitions: The Politics of Meaning

Michael Oliver

Michael Oliver’s main point in his piece, Disability Definitions: The Politics of Meaning, is that what we think and what we believe, really does matter. His idea has been repeated in almost every reading so far. There is only a disability when society says there is one.

Liver talks about a tribe of people in West Africa. Within this tribe, there are many with only two toes. “Missing toes” is not seen as unusual or problematic. It is just reality. Here, in the United States, it would be considered a disability. “Such differences would be regarded as pathological in our society, and the people so afflicted subjected to medical intervention.” (Rosenblum and Travis, 2012, p. 170)

 

A World of Their Own

Liza Mundy

Liza Mundy, in her piece, A World of Their Own, speaks about a family, with what the Americans With Disabilities Act, considers an official disability- Deafness. The mothers in this family are having a baby boy. Both mothers are deaf. They chose a deaf donor in order to better their chances of having a deaf child.

The main idea of this piece, is to have its readers think about whether it is right or not to try to have a baby with a disability. Or whether deafness is even a disability. The mothers argue that what they have done is no different than parents trying to have a girl baby or a black baby. Those babies would be discriminated against, so is it right to try to have one? They also argue that deafness isn’t a disability, it is a culture. If the parents feel connected to a culture is it wrong to try to have a child that would also be a part of that culture?

Recall/React

These articles remind me of two things. The first is a woman who just competed on Dancing with the Stars. She is an athlete who had her leg amputated. This woman refused to see herself as unable to do things. She had no leg but why should that keep her out of a dancing competition. I loved the way I changed while watching her progress through the show. I started off feeling bad for her. By the end, I was criticizing her on her performance just like the rest of the cast. My thinking changed from, poor disabled girl, to incredibly hard worker. She could dance! It was also very interesting to watch how the professional dancer had to change his way of teaching to allow her to be the best she could be. It is a good reminder of how we teachers need to change our ways, in order for all our students to be the best they can be.

It also reminds me of my own issue with hearing problems. Up until the age of four, I lived in Madrid, Spain with my young parents in the United States Air Force. I was their first child being raised away from friends and family. When we returned to Vermont, my life changed. Suddenly, people, offering their advice, surrounded us. Well meaning family members started telling my parents they thought something was wrong with my hearing. The story goes, my parents put me to bed and then stood outside my room with my grandparents. They started talking to me in various degrees of loudness. I couldn’t hear them. What followed was a lot of appointments and operations. I had something wrong with my and I could feel it. My poor parents did everything they could to “fix” me.

I wonder what would have happened if we had stayed in Spain. I could hear a little. My parents and I had figured out how to communicate. Did I need all the “fixing”? Society told my parents that not hearing “normally” was bad. Society instructed my parents to do something so I could live a happy, “normal” life.

Rethink

I have learned, once again, that what society decides and believes is what is. If society thinks that not having five toes is a disability, than it is a disability. If society thinks that being gay is bad, than it is. We need to change our thinking. A survey of disabled adults was included in Michael Oliver’s piece. It showed how simply rewriting questions changed how disabled adults felt about themselves. We must rewrite our thoughts and attitudes so we aren’t looking at people with disabilities as second-class citizens or to be pitied.