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March 29, 2007Week 1, Session 2

I. What do I say? Language / Labels / Stereotypes Terminology

II. Definitions Disability Handicap Impairment

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Class Objectives

ID & Explore Stereotypes

Explore the Issue of Etiquette

Introduce Basic Concepts (Ableism; Disability / Handicap /

Impairment; Social Model of Disability)

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What Do I Say?

Why even talk about this?

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Stereotypes & Labels

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Euphemisms

Physically Challenged

Differently Able(d) / handicapable

“Special”

Wheelchair Bound

Victim (Stroke, Heart Attack)

TAB (Temporary Able Bodied)

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Acceptable Use

Person With a Disability (PWD) "People First Language”

Deaf (Person)

Disabled Person (DP)

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Acceptable Use (Cont.)

"People First Language”

Person Who is deaf / Hard of Hearing

Person with ____ (MS, Cancer, etc.)

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Preferred Use

Disabled Person(Claiming Disability)

Nondisabled

OR

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Use: "People First Language“

Person with a Disability (PWD)(Including: Non- Apparent or Hidden Disability)

“Person with a…” (Physical or Mental Difference)

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“Disability”

Linton: “We have decided to reassign meaning rather than chose a new name.”*

Your reaction to the term disability?

Will reassigning meaning be successful?

*Claiming Disability, page 31

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Etiquette

How do you “treat” a Person With a Disability?

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OTHER CONCEPTS

ABLEISM

OVERCOMING

PITY

“SUPER CRIP”

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Ableism

"discrimination in favor of the able-bodied." Reader’s Digest Oxford Wordfinder

Linton: person is determined by their disability

(Globalization)

Disabled People are inferior to nondisabled people

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Overcoming (A common Theme)

overcoming a disability

"I never think of you as disabled."

"He/she is a credit to his/her race."

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Pity

To feel compassionate, commiserate, be sorry for.

(Sometimes implying slight contempt for a person on account of some intellectual or moral inferiority attributed to him.) (Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1989)

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Super-Crip When Stereotypes Tell the Story (National Center

on Disability and Journalism -NCDJ) "Super-Crip."

Disability as Tragedy inspiration / Overcoming Courageous

Christopher Reeve: Triumph over Tragedy (Alter). Christy Brown writing in My Left Foot (1989, Jim

Sheridan, UK); Blind Mathew Murdock has radar-like senses he uses

to fight evil in Daredevil (2003, Mark Steven Johnson, USA);

The last item on the TV news, eg a blind man climbing a mountain.  

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II. Definitions

Disability

Handicapped

Impairment

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Impairment:

refers to physical or mental limitations such as difficulty walking

represents a deviation from the person's usual biomedical state.

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Impairment:

When does physical / mental variation become an impairment?

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What is the difference between:

Impairment

Illness / “being sick”

Chronic Health Conditions?

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Handicap

The disadvantage experienced by a person as a result of impairments

(Now considered offensive)

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Disability

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act):

(1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity,

(2) has a record of such an impairment, or

(3) is regarded as having such an impairment.

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World Health Org. (WHO) 1980

Disability: Restriction or lack (from an

impairment) of ability considered normal for a human being

Handicap: The disadvantage experienced by a person as a result of impairments

*ICIDH-1 (1980)

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Sequence of Concepts Sequence of Concepts WHO 1980 WHO 1980

ImpairmentImpairment

DiseaseDisease orordisorderdisorder

DisabilityDisability HandicapHandicap

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WHO 20012001

Disability :

outcome or result of a complex relationship between an individual’s: - health condition - personal factors - external factors

Health Condition Health Condition ((disorder/diseasedisorder/disease))

Interaction of ConceptsInteraction of ConceptsWHO 2001WHO 2001

Environmental Environmental FactorsFactors

Personal Personal FactorsFactors

Body Body function&structure function&structure (Impairment(Impairment))

ActivitiesActivities(Limitation)(Limitation)

ParticipationParticipation(Restriction)(Restriction)

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67 US acts / programs that define disability

- 35 have self-contained definitions (although some contain more than one definition)

Surgeon General July 26, 2005

“… disabilities are characteristics of the body, mind, or senses that, to a greater or lesser extent, affect a person’s ability to engage independently in some or all aspects of day-to-day life. “

CONFUSION REIGNS

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Disability Activists (UK)1976 (UPIAS - Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation)

Disability:

“the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a

contemporary social organization which takes no or

little account of people who have physical impairments and

thus excludes them from the mainstream of social activities”

Changes the focus of disability away from the individual to Society. (1(1stst articulation of the “Social Model of Disability”) articulation of the “Social Model of Disability”)

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SOCIAL MODEL

States that inappropriate and discriminatory:Social Attitudes (Ableism), Sociopolitical Structures, Cultural Phenomena are the central problem for disabled people

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Who is Disabled?

Everybody?

What did Linton have to say about “everybody”?

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NEXT SESSION

Models of Disability