On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, John Homan wrote:
[snip]
> What are the questions you believe should be asked in the census?
As you mention below, about five questions should do it, but if we are
to insist that people with disabilities are the same as people without
disabilities why ask the question? I argue about the percentage because I
want people to know that we are not a small group, but rather have
considerable political power (in a limited way). The disability community
in the US is credited with being one of three groups who enabled former
president George Bush to defeat Michael Dukakis in 1988 and it played a
role in subsequent presidential elections, though not everyone knows it.
[snip]
> The World Health Organization's definition may be a good starting
> point: "Disability is a loss or reduction of functional ability which
> results from an impairment. An impairment is defined as an anatomical or
> functional abnormality or loss which may or may not result in a disability.
> Disabilities can derive from impairments which can be physical, sensory,
> intellectual or psychiatric."
NO WAY! I guess my reputation as the ICIDH slayer has not reached
Oz. You are suggesting a medical model which allows physicians to make
non-medical decisions, which assigns pwd to a low status, which then sets
us up for eugenics and mercy killing, and which has problems of logic and
is replete with handicapist language. I know (all too well) that there is
a new version of the ICIDH even with new initials, but it is the old, 1980
version which is being used and cited.
[snip]
David
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David Pfeiffer, Ph.D.
Resident Scholar
Center on Disability Studies
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
[log in to unmask]
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Center on Disability Studies....maximizing individual
potential by encouraging independence, self-determination,
and full participation in the community.
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