When it comes to heirarchies of disability you want to see what the
psycho/medical power base does to us on the autistic spectrum.
They lable us high funtioning or low funtioning, very insulting don't you
agree. Many of us "high funtioning folk" actually resent this attempt to
divide us by apparant display of IQ from our "learning disabled" kin as our
insight into the condition of autism allows us to see the injustice and
falsehood of many of the systems of "treatment" that are employed against
us. What is more, it is an attempt to co-opt us into a neuro-typical world
which we do not fit in, however much some of us have been seduced by it.
Many of us do indeed "pretend to be normal" to take from the title of Lianne
Holiday Whilleys autobiography, but my discovery is that divergence is its
own right, and to be other than I am leads to stress fracture,
Now for my mother, there was a stage within the development of her physical
"impairment" during which she was less visible, Her mobility was not
impaired yet her dexterity, which was in part the basis of her employment
was. Later on I suppose she had the choice of either using a wheelchair or
not going out at all, What is interesting is that she never discriminated by
degree of "disability" throughout her work as an advice worker and
counsellor.
Indeed it was she who told me that one day I would have to "come out" as
disabled myself. I was never stinting in my support for her issues which
were not my issues, eg. physical access and was (and am) equally fanatical
about them. How can I expect any concessions for what I need if I am not
willing to grant them for anybody else.
I really believe in a pan impairment perspective, in that although ultimatly
not only do we have very much differing lables and needs, ultimately what we
are up against is the same bureocracies, entrenched power bases and economic
realities
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mairian Corker
> Sent: 23 August 2001 16:26
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Information request re hierarchy of impairments
> >
> Another perspective, again from Abberley, but quoting Vic Finkelstein:
>
> Finkelstein "argues that since
>
> 'assumed levels of employability separate people into different levels of
> dependency ... By trying to distance themselves [groups of people with
> particular impairments or degrees of impairment] from groups that they
> perceived as more disabled than themselves they can hope to maintain their
> claim to economic independence and an acceptable status in the community.'
> (1993a, p. 14)
>
> He cautions against doing this for what are essentially political reason,
> that it will divide the movement, and points out that those who did this
> would be surrendering to the logic of the medical model, which
> they claim to
> reject. Now this appeal to unity and theoretical consistency, whilst
> appropriate to its context, seems to me to pass over an essential
> issue for
> disabled people - that, even in a society which did make profound and
> genuine attempts to integrate impaired people into the world of work, some
> would be excluded by their impairment." (Abberley, P. (1998)
> Disabled people
> and social theory'. In T. Shakespeare (ed) The Disability Reader: Social
> Science Perspectives. London: Continuum)
>
> Finkelstein also referred in a 1990 article to an implicit
> hierarchy when he
> talks about the relationships between Deaf and disabled people,
> though this
> is a hierarchy relating to disability. ("'We' are not disabled,
> 'you' are".
> In. S.Gregory and G.M. Hartley (eds) Constructing Deafness. London: Pinter
> Publishers in association with the Open University.)
>
> Best wishes, Mairian
>
> Finkelstein also wrote about the hierarchy
>
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