You make an excellent point. People with mental disabilities -- cognitive or
mental health related -- often receive a lot less attention. It is not unusual
to see papers about "disabled people" which should have been labeled as about
"physically disabled people". The same is true for people advocating
legislation. The issues and concerns of those with mental disabilities often
don't get as much attention. I find that very disheartening.
"J.M.Topp"
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09/23/2003 04:17 AM
Please respond to
"J.M.Topp"
Dear all
I am a disabled person and relatively new to disability studies academia. I
attended the recent disability conference in Lancaster and afterwards wrote,
via this website, congratulating the organisers. I anticipated a flurry of
postings making comments, criticisms and congratulations but there has been
very little. I wonder, why?
One of the biggest criticisms that I was aware of, expected comments on, and
whole-heartedly agree with, was the obvious lack of inclusive facilities for
those delegates with learning disabilities. I do not work within the field
of learning disability but it was rather noticeable that although there was
a palantypist and BSL interpreters for deaf people there was no evidence of
any papers in plain english format for people with learning disabilities and
no paper presentations by people with learning disabilities (apart from one
poster presentation - by Manchester People First). I did note that another
branch of People First had withdrawn their paper - why? It seems money, or
the lack of it, prevented this group from attending!
To me this smacks of social oppression. Disability Studies should not just
sit within the financially secure world of academia where delegates are
funded by their Universities and access is facilitated only to physically-
or sensory-impaired delegates. There are a large contigent of people who had
the right to attend and should have had the support to fully participate in
this conference process. However they were essentially excluded due to the
academic culture largely overlooking their specific needs.
The favoured definition of disability touted at the conference was one of
social oppression, and some speakers went to great pains to maintain that
disabled people's experiences are imperative for understanding disability.
I have to ask, why were people with learning disabilites distinctly
oppressed by the Lancaster disability conference society?
Regards
Jackie Topp
PhD Student
The Open University
Milton Keynes
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