Mark/Maria et all
This certainly raises some extremely interesting issues and clearer proves
the vast degree of prejudice and misunderstanding between impairments.
People are assuming that all impairment is socially constructed and while I
would agree many impairments are constructed, I think this fashionable
desire to wish away impairment may have dangerious consequences for people
with actual 'impairments'.
I am extremely offensive to have my identity challenged because it is not
fashionable to acknowledge impairment and be proud of that difference. I am
further offensive but by the belief someone who seemed non-disabled and
wishes to label themselves as impairment has more right to feel oppressed
and be valued for that more than people with severe impairment. Maria, you
seem to be suggested people with severely are already recognised and should
not be labelled as oppressed and should put up with the everyday abuses they
received and they are accepted by society.
If this list is not about ending disablism and improving the lifes of all
disabled people regardless as how they define themselves, then we have
serious problems.
On this list there is now 2 gouups. The first group are people who fight to
get their impairments recognised but on their terms. They wish to be treated
special and reverse attitudes towards disability.
The second group, my group, are people who are no luxury about how they
define themselves and fight to be accepted as normal and to be allowed to
take responsibility for there actions. They are fought not to be labelled
and to be accepted.
The problem is while the second group have been fighting between themselves,
the first group as taken the lead and endeared the general public. Their
impairments are neat, cheap and acceptance, even fashionable. They welcome
the medical models and want professions
The second group are boring, expensive, hate professionals and are
uncomfortable for the public, plus their impairments can not be explained
away as wishful thinking.
In a time to come, when money is even more limited, I think see a time when
the first group are actively calling for the termination of the second
group, we are already see this in education!
Deconstruction of impairment? Please someone explain how you can deconstruct
a starvation of oxygen at birth resulting in brain damage. How can you
deconstruct my constant dribbling or my speech impairments? I resent the
assumption that I am being negative because I accept these as facts. They
are not negative but they are me.
I talk about myself because that’s what I know, my research is life not
books. Even if I was wrong and for some bizarre reason it is all in my head
(which techniquely it is), so what? Don't I need and deserve my impairment
label to keep me sane (ok, maybe just saner) in this crazy world we live in.
Lets debate, this is interesting!
Simon
--
Simon Stevens
Chief Executive, Enable Enterprises
-----Original Message-----
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Priestley
Sent: 01 September 2004 13:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: impairment
mmm... it's a well trodden debate but my own view, for what it's worth, is
that it's more helpful to think about social model analysis as a tool to
expose the oppression experienced by people with 'perceived impairments' or
people 'labelled as having impairments' (since impairment is itself a social
construct). The definition and labelling of impairment is critical to the
process of disablement - a long standing technique of surveillance or
governance that has a real impact on people's lives (e.g. influencing
decisions about which schools people attend, where they live, if and where
they are employed, whether they can be parents, whether they should live or
die, etc.).
In a social world constructed and governed around shifting expectations of
normality those impairment labels change over time and in response to
changes in the social relations of production and reproduction (hence
disability changes too). From a social model perspective it would be the
construction and regulation of human normality and social norms that gives
rise to disabling barriers (e.g. norms developed in response to the
emergence of capitalism, industrialization, modernity, cultural imperialism,
nationalism, eugenics, medicalisation, etc.).
Understanding how this kind of labelling takes place, the assumptions on
which it is based, and the impact it then has on people's lives seems pretty
consistent with social model analysis as far as I can see. I don't think it
necessarily requires a belief that anyone actually 'has an impairment',
whatever that is (!), as an individual property (e.g. Carol Thomas' book?).
Sara is right about learning differences for example. From a social model
perspective, understanding why some but not others are labeled as
impairments (learning difficulties) exposes how institutions of learning and
teaching fail to accommodate some differences.
To take Sara's and Simon's points, the research literature on learning
difficulties' seems to have taken this on board more thoroughly than other
fields by often talking explicitly about 'people labelled as having learning
difficulties' rather than 'people with learning difficulties' (a
construction that has evolved radically over recent years to include many
new labels and many new groups of people).
PS. I found Hughes and Paterson's paper on the 'disappearing body' quite
helpful in highlighting the risk of 'abandoning the body to medical science'
by accepting fixed biophysical notions of impairment.
Best wishes
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Larry Arnold
Sent: 31 August 2004 23:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: New Book
Except of course that your version of the social model still discriminates
because it contains the concept of impairment, which is a personal and as
negative as any "word" and anglo centric linguistically.
Oh well whats the point of trying to change and challenge peoples beliefs as
they hang onto them anyway, Ossification would be a good word for it? if it
weren't so latinate in construction.
I leave you word people to it, you can't see beyond your personal constructs
because you can't think beyond your language into anothers mind who thinks
differently.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Colin Barnes
> Sent: 31 August 2004 07:39
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: New Book
>
>
> Dear All
>
> I hope the following will be of nterest. It is the second in a
> series of three books documenting contributions to seminars held
> across the UK last year.
>
> Colin Barnes
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------
>
> Disability Policy and Practice:
> Applying the Social Model
>
> Edited by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Colin Barnes
> Sent: 31 August 2004 07:39
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: New Book
>
>
> Dear All
>
> I hope the following will be of nterest. It is the second in a
> series of three books documenting contributions to seminars held
> across the UK last year.
>
> Colin Barnes
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------
>
> Disability Policy and Practice:
> Applying the Social Model
>
> Edited by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer
>
>
> 'Disability Policy and Practice: Applying the Social Model of
> Disability' contains thirteen chapters on the application of
> social model inspired thinking on social policy in Britain. The
> contributors include established figures and newcomers to the
> field. They raise a range of important issues and concerns
> central to theorising and researching disability policy and
> practice spanning employment, housing, higher education with
> examples from England, Scotland, and Wales, social 'care',
> independent living and leisure and social relations. Together
> they provide ample evidence of the continuing relevance of
> debates emanating from the social model of disability within
> disability studies and related disciplines. This book will be of
> particular interest to academics, researchers, professionals,
> disabled people and lay audiences with an interest in disability
> issues and the on going struggle for a more equitable and just society.
>
> Disability Policy and Practice: Applying the Social Model' is
> also available on request at no additional cost on CD, in PDF
> format, for ease of access for people who require alternative formats.
>
> The Book and CD are only available by mail order from the
>
> Centre for Disability Studies,
> School of Sociology and Social Policy,
> University of Leeds,
> LS2 9JT
>
> at: £16.50 including postage and packing (20% discount for orders
> of four or more)
>
> Payment may be by credit card (Visa or Mastercard) via the
> telephone, fax, email, or by cheque, payable to the University of
> Leeds. To order contact Marie Ross on (44) 113 3434407 (tel. and
> minicom), or (44) 113 3434415 (fax) by email:
> [log in to unmask] or by post at the address above.
>
> ________________End of message______________________
>
> Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
> are now located at:
>
> www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
>
> You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
>
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|