Two cents worth from my partner, from a conversation I well
remember when he was becoming interested in the social model
of disability following a severe back injury that has left him in
considerable pain ever since. He said something along the lines
of, yes, society needs to sort itself out so I get chairs that don't
make me hurt even more, do not find using a cane a hindrance
rather than a help, and can adapt work to fit me instead of people
trying adapt me to fit work. But no amount of theory is going to
make the pain go away--that takes medication and physical
therapy. And since the pain got so bad that, he admitted later, he
had considered suicide, I totally understand his point. Focussing
strictly on "cures," which are highly unlikely for most impairments
anyway, is stupid and counterproductive. But access to
appropriate health care and palliative care should be a human
right--no one should have to suffer pain and increasing loss of
mobility, etc. to satifsy a slavish devotion to theory. Having
access to adequate palliative care has changed my partner's life.
In the US they were trying to have him make do with Tylenol
extra-strength because "opiates are addictive"--never mind that
Tylenol doesn't bloody work!--and he was refused health
insurance because of this pre-existing condition. Now he's got a
fentanyl patch and he can get out of bed and into the world again.
He still requires adaptive equipment and adaptations of his
university programme, and always will because his injury can't be
repaired. He's damn stroppy about it, and he should be. He
deserves both, everybody does. Human bodies are imperfect and
get injured. Some differences actually hurt, and no amount of
theory, or even actual social change if we are ever fully
successful, is going to make that go away. As my fella has been
known to say, pointing to his lower back, "theorise THAT, m*f*!"
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