I agree that disability cannot be theorized to a full extent. We may
spend hours or even decades arguing whether my physical and sensory
disability is rooted in sociological causes butit won't take any of the
physical pain I sometimes feel or the psychological states I sometimes
find myself in. The experience of disability, as any human experience,
cannot be theorised as it is a private and unique affair. Theories deal
with generalities, and specifics.
That said, though my impairment has a lot to do with my disability
(affecting part of its threshold), there are a lot of common factors
that are purely social constructions which prevent me from doing what I
want to do. Whilst the individual experience of disabilityhas been
played down in theory which gives us an impression of disability as some
form of 'abstraction'. On the other hand, the medical model which is so
specific in its appriach that it catalogues people in terms of
impairment- reducing the person to a diagnosis.
I feel that both approaches are wrong. In the medical model, the body is
the prime focus. On the other, society becomes the focus. It appears
that the person has been lost in between. The reality is, any approach
that can fully address the disability phenomenon must integrate both of
the medical and social models. The simple fact is that the quality of my
life does not depend on a single factor. The social, economic,
educational, and yes, the medical, all have a pivotal role in making our
lives better. And the political (in the sense of relations between
people) must address the individual as having particular needs as well
as of having definite rights as a hhuman being.
Gordon C. Cardona
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Gordon Christopher Cardona
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