This debate suffers from the usual definitional problems which haunt
the ivory towers of certain schools of Disability Studies. The notion
of "barriers to employment" is problematic without any clarifying
statements.
I'm sorry, but the 'world of work' for the pro-capitalist cripple
isn't the same location as that of the anti-capitalist one. When
talking about social exclusion and marginalisation, isn't there a need
to distinguish what takes place at the macro and micro levels of
society? The nature of capitalist production isn't adequately addresed
if framed simply as a "barrier"!
At a micro level the interaction between disabled people and social
environments can, to a degree, be discussed in terms of 'barriers'
provided the methodological approach isn't reductionist as this can,
and often does, result in the promotion of oppressive dominant
discourse of locating 'the problem' within the dysfunctional body.
Tom Shakespeare and Nick Watson once claimed I rejected, "See the
person (ability) not the disability" because it used 'the wrong
language"?! Really? Nothing to do with "language", everything to do
with how we define the root causes of social oppression - I want
employers to see the impairment in non-judgemental terms, address
aspects of disability, because only then can "some" disabled people
realise their potential as part of 'the exploited working classes'
(sic) Oh, isn't this what we're after?
Pam wants to ditch representing ourselves as "disabled" - so what does
this mean, people with impairments' social relations with the rest of
society has suddenly changed or that we've accepted our location in a
class structured society as an underclass? Those who make no
distinction between impairment/disability help construct the "see the
person" cul-de-sac and make our reading of "barriers" problematic.
Pam goes on an says: "Barriers to employment are most often people's actions of
discriminatory exclusion." I reject this individualistic appraisal
totally. I'd go further and suggest the idea of 'discriminatory
exclusion" fails to address the nature of capitalist society's mode of
production and its social relations which are and always were
'discriminatory' out of neccessity.
Bob Williams-Findlay MA
On 27/02/2012, Larry Arnold <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Disabled and Inferior are not equivalents, nor ever were. Even an Olympic
> champion high jumper would find a 25ft electric fence disabling and you
> don't have to be one of Seligman's dogs to see that.
>
> It is the barriers constructed by an economic and supposedly physical and
> mental elite that are disabling, and in order to dismantle them we have to
> stop fooling ourselves that the problem is in us.
>
> Larry
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:DISABILITY-
>> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pamela June Waugh
>> Sent: 27 February 2012 20:32
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Barriers to Work
>>
>> Hi,
>> What we need to do is stop representing ourselves as 'disabled', or
>> inferior. Likewise, we need to stop talking about 'barriers', as if they
>> just happened. Barriers to employment are most often people's actions of
>> discriminatory exclusion.
>>
>> Pam
> e.
>
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