I am depressed by the use of the 'If I break a leg..' scenario.
A person who breaks a leg is seen as a person with a broken leg.
A person with cognitive impairment is seen as a broken person.
Most individuals who are overtly disabled form birth or in their early
years are seen not as who they are but as whom they might have been if
tragedy had not struck.
A person with a broken leg at any stage of life is seen as being 'normal'
since we expect such fractures to heal and that the person will soon be
recovered.
A person with an impairment that will never heal is seen as 'abnormal' as
they will never recover.
As to having the minutae of the inparment understood..
We are none of us understood by others. Our parents, siblings and sexual
partners do not understand us nor do they expect to. Equally we don't
expect to understand them. If we are fortunate we will be provided with
uncritical support form our loved ones even though they don't know what
makes us tick.
Why then should it be reasonable to expect a person with an impairment to
be understood before being given access to support? This is an unfair and
heavy burden placed on those of us who need to access support through
'professionals'.
Finally on the use of the term 'intervention'. This seems an aggressive
term being used to describe an aggressive act of disruption. Our society in
Britain sees intervention as being the right/responsibility of elders and
betters, and how much intervention one is subjected to depends far more on
age, sex, class, ehtnicity and imparment than objective need. Those seen as
less competent than the intervenor get subjected to disruption while those
seen as more competent than the intervenor are left alone, but competence
may be assessed by techniques which do not uncover the hidden prejudices of
the intervenor as to who is competent. Eg Children are seen as innately
less competent than adults, girls are seen less competent at physical
activities than boys therefore more likely to fall off playgound
equipment.. So a 'carer' of a learning disabled female child is likely to
intervene in her physical activities in the playground on two counts, her
cognitive skills and her gender role. The interventions however are
primarily carried out to protect the 'carer' from feeling or being seen as
neglegent should the child fall and hurt herself.
Amaryllis
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