I have always viewed the social model of disability as I have viewed
the concept of racism. If people are discriminated on the grounds of
race, then the issue is one of challenging and overcoming the actions
of the discriminators in the society, rather than argue whether Irish
or Turkish people should be included in definitions of being 'Black'.
An absence of 'Black' people in a society does not mean that there are
no racists (probably the opposite).
Similarly, the fact that vast numbers of people without any particular
learning disability were incarcerated as being 'mentally defective' or
'feebleminded' doesn't mean that they should not be considered as
disabled people in this context.
I have invisible impairments and allegies that inconvenience me but
although these needs are sometimes ignored by others this is a minor
inconvenience not oppressive, whereas disabled colleagues/friends are
blatantly discriminated against by individuals and social systems. The
boundary between my inconveniences and others oppression lies within
the discriminatory barriers not the ability/disability of individuals.
These barriers are social constructs and will vary according to
context. I can't see that the social model forces a crude dichotomy.
On Sun, 7 Nov 1999 10:42:19 -0000 Tom Shakespeare
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Just to highlight one problem with the SM: where does impairment
> stop and disability start? This query could be raised with almost
any
> condition, but let's give the example of someone with a speech impediment
> (and I mean no offence to anyone). How far is the difficulty of
> communication
> which this raises to do with the individual's impairment status, and how far
> is
> it to do with society's unwillingness or unpreparedness for such an
> individual,
> the customary methods of communication etc?
>
> I would argue that the social experience results from a complex interaction
> of
> both, and that it is impossible to say where impairment ends and disability
> starts, and that in fact the question is pointless. The social model,
> because it
> forces us to dichotomise, is leading us down the road to crude thinking, and
> opening us up to the sort of attacks made in Warnock's lecture.
>
>
>
----------------------
Andy Stevens
Anglia Polytechnic University
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