Hi all,
I conducted my doctorate around this very question and came to the
conclusion that chronic illness is often more 'disabling' socially than what
we contemporarily understand as 'disability'. This is because of the simple
fact that people with chronic illness are often mixing within society more
and therefore come across many more problems concerning difference. Added to
this fact is that here in Britain laws and benefits are often based around
'traditional' ideas of disability so that the person with a chronic illness
is often left out of benefits and financial help. Because the term illness
does not reflect the true nature of most chronic conditions people who have
to negotiate their life with a chronic condition have to deal with the
prejudice and misunderstanding of disabled people too, who have fought to
distance themselves from the term 'illness' and 'sickness'. I feel that it
is important to recognsise that chronic conditions in the young is to are
contemporary times, the same as polio was last century. Times do change and
so do the conditions that need to be incorporated into the social and
political perspective of disability studies.
Yours,
Glenn
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