Dear John,
I'm not sure what it is about Judy Singer's response that caused you to
vehemently disagree with it. From what I read Judy was attempting to place
the rise of the notion of "intellectual disability" into a historical and
cultural context. I think perhaps you have transferred your ire for other
academics on the message board (isn't the message board meant to be
discussing this sort of stuff?!) and dumped it all on Judy. I fully
support her offer of placing her findings in the public arenna, so that we
can learn from them and debate them.
I also appreciate the kinds of concerns you have brought to the debate,
especially the issues of lifelong care. In Australia, where we have no
entitlement to services, we have to fight to get services in the first
instance, before we then go ahead and fight to ensure that service is doing
what it is supposed to. Therefore, I acknowledge the kinds of pressures
that you are operating under, which in many ways forces some parents to
consider their loved ones as "burdens" - surely one of the cruellest
societal pressures there can be.
I would like to also briefly state that one reason for intellectual
disability not being identified with the broader disability movement is the
discomfort and distaste that many of their prominent (non-disabled)
advocates display for the cut and thrust of grassroots activism. In
Australia, my observation is that the disability advocacy movement (that
part of it which deals predominantly with intellectual disability) has
consisted largely of white, middle-class people who wish to bring about
change through collaboration with "valued" and powerful people, rather than
mounting a civil rights challenge to the system as a whole. This is
beginning to change, especially in the face of the threat to funded
advocacy, but I would venture to say that such attitudes have formed a
barrier between those who purport to represent people with intellectual
disabilities, and the broader disability movement.
And, finally, people with intellectual disabilities can very often
communicate, make decisions, and take control over most if not all aspects
of their lives. The fact that such people have been obscured from public
view in Australia (what ever happended to the public face of the Self
Advocacy movement?) is another symptom of the conditions which I have
alluded to above.
Michael Bleasdale
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