Professional Documents
Culture Documents
If I lived in a society where being in a wheel chair was no more remarkable than wearing glasses and if the
community was completely accepting and accessible, my disability would be an inconvenience and not much
more than that. It is society which handicaps me, far more seriously and completely than the fact that I have
spina bifida (Harris, p. 95, 2000).
Murphy...
For the disabled are a not a breed apart but a metaphor for the human condition (p. 5).
Romans 3:23
Irving Zola: We are all temporarily abled.
Terminology
(for roughly 30% of the population)
Impairment?
Handicap?
Disability?
Definitions of disability
from Nagi and Dr. David Creasey
Medical definition
Economic definition
Sociopolitical
Focus:
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Focus:
Emphasis:
...fundametal restrictions of a disability may be located in the surroundings that people encounter rther than
within... a person with a disability (Hahn, 37).
Could we eventually eliminate disability as we now define it?
Stigma Theory
Proposed by Erving Goman
Greek practice of branding or marking slaves
Social practice in which particular human traits are deemed to be not only dierent but deviant
It is the dominant group that determines which dierences are inferior and to perpetuate these judgements.
Stigma, cont.
Goman distinguishes what he terms the normate-the standard by which we all are measured. He asserts that
the normate in our society is young, married, white, urban, northern, Protestant, college educated, fully
employed, of good complexion, desirable height and weight and athletic!
Dierence is viewed as deviate
influence of disability-related factors
Level of severity
Degree of visibility
Degree of cosmetic involvement
from Livnehs Origins of Negative Attitudes
Personality variables associated with stigma
Self-concept
Body image
Anxiety
Intelligence
Fear: DAngerous
Social groups sometimes interpret the anomalous as dangerous
Think of examples in the media or in literature
Bodies that are out of control seem dangerous to us
In fact, often the people in danger are those with disabilities!
We look for order because it makes predictability possible, and we seek predictability to avoid danger in an
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Blessed are you who ask for our help, for our greatest need is to be needed.
Found in Receiving the Gift of Friendship by Reinders
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Fear: Remove!
Social groups sometimes cope by ejecting or removing the anomalous element
Out of sight, out of mind mentality
Brief history of segregation
Early Greeks
Middle Ages
changing attitudes in the U.S.
World wars
FDR
Polio epidemic
Segregation of people with intellectual and emotional disorders
Fear: Eliminate!
Social groups try to eliminate or extinguish the anomalous element
Eugenics=a science that deals with the improvement of hereditary qualities of a race or breed. MerriamWebster dictionary
Historic examples
Nazi Germany
Withholding treatment
Gender selection
Marriage laws
Forced sterilization laws
Other examples of eugenics in America today?
From the book Living Gently in a violent world
We develop policies and practices that welcome people with disabilities into our communities, oering them
rights and responsibilities, and at precisely the same time we develop forms of genetic technology designed to
prevent them from entering society in the first place (Hauerwas & Vanier, p. 11).
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We develop policies and practices that welcome people with disabilities into our communities, oering them
rights and responsibilities, and at precisely the same time we develop forms of genetic technology designed to
prevent them from entering society in the first place (Hauerwas & Vanier, p. 11).
Influence of Cultural Norms
Sociocultural conditioning regarding the body beautiful
Childhood influences
Emphasis on personal achievement
A Cure for down syndrome?
Video Clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GFuy6wsZaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4foXehDmWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVN9-f4obcI