Disability Midterm Study Notes 2023

Disability Midterm Study Notes 2023 CHAPTER 1 LESSON 1 “When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which is grows in, not the flower” Alexander Den Heijer What is the class about? - Social cultural and moral construction of some differences as problematic and stigmatized - Exploring how that imagining over time via power - Dominant response; fix or enjoy? - Most of us want to fix deviations compelled and urgently - Model instead the playfulness and wonder of it Where did DS originate? - From the work of self advocates and people with lived experience - Emerged as an alternative imagining as a solely medical view/ deficit What are the core ideas? - Paradigm shift, from medical and individual model to social model - Shift from people fixing to environment changing - Broad in scope; physical, intellectual, learning disability, plus mental health and chronic illnesses - Dynamic, controversial, open, unsettled Disability studies growth internationally? - Uk and USA major drivers - Grown from 0 courses in 1980 to 500 today in english nations - 5 BAs in DS (Canada) grad/law - PHDs; pluridisciplinary - DS grew exponentially from 2012 to 2023 Why is DS growing? - It meets the growing expansion of needs for certain groups Boomers: aging and acquiring impairments Vets: returning from war alive but impaired, a national issue LD and mental health: rapid increase in diagnoses - DS needed ideas for governments and employers as laws being created but without a clear sense of how to implement Links with meta trends? - Dovetails with other patterns in society such as EDID, promotes greater inclusivity

- Builds on other civil rights movements such as BLM, LGBTQ plus rights, indigenous rights etc - Population health approach; what is good for some might not be good for many Common career pathways from DS studies/ - Education - Healthcare - Marketing and business - Government and law - Social services CHAPTER 2 WEEK 2 Labels, Language and Disability Difference between impairment and disability? Impairment: Loss or abnormality of physical bodily structure or function Disability: Disadvantage, limitation or function loss caused by…Internal OR External factors W.H.O and Disability? Originally there were only two pieces of legislation International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) International classification of diseases (ICD) Impairment – loss or abnormality of physical bodily structure or function Disability – limitation or function loss deriving from impairment that prevents performance Handicap – the disadvantage condition deriving from impairment or disability - A 9 year process involving hundreds of countries - Ratified on may 22, 2001 at the world health assembly W.H.O.’s Dramatic Shift? Disabilities affect everyone, not just those with said disabilities WHO’s dramatic shift focuses on the level of function over medical diagnosis/prognosis Escapes the previous disease focus to consider the person in his or her shoes - Physical barriers, socioeconomic conditions, race, gender, etc - Elevated mental illness to the same level as physical disability The USA has better accommodations for reducing barriers, plus adding penalties when the accommodations are blocked (ie. using smth meant for a disabled person making it inaccessible for them) Canada keeps the power in the hands of professionals and medical experts when it comes to deciding whether or not you have an impairment, creating boundaries and issues CRITICISM: Non legislative power, reinforces medical authority, a linguistic shift (impairment to function) not a paradigm shift A Question of Language?

Disabled people: - Reflects the social model - A political choice sometimes connected to disability pride ie loud and proud - Society disables us therefore we are disabled people - Short form DPs - Not something you have but something that is done to you People with disabilities - Sometimes called people first language : we are people who have disabilities - Born out of the desire to emphasize the person before the disability - Dovetails with heightened attention to respectful language in the 80s and the 90s - Short form PWDs An Example of ID First Language? Main question: is avoiding labels a form of continuing the negative stereotypes and valence of it….? - Makes a claim to respect, But act as if it’s unspeakable - Implies that it’s not significant (vs. basis of stigma) The problem of “with autism” (Jim Sinclair 2006) - Suggests a separation between person and diagnosis - Suggests it is something bad & inconsistent with personhood - Minimizes the importance of experience & external stigma/ exclusion - By not acknowledging it you are contributing to the problem, you cannot act like it is not happening in real time - Communication and asking people what language they are comfortable with i important Disability as a Master Status? A common social norm …… for your impairment or mental health or chronic illness to taken on a master status in others perspective and sense if you - Often inevitability spills into self consideration as well - Note overlap with other labels such as lgbtq and race Reality ……condition is just one part of a person, just like a student is only one aspect of you - Congenital impairments, a lifetime of adapting - Acquired impairments, disruption cedes to “new normals” Key Words: dehumanizing, infantilizing A Master of perspective… What causes disability? - Impairment and illness/sickness - Inaccessibility discrimination Where does each lens locate the problem, what are the approaches? The social model lens does not deny the existence of difference or that difference can be a challenge, but insists that disability is not only that. Disability as individual or social pathology Individual: Medical, functional

Social: environmental, rights outcome The two approaches to the Individual model? 1. Medical model; prevent and cure 2. Therapeutic model; therapy and adaptive devices The idea is that “internal” factors disabled people, so the burden is on the individual to change Person fixing perspective lens: - Confined to a wheelchair - Can't climb stairs - Is sick and Needs help - Bad attitude - Needs a cure - Is housebound - Can't use hands - Cant walk - Cant talk - Cant see or hear - Needs a doctor - Needs institutional care What does the PF perspective think we should do..? - Social workers - Doctors - GPs - Speech therapists - Special transport - Educational psychologists - Surgeons - Child development team - Special schools - Training centers - Sheltered workshops - Benefits agency - Occupational benefits Disabled people as passive receivers of services aimed at cure or management Examples of what is stated above? Blindness & Education: IM: Being blind is an individual matter, any resulting issues are your burden to resolve, best way is to ‘fix’ your eyes, barring that, you need to pay to learn braille, or for large text docs, or reading software; teacher shouldn’t have to do anything;

SM: All Canadians have a right to education and society should bear the cost/burden to ensure you can access that right by providing education in accessible formats, and educating teachers to know how. Comparisons between the IM and the SM Internal problems - Insane - Disorder - Defect - Sick - Deficient - Abnormal - Diagnosis - Mistake - Broken External factors - Communication - Technological - organizational/systematic - physical/architectural - Attitudinal - Disabling environment - Human rights violations But wait! If society is designed to suit only some people, doesn't that mean those barriers and the resulting disadvantage is socially-constructed? And thus society’s responsibility to remedy? SOCIAL PATHOLOGY: Environmental and rights outcome? Environmental: architecture (how is the area built/structured, accessible paths etc) Rights outcome: laws/rights, policy External factors “disable” individuals, therefore the burden is on society What do you do from a SF/SM POV? The social model/society fixing point of view suggest entirely different focus for where the problem lies, and what you will want to fix It argues that you turn the lens outwards to the environment, social economic, policies, built world, and examine the ways in which barriers are inherent to them - built into them because they assume a typical development or normate a body/mind in their design (echo of BLM arguments, impact of segregation and related laws) What do we imagine we should do via the SM? - Mobility access - Health