Difference between Impairment and Disability in a Confusing Language

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

Disabled. Disabled is a word commonly defined as being physically or mentally impaired, injured, or incapacitated (dictionary.com). There's a stigma over the word disabled with its negative connotation. Nancy Mairs, author of “I Am a Cripple, dislikes this word because she thinks that the English language incorporates too many euphemism in our speech. Mairs wants people to use more straightforward language, even if it might be offensive to others. In “ I Am a Cripple”, Mairs eloprates on how she became disabled from the disease multiple sclerosis or (M.S). M.S., a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often disables or cripples the person who has this disease. To describe her first symptoms of M.S.(infinitive phrase) Mairs flashbacks to when she was in college. Also how some days she wishes she was not disabled. Allusions in Nancy Mairs’s “I Am a Cripple” provide a deeper understanding of her complex feelings of having M.S.

In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, the short story is told by a character within the story. The first-person point of view gives us a transparent visual of an important time in the narrators’ life. The narrator, who is “un-named” in the beginning of the story, uses blunt, flawless and a particular choice of words. This gives us as the reader a deeper connection with the narrator. The narrator begins this story by taking us through the changes he go through with the uneasy feeling of having a blind-man coming to his house to visit.

Looking back in the past, there have been many features, and true definitions of the word disability. In the 1970s a group called the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation defined disability as the disadvantage or restriction of activity cased by social organizations. U.S disability activists made efforts during the 1970s to form different alliances with the disability community, that protested for the inclusion of disability discrimination under the Rehabilitation act. Thereafter there was a medial model at looking at disability, that views disability as an individual shortfall. In

A disability is a condition of impairment--a physical or mental condition--that limits a person’s activities or functioning. Handicap is used when legally specifying life processes or social activities that adversely affect a person’s functioning. A handicap is much more limiting than a disability.

You can never seem to know what’s going on in another one’s life, until you put yourself in their shoes. Therefore, to judge, is simply ignorance. “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver is a story that depicts the process of transforming an individual from an unfamiliar, ignorant being into an educated soul. According to Joseph Campbell’s definition, the narrator in “Cathedral,” can be seen as an anti-hero. He is an inglorious character who is particularly jealous and close-minded toward a blind man. Despite showing negative characteristics, provoking insecurities, and living in a destructive way, he eventually overcomes his ego that separates him from the rest of the world.

Lives are diverse. Every being that passes by on the street, at school, at work, anywhere lives a completely unique life different from any other individual. Each person that one could meet has attended different schools, travelled to different places, and lived under different circumstances; they all pass by in an instant without a second thought or even a passing glance. These several diverse experiences sculpt diverse individuals with diverse thoughts, opinions, dreams, and motives. However, in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the narrator must converse with an individual that lives an extremely dissimilar life from his own. A blind man, friends with the narrator’s wife and a recent widower, has come to live with the narrator for a while. This sudden change in the narrator’s life does not come easy because of his inherent arrogance and prejudice. Nevertheless, the blind man remains polite and shows the narrator how similar, yet still different their lives are through example as well as an explicit exercise where he holds the narrator’s hands while he draws a cathedral in order to “see” what the cathedral looks like. To assist the reader in fully grasping the impact of this breakthrough in the narrator’s life regarding perspective and various types of human realities, Carver employs a large number of stylistic elements to enhance his writing.

“Cathedral,” is an extraordinary story by Raymond Carver. It can be viewed as a plain narrative prose that describes a boring day the narrator spend with a blind man, or it can also be viewed as an iconic story which contains narrator’s invisible complaints and dissatisfactions about every aspect of the life. Raymond Carver buries two parallel lines in one story: the first for telling what is happening in the narrator’s house, and another for revealing what is changing in the narrator’s mind. However, in the story, there are much more hidden clues to imply the message it carries ---- “blind” is not a word that is only used to describe vision.

Literature has the potential to act as a mirror by presenting people’s lived experiences, expectations, and perceptions through characters. Such is what can be deciphered through the analysis of different characters in Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral.” This paper focuses on the narrator of the story portrayed by the author as blind, which is used metaphorically not to imply physical blindness, but the inability to have reasoned judgment others referred to as lack of emotional intelligence. The presentation of the narrator, as a fallible individual, contributes to the development of the theme and plot of the story because, through them, the reader can learn about other

23. The major difference between a disability and a handicap is that a disability is an inability to do something specific, such as being unable to hear or to walk, while a handicap

An individual with a disability is defined by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment (para. 3).

This is exemplified in the World Health Organisation definition of impairment, disability and handicap. Impairment is a physiological, psychological or anatomical abnormality, while disability is the abnormality in terms of activity and handicap is the inability to fill a normal role due to the impairment. (reference required-1) Notice the emphasis on normality and the specified cause of the

Disabled people are those whose impairments, physical or mental, restrict them, affecting their daily lives, ability to cope and employment prospects. (Madden, D, 1999).

Disability is ‘any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being’.

“For purposes of nondiscrimination laws (e.g. the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act), a person with a disability is generally defined as someone who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more "major life activities," (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an