Redefining Disability: Language, Stereotypes, and Etiquette

1. What is Disability…? September 30th, 2008

2. Today in class we will… • What do I say? • Language/Labels/Stereotypes • Terminology • Etiquette • Basic concepts related to disability and disability studies • Definitions • Impairment • Handicap • Disability

3. Imagine an action movie that has a clear and stereotypical “good” guy and “bad” guy…

4. More Stereotypes & Labels • How do these images, along with other images of persons with disabilities affect stereotypes of persons w/ disabilities?

5. What are some slang words associated w/ disabilities or disability related?

6. Problematic Words Retard / Retarded Stupid Lame / Cripple Insane Crazy Psycho Maniac Nut Case Midget Spazz Handicap

7. Problematic Euphemisms Used for Persons with Disabilities • Physically Challenged • Differently Able(d) / handicapable • “Special” • “Brave” (Inspirational, Courageous) • Wheelchair Bound / Confined to a Wheelchair • Victim / “suffers from” / “afflicted with” (Stroke, Heart Attack, etc.) • In contrast • TAB (Temporary Able Bodied)

8. So…What Do I Say? • Remember… • Words have power • Stereotyping and language interconnect • What do we do and say in a society that might be experiencing PC-fatigue

9. “Disability” Linton: “We have decided to reassign meaning rather than chose a new name.”* • Your reaction to the term disability? • Will reassigning meaning be successful? *Claiming Disability,page 31

10. Acceptable Use of Language • "People First Language” • Person With a Disability (PWD) • Pride First Language • Deaf (Person) • Disabled Person (DP)

11. People First language • "People First Language” • Person Who is deaf / Hard of Hearing • Person with ____ (MS, Cancer, etc.) • Person with a Disability (PWD) • (Including: Non- Apparent or Hidden Disability) • “Person with a…” (Physical or Mental Difference)

12. Pride First Language • Disabled Person • (Claiming Disability) • Nondisabled

13. Etiquette • How do you “treat” a Person With a Disability? • Reading

14. Other Concepts… • Ableism • Overcoming • Pity • Super Crip

15. What does it mean to be able-bodied? • What are able-bodied people “able” to do? • What do able-bodied people look like?

16. Ableism • "discrimination in favor of the able-bodied."Reader’s Digest Oxford Wordfinder • Linton: • Person is determined by their disability • Disabled People are inferior to nondisabled people

17. Overcoming (a common theme) • Overcoming a disability • "I never think of you as disabled." • "He/she is a credit to his/her race."

18. Pity • To feel compassionate, commiserate, be sorry for. • Sometimes implying slight contempt for a person on account of some intellectual or moral inferiority attributed to him. • (Oxford English Dictionary,2nd ed. 1989)

19. “Super-Crip”(When Stereotypes Tell the Story (National Center on Disability and Journalism -NCDJ) • Disability as Tragedy • Inspiration / Overcoming • Courageous • Christopher Reeve: Triumph over Tragedy (Alter). • The latest item on the TV news, eg a blind man climbing a mountain.  

20. Definitions • Impairment • Handicap • Disability

21. Impairment: • Refers to physical or mental limitations such as difficulty walking • Represents a deviation from the person's usual biomedical state.

22. Impairment: • When does physical / mental variation become an impairment?

23. What is the difference between: • Impairment • Illness / “being sick” • Chronic Health Conditions?

24. MIND / BODY STATE (Condition) Minimal Expected Variation State Unexpected Variation (DISABILITY) Minor Variation DEATH BIRTH Minor Variation Unexpected Variation (DISABILITY) Impairment (aches/pains, illness/sick/injury, chronic illness/disease, short/tall, manic/depressed…. ) =Variation

25. Handicap • Different meanings throughout time and situation… • The disadvantage experienced by a person as a result of impairments (Now considered offensive)

26. Disability • Oh so many definitions… • Let’s start with the legal (US) definition: • ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act): • (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, • (2) has a record of such an impairment, or • (3) is regarded as having such an impairment.

27. World Health Org. (WHO)1980 • Disability • Restriction or lack (from an impairment) of ability considered normal for a human being • Handicap • The disadvantage experienced by a person as a result of impairments *ICIDH-1 (1980)

28. Impairment Handicap Disability Sequence of ConceptsWHO 1980 Disease or disorder ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- impairment at the organ level disability at the person level handicap at the societal level

29. WHO 2001 • Disability : • outcome or result of a complexrelationship between an individual’s: • health condition • personalfactors • external factors

30. Body function&structure (Impairment) Activities (Limitation) Participation (Restriction) Environmental Factors Personal Factors Interaction of Concepts WHO 2001 Health Condition (disorder/disease)

31. Classifying classification b11420 Hierarchy: b Bodily structures b1 Mental functions b11 Global mental functions b114 Orientation functions b1142 Orientation towards others b11420 Orientation towards one-self.

32. Quantifying Quantifying functionality: 0-4% 0 No impairment 5-24% 1 Light impairment 25-49% 2 Moderate impairment 50-95% 3 Serious impairment 96-100% 4 Total impairment 8 Non specified 9 Non applicable

33. Where is the subjective (QOL)?

34. Other classification systems • DSM IV • ICD

35. Review of some of the definitions: • ADA • An individual with a disability is defined 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 impairment, • or a person who is perceived by others as having such impairment. • ICF • Disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations or participation restrictions. • Environmental and personal factors influence all aspects of health, functioning and disability. • Surgeon General July 26, 2005 • “… disabilities are characteristics of the body, mind, or senses that, to a greater or lesser extent, affect a person’s ability to engage independently in some or all aspects of day-to-day life.”

36. 67 US acts / programs that define disability • 35 have self-contained definitions (although some contain more than one definition)

37. Which definition do you choose? • Obviously no one has this figured out…

38. Disability Activists (UK)1976(UPIAS - Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation) • Disability • “the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a contemporary social organization which takes no or little account of people who have physical impairments and thus excludes them from the mainstream of social activities” • Changes the focus of disability away from the individual to Society. (1st articulation of the “Social Model of Disability”)

39. Social Model • States that inappropriate and discriminatory: • Social Attitudes (Ableism), • Sociopolitical Structures, • Cultural Phenomena • are the central problem for disabled people

40. NEXT SESSION Models of Disability