Disability Flashcards
Shakespeare
Argues that disabled people are often socialised into seeing themselves as victims and people with impairments may develop a ‘victim mentality’ and use it as a reason for their failure
Other obstacles to forming a disabled identity
• lack of positive role models
• media and abled people react to disability with pity and awkwardness
• disabled people are often isolated from each other making it difficult to form a strong collective identity.
Lee Ridley
Comedian - suffers with cerebral palsy- wondered ‘does disability make you feel awkward?’
Scope U.K conducted a study and found that 2/3 of people felt awkward talking to a disabled person ( launched campaign to remedy this )
Survey also suggests
- 43% of people don’t know anyone who is disabled (statistically unlikely)
Less than 1/5 of people have disability from birth- he called the other 4/5 -not yet disabled
Barnes
Argues that the media and representations of disability have generally been negative - people with disabilities are rarely presented as having their own identities Media presents then as • victims • villains • super cripples • sexually abnormal • a Burden
Murugami
Argues that a disabled person has the ability to construct a self identity that accepts their impairment but is independent of it (sees it as a characteristic)
- very few people are able bodied for life so society should view it as a human condition rather than an impairment
The medical model
(Link with Shakespeare)
- sees disability as a medical problem caused by the impairment
- leads to ‘victim blaming mentality’ - problem lies with the individual rather than society that has not be their needs
The social model
Focused on the social and physical barriers to inclusion that might exist
• design of buildings
•public space
• can be linked to workplace (despite laws preventing discrimination)
– can lead to view that disability is socially constructed (rested on assumptions of what is ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’
