Disability and identity Flashcards
What is an impairment?
A loss or limitation in the functioning of the mind or body.
What is a disability?
When an impairment prevents people from carrying out day to day activities.
What does the Medical Model of Disability do?
- Saw people as disabled because they couldn’t take part in the same activities as other members of society.
- This labelled the disabled as inferior because it was assumed that to be disabled was abnormal and meant reliance on the able bodied.
What does the Social Model of Disability do?
- Oliver argues society disables physically impaired people because the disabled are excluded from full participation in society by stereotypical attitudes held by able bodied people —> this links to disability being socially constructed.
What does Shakespeare argue in the Social Construction of Disability?
- Disability should be seen as a social construction
- Societies don’t take into account the needs of those who do not meet societies ideas of what is ‘normal’
- The label of ‘disabled’ is more important than the actual ‘disability’
How does society see some social aids?
- Sees social aids, like wheelchairs, negatively.
- Whereas, social needs, like glasses, are not seen in this way
What does Barnes argue about the disabled?
- Barnes argues that the ‘disabled’ are socialised into seeing themselves as disadvantaged and forced to play a disabled role.
What are the media representations of the disabled?
Barnes suggested stereotypes of disabilities include ideas that disabled people are:
- Dependent on others
- Unable to contribute to society
- Non sexual
- Unable to speak for themselves
- Less than human
- To be made fun of, pitied, or praised for their courage
The disabled are symbolically annihilated in the media, meaning they are rarely featured in media programming and they are very underrepresented. They are also represented in one dimensional roles, often in storylines which relate entirely to their disability.
What is the problem that causes the disabled not to be able to have their disability not the main part of their identity?
- Disabled people may not see their impairment as the main part of their identity.
- However, many people with impairments may be unable to assert their choice of identity (impression management) as others may see them primarily as disabled and treat them according to stereotypes.
How can disability become an identity where people are excluded from society?
- Wheelchair users often find that people will talk to the person pushing the wheelchair rather than the person in the wheelchair.
- This can result in employment discrimination as employers may be reluctant to take on a disabled person.
- Therefore the disabled are more likely to be on welfare benefits and experience poverty.
What is genders impact on disabled people?
- It is assumed by professionals that disabled women should not be having sex and that they are likely to make unsuitable mothers.
- There have been a number of cases where disabled women have been forcibly sterilised or have had their children taken into care.
What is learned helplessness? (Refer to a theorist)
- Stereotypes of the disabled being dependent can have an impact on disabled people themselves.
- Scott observed the interaction between medical professionals and blind people and argued the blind developed a blind personality.
- Part of this involved learned helplessness, which blind people adopted because the medical professionals expected then to rely on the able bodied whether or not they needed to.
What has Marxists such as Finkelstein suggested?
- Our negative attitudes towards the disabled may be because capitalism emphasises work as a source of identity, status and power.
- Because a capitalist society requires a healthy and fit workforce, the disabled became an economic burden for society and are defined as a social problem.
