1. What is Disability…?
April 3rd, 2008

2. Today in class we will… What do I say? Etiquette
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?
Myths

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
Constructing the axis on which disabled and nondisabled fall.
Enter disability studies as the center for understanding the axis.

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
BIRTH
DEATH
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. Sequence of Concepts WHO 1980
Disease or
disorder
Impairment
Disability
Handicap
impairment at the organ level
disability at the person level
handicap at the societal level

29. WHO 2001
Disability :
outcome or result of a complex relationship between an individual’s:
health condition
personal factors
external factors
INTERNATION CLASSIFICATION OF IMPAIRMENTS, DISABILITIES AND HANDICAPS
“Exploring Disability” (p.22) Covers ICIDH – Resolve disability & handicaps by fixing impairment through med / rehab – environment is ‘neutral’ (p.25)
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
NO IMPAIRMENTS MENTIONED (nor handicapped)

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

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)
“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
Social Construction:
DISABILITY AND MATERIALIST
EMBODIMENT
Mike Clear and Brendan Gleeson
JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY No 49

40. Who is Disabled? Everybody?
What did Linton have to say about “everybody”?
The largest minority
Any disease or chronic health condition
Who is deserving
Interventions
Political clout

41. NEXT SESSION
Models of Disability