1 March 29, 2007 Week 1, Session 2  I. What do I say? Language / Labels / Stereotypes Terminology  II. Definitions Disability Handicap Impairment

2 Class Objectives  ID & Explore Stereotypes  Explore the Issue of Etiquette  Introduce Basic Concepts (Ableism; Disability / Handicap / Impairment; Social Model of Disability)

3 What Do I Say?  Why even talk about this?

4 Stereotypes & Labels

5 Euphemisms  Physically Challenged  Differently Able(d) / handicapable  “Special”  Wheelchair Bound  Victim (Stroke, Heart Attack)  TAB (Temporary Able Bodied)

6 Acceptable Use  Person With a Disability (PWD) "People First Language”  Deaf (Person)  Disabled Person (DP)

7 Acceptable Use (Cont.)  "People First Language” Person Who is deaf / Hard of Hearing Person with ____ (MS, Cancer, etc.)

8 Preferred Use  Disabled Person (Claiming Disability)  Nondisabled OR

9 Use: "People First Language“ Person with a Disability (PWD) (Including: Non- Apparent or Hidden Disability) “Person with a…” (Physical or Mental Difference)

10 “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

11 Etiquette  How do you “treat” a Person With a Disability?

12 OTHER CONCEPTS  ABLEISM  OVERCOMING  PITY  “SUPER CRIP”

13 Ableism  "discrimination in favor of the able- bodied." Reader’s Digest Oxford Wordfinder  Linton: person is determined by their disability (Globalization) Disabled People are inferior to nondisabled people

14 Overcoming (A common Theme)  overcoming a disability "I never think of you as disabled." "He/she is a credit to his/her race."

15 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, 2 nd ed. 1989)

16 Super-Crip  When Stereotypes Tell the Story (National Center on Disability and Journalism -NCDJ) "Super-Crip."  Disability as Tragedy  inspiration / Overcoming  Courageous Christopher Reeve: Triumph over Tragedy (Alter). Christy Brown writing in My Left Foot (1989, Jim Sheridan, UK); Blind Mathew Murdock has radar-like senses he uses to fight evil in Daredevil (2003, Mark Steven Johnson, USA); The last item on the TV news, eg a blind man climbing a mountain.

17 II. Definitions  Disability  Handicapped  Impairment

18 Impairment: refers to physical or mental limitations such as difficulty walking represents a deviation from the person's usual biomedical state.

19 Impairment:  When does physical / mental variation become an impairment?

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

21 Handicap  The disadvantage experienced by a person as a result of impairments (Now considered offensive)

22 Disability  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.

23 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)

24 Sequence of Concepts WHO 1980 Impairment ImpairmentDisease or or disorde r Disability Handicap

WHO 2001 Disability : outcome or result of a complex relationship between an individual’s: - health condition -personal factors -external factors

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

27 67 US acts / programs that define disability - 35 have self-contained definitions (although some contain more than one definition) 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. “

CONFUSION REIGNS

29 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” (1 st articulation of the “Social Model of Disability”) Changes the focus of disability away from the individual to Society. (1 st articulation of the “Social Model of Disability”)

30 SOCIAL MODEL States that inappropriate and discriminatory: Social Attitudes (Ableism), Sociopolitical Structures, Cultural Phenomena are the central problem for disabled people

31 Who is Disabled?  Everybody?  What did Linton have to say about “everybody”?

32 NEXT SESSION  Models of Disability