THE SOCIAL MODEL OF DISABILITY AND DYSARTHRIA The Disabled Person’s Point Of View; The Personal And The Academic

What Has The Social Model Achieved The Social Model of Disability set out below has been developed by disabled people themselves based on their own experience. While we have seen over the last day and a half many of the potential benefits of the medical approach to disability, the experience of disabled people demonstrates that their limitations are barriers out in society preventing full and equal participation,

The Social Model Of Disability Impairment:is the functional limitation within the individual caused by physical mental or sensory impairment. Disability:is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and social barriers Oliver, M. (1982). Exploring the Divide Illness and Disability. Proceedings of the First World Congress, Singapore, Disability Press.

The Nature Of The Barriers “We believe that the position of disabled people in society is a human and civil rights issue and that society must be changed to allow our full inclusion. We believe that disability arises from society’s negative treatment of us; it is not an inevitable consequence of our impairments. So equality is possible and can be achieved through removing the barriers to our social inclusion”. The seven needs identified by disabled people to allow full inclusion are: Information Peer Support Housing Technical Aids Personal Assistance Transport Access

The Limitations Of The Social Model However there seems to be something about my personal experience of having Dysarthric speech that the Social Model of Disability has not yet taken account of. The Social Model of Disability argues that it is the barriers from social and environmental organisation along with attitudes that disable people rather than their actual medical conditions.

The Limitations Of The Social Model Continued By adapting the account of aphasia given by Carole Pound and Alan Hewit to Dysarthria, a social model of Dysarthria begins to emerge. Carol Pound, A. H. (2004) Communication barriers; building access and identity In Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments (Ed, Swain, J.).

Time Barriers Not allowing enough time for the impaired person to express themselves. In a meeting or training session time to be scheduled to ensure that all participants are enabled to participate.

Reactions To Communication Impairment Attitudinal barriers Assumptions about intellectual ability on my last holiday at a Vitalise holiday centre, it was striking how patronising attitudes appeared to be correlated with extent of communication impairment. If guests had speech impairments or were non-verbal we appeared to be patronised and infantilised even more.

Organisational Barriers For example staff in a hospital not being able to understand a patient’s selection from a food menu because of Dysarthric speech. These barriers to communication would lead to barriers to having un-equal access to auxiliary service such as hospital catering. Organisation’s Disability Equality Duties should ensure that sufficient time can be allocated to facilitate equality and ease in communication. Allowing time for fully listening. Be prepared, and allowing for a variety of communication aids and techniques to be used.

Barriers To Identity And Self Expression Barriers to expressing one’s own sense of self. A person’s sense of self is constructed through interaction with others. How others see us, and how we believe they see us constructs our sense of self. In psychology and sociology this is known as symbolic interactionism.

Barriers To Identity And Self Expression Continued Dysarthric speech can often introduce an inequality in the interaction process, through its slow and unclear nature. Non Dysarthric speech can gain dominance in confrontational and non confrontational interaction, it is easier to twist or re-interoperate the words of someone with Dysarthria than someone without, causing a disadvantage.

Barriers To Identity And Self Expression Continued Related to the barriers in being able to express one’s sense of self, leads to the likelihood of being unable to construct a positive disabled identity relating to the Social Model of Disability. Among the expressions in one’s own sense of self will be reflections on experiencing impairment and disability. Therefore a non disabled person’s view of impairment and disability can be imposed on the disabled person’s identity.

Reflections On Personal Experience From my personal experience, I believe that there are disabling barriers which specifically relate to having Dysarthria. These barriers can be found in the area of social encounters and interaction.

Reflections On Personal Experience Continued The first example and perhaps the most distressing occurred in my teens and twenties when I found that due to my Dysarthria I could not verbally react quickly enough in argument or discussion to feel that I had adequately expressed myself. This feeling of not being able to adequately express myself would lead to a feeling of deep internal frustration and this in turn would lead to terrible temper tantrums. I think that having Dysarthria multiplied the ordinary frustrations of teenage life.

Reflections On Personal Experience Continued Because Dysarthria can be difficult to hear and understand, casual interaction in social situations such as parties and concerts can be difficult if not impossible. There are many situations where the level of noise is louder than the human voices engaged in interaction. It has been my experience that in such situations it is hardly worth attempting to enter into conversation. You have heard the expression; ‘can’t hear yourself speak’, I find this to be particularly true with Dysarthria.

Reflections On Personal Experience Continued If I cannot hear myself speak because of the level of background noise, I find it difficult even to construct and speak a coherent sentence, let alone make repairs.

Effects On Working Lives The second example occurs when people use your speech impairment to gain some kind of advantage. When I was working on my first disability and education project, I knew that one of the committee officers deliberately used my speech impairment to distort my input into the project. I was given some Information Communication Technology teaching. Encouraged by this experience, I studied for my first degree. When I returned to the organisation after graduating hoping for some part time teaching, they had suddenly noticed my speech impairment.

Effects On Working Lives Continued Another charity that aimed to further the interests of people with Cerebral Palsy actively discouraged me from a career in teaching because of my Dysarthria. From an early age, I began to condition myself to try and ignore what I believe to be my vocational calling which is to teach. In later life, I have had occasional opportunities to teach.