Disability: sameness and difference Kirsten Stalker University of Strathclyde Faculty of Education Professorial Lecture Series 18 November 2008

2 Britain’s Missing Top ModelBritain’s Missing Top Model: the contestants Picture removed for copyright reasons ingmodel/thumb_126/group_photoshoot2.jpg

3 The lucky winner Picture removed for copyright reasons ingmodel/thumb_126/ jpg

4 Quotes on sameness/ difference Professional talking about children with learning disabilities: They’re not like normal children, you see. Teenager/ wheelchair user: We’re just the same. We just can’t walk, that’s all the difference.

5 Quotes on sameness/ difference Teenager with learning disabilities: How come I’m different from my brothers and I’m stupid and how come my nephew can count and I can’t and he’s 7? Sibling talking about her disabled sister: She’s different but it’s normal for us.

6 Quotes on sameness/ difference Young man: My disability encompasses all of me: it is central to my identity. Teenager (girl): Every normal kid has to grow up and have freedom and so do we. And if we make mistakes, we make mistakes; we’re just like any other kid.

7 Quotes on sameness/ difference Adult with learning disabilities: I don’t know if it’s kind o’ a threat that we’re different…there just seems to be this ‘because [you’re] different, we’re going to treat you different’…it doesn’t matter what disability a person has, everybody’s got a right to have access wherever they’ve got to go to.

8 Theorising Difference 1.Correcting/ challenging false generalisations which are implicit in much classic thought about everyday life - Calhoun et al (2002)

9 Theorising Difference 2: Questioning whether certain social categories that we often take for granted really have objective and stable meanings - Calhoun et al (2002)

10 Theorising Difference 3: Thinking about the role which the ideas attached to certain categories may play in structuring society itself - Calhoun et al (2002)

11 1: Correcting false generalisations Study of disabled children’s everyday lives 26 children aged Range of impairments Attending mainstream and special schools Used variety of communication methods Connors and Stalker 2007

12 2: Does disability have an objective and stable meaning? Children experienced disability in 4 ways: Impairment Physical barriers Other people’s attitudes The management of difference

13 Children’s views “That's it. I’m in a wheelchair so just get on with it. Just get on with what you’re doing” (boy aged 9 ) “I don’t mind if it’s wee boys or girls that look at me but if it’s adults…they should know. It’s as if they’ve never seen a wheelchair before and they have, eh?” (boy aged 14)

14 Children’s views “No. I just bully them back. Or if they started kicking us, I’d kick them back.” (young boy with learning disabilities)

15 Children’s views Mother: “He was telling me the other day how they did the fire alarm and everybody was screaming out in the playground. Richard was still in the school. He was saying ‘Mum, I was really really worried about what happens if there’s a real fire’. No-one came to his assistance at all.”

16 Children’s views Girl “…there’s signing, where everyone signs, all the teachers, all the children. Researcher : Why is that better than going to a school with hearing children? Girl : Hearing children – no one signs. I don’t understand them and they don’t understand me”.

17 3: The role which ideas attached to certain categories may play in structuring society itself Ideas attached to the category ‘learning disability’ ‘othering’ and exclusion care and protection justice and rights

18 Some concluding thoughts about… the role of research common sense understandings of disability social constructionist view of disability significance of impairment a continuum of impairment?

19 Concluding thoughts no objective stable meaning of disability differences among disabled people the way we think about disability has profound influence on everyday lives celebrating difference and diversity

20 Thank you for listening!