1. Oct 3, 2006 Week 2, Session 2 I. What do I say? II. Definitions
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. I. What Do I Say?
Why Political Correctness?

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

5. Acceptable Use Person With a Disability (PWD) Deaf (Person)
Disabled Person (DP)

6. Acceptable Use (Cont.) "People First Language”
Person With a Disability (PWD)
(disAbled / disAbility)
Person Who is deaf / Hard of Hearing
Person with ____ (MS, Cancer, etc.)

7. Preferred Use
Disabled Person
(Claiming Disability)
Nondisabled OR

8. Use: "People First Language“
Person with a Disability (PWD)
“Person with a…” (Physical or Mental Difference)

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

11. OTHER CONCEPTS
ABLEISM
OVERCOMING
PITY
“SUPER CRIP”

12. 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

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

14. 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)

15. 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.  

16. II. Definitions
Disability
Handicapped
Impairment

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

18. Definitions What is the difference between: Impairment Illness
Chronic Health Conditions?

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

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

21. 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.

22. 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)

23. Sequence of Concepts WHO 1980
Disease or
disorder
Impairment
Disability
Handicap

24. 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)

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

26. 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. “

27. CONFUSION REIGNS

28. 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”)

29. 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

30. 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

31. Summary Terminology ID & Explore Stereotypes
Explored the Issue of Etiquette
Introduced Basic Concepts
(Ableism; Disability / Handicap / Impairment; Social Model of Disability)

32. NEXT SESSION
Models of Disability