Disability Studies has done much to problematize the "other"-ness of people who do not move, see, hear, speak, or write in ways constructed as "normal." By challenging dichotomous categories, Disability Studies helps us see abilities along a continuum - written, oral, visual, verbal, technological, and social - abilities which people could share for their mutual enlightenment. We can use these various abilities more than we do. For example, in addition to written journals or logs, students can use voice mail and other modalities in reading response logs. As Rod Michalko and Tanya Titchkosky explain, already-designed, inaccessible environments reveal unspoken assumptions regarding the place of disabled individuals in society - exclusionary assumptions that Michalko and Titchkosky attempt to expose and to change. To design inclusiveness in from the beginning requires a new way of thinking, a new concept of all people. When a physical environment, such as a campus, is created under ideologies that see disability as not normal, then changes to that environment to make it accessible can be seen as accommodations or even "special treatment." There was an extended, venomous letter exchange in the summer of 1999 in The Chronicle of Higher Education Colloquy regarding accommodations for students with learning disabilities. Many writers considered accommodations "special treatment." (The article that sparked the discussion and the colloquy itself are available online.)
Everybody Loves PizzaAlong with other people on your street, let's say you're invited to a neighbor's house to watch a TV show you all like. The host, Fred, has ordered a pizza with the works, which Fred says is his family's favorite. When the pizza comes, it has on it mushrooms, sausage, pineapple, and anchovies. One guest gags at the thought of anchovies, and you are a vegetarian, so you cringe at the sausage. Another is allergic to pineapple (he'll break out in hives), and still another says a chemical reaction to mushrooms will close off her windpipe. "What's wrong with you people?" Fred asks. "Any normal person loves this combination!" But Fred tells you all that your special needs can easily be accommodated. He tells you to just remove the anchovies or the sausage or the pineapple or the mushrooms on your slice and stop whining. Fred says he's feeling generous because he has just accommodated all your special needs. |
Scholars in Disability Studies argue that "it is society which disables people with impairments, and therefore any meaningful solution must be directed at societal change rather than individual adjustment and rehabilitation" (Barnes, Mercer, and Shakespeare, 1999, 27). Similarly, René Gadacz says, "Disability is a socially created category rather than an attribute of individuals" (1994, 4). Simi Linton points out that Disability Studies ". . . [refuses] the medicalization of disability and [reframes] disability as a designation having primarily social and political significance . . . " (2).
Disability theory shows how "othering" happens. It exposes the ideologies that permit us to think of ourselves as "normal," good, or worthy, and to think of others we perceive to be not like us in some way - physically, mentally, educationally - as disabled, and therefore not normal, not good, or not worthy.
(For more information on Disability Studies, see Brenda Jo Brueggemann's work,
and/or the Society for
Disability Studies Web site.)
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