Chapter 2: Perspectives on Disability

social theory

a coherent system of logically consistent and interconnected ideas used to condense and organize knowledge.

• links to empirical research, which may confirm or disconfirm the accuracy of its propositions.

model

describes different conceptual approaches to its subject matter.

• a framework for translating ideas into practice (Oliver).

medical model of disability

an essentialist approach that defines disability as a property of the individual body rather than the social environment. concerned with the etiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments.

social model of disability

it is not an individual’s impairment or adjustment but the socially imposed barriers (inaccessible environments, limited modes of transportation and communication, prejudiced attitudes) that construct disability as a subordinate social status and devalued life experience.

phenomenology of the body

the lived experience of embodied human beings is the starting point for understanding disability.

• we are our bodies; experiences and understandings are grounded in our active corporeal and intercorporeal involvement in the world (Christina Papadimitriou).

complex embodiment theory

illuminates the effects of the social environment but also the pains and pleasures that derive from the body itself.

acknowledges:

• chronic pain and secondary health effects

• available medical interventions or adaptive technologies that may improve quality of life

• practical disadvantages to impairments that no amount of environmental change can entirely eliminate

cultural model of disability

embraces disability as part of human diversity and as a site of cultural resistance to socially constructed conceptions of normality. focus on the internal adaptations and creative responses of disabled people.

supercrips

notable people who are celebrated for ‘overcoming’ their disabilities and serve as inspirational stories of courage, dedication, and hard work.

emancipatory research

research undertaken on behalf of and to empower people with disabilities. strives for emphatic and intersubjective understanding scholars and disabled individuals with whom they collaborate to produce empirical knowledge.

Deaf culture

a linguistic and cultural minority whose mode of communication is sign language.

identity politics

political arguments and strategies advanced by self-identified social interest groups.

master status

the primary social identifier among multiple possible identities.

symbolic interaction

human beings communicate and understand themselves and others through the use of symbols. associated with sociologist George Herbert Mead.

looking glass self

individuals develop a sense of self through social interaction, with the tendency for individuals to internalize the image others project onto them (Charles Cooley).

spoiled identity

the state of being less than normal due to a physical or metaphorical mark on a person’s character (Goffman).

impression management

the process by which people attempt to control the impressions others form of them (Goffman).

disabled people may refuse assistance to demonstrate competency, conceal their disability, or use humor to make others comfortable, etc.

political economy of the disability

makes use of economic concepts like production, distribution, and consumption to suggest that economic markets should be understood not as fully independent but as interfaced with political forces and government policies.

disability business/industry

disability services that become commodities that are bought and sold in the marketplace, with some consumption subsidized by the government and some not.

politics of appearance

the standardization of desirable bodies that can be achieved through self-regulation and consumerism.

crip theory

Robert McRuer’s contribution to disability studies, in which he draws parallels between compulsory heterosexuality and compulsory able-bodiedness. critique of ableism, which aims to undermine the assumption that normality and disability are polar opposites and being disabled is bad.

crip as highlighting the experiences of the severely disabled who are regarded as lowest in status. severely disabled are best able to critique the oppressive nature of compulsory able-bodiedness.

compulsory able-bodiedness

ability masquerades as nonidentity because it is the norm.

critical disability studies

a view that rejects the framing of the disabled body as deficient and recasts it as a site of becoming, reflection, and creativity. recognizes the blurred boundaries between social categories and emphasizes intersectionality. disabilities studies as opposed to disability studies.