What do we think about when we think about disability?
The human species is not always very good at dealing with disability. Does our reluctance to find sensible, workable solutions grow out of how our culture views people with a disability? Perhaps, for some, ‘disability’ conjures up images of a group of awkward, time-consuming outsiders who always need our help. Others may think of disabled people as folks that should, by definition, lead protected, sheltered lives because they cannot care for themselves. In both instances, this pictures an out-group, divorced from, and yet troublingly part of, wider society. Who or what is ‘disabled’? A good place to start would be to as what the term ‘disabled’ means and who it applies to. Disability is worth thinking about because the term, and how we often use it, is based on a misnomer, on ideas…
