On the Disability Rights Movement

[greenie_breizh]

Through an NPR report that a friend recommended, I started reading chaoticidealism's journal, and I suggest you all do the same. In my own time I've focused more on the type of marginalization that non-whiteness, non-heterosexuality and femininity/femaleness bring onto people, but obviously marginalization isn't limited to these particular experiences. Disability studies is an entire big field that I've only been able to dip into briefly, but which I find fascinating because it speaks to me on the same level as the stuff that I'm more familiar with.

The experience of oppression at the hand of a dominant group has much potential for enabling people with different experiences to connect and empathize with each other (that doesn't mean equating the experience of being black with the experience of being gay, but rather it means recognizing the different forms that systemic oppression can take). I love to be reminded of that by reading thoughtful, non-essentialist reflections from someone else who's been thinking about this sort of stuff.

I particular enjoyed this post entitled "Joining the Disability Rights Movement", on the place of the neurodiversity community (which includes people with autism) within the larger disability rights movement.

As a sidenote, I love when people in the majority group get labeled, the way that Lisa is using the word 'neurotypical' to describe people who aren't part of the neurodiversity community. It feels weird, but it's an important experience to have when you're part of the dominant group and thus are most likely not used to being labeled constantly (including by people who barely know you). I think we have a lot to gain from being able to recognize the parts of us which enable us to access certain types of privilege.

EDIT: From a new post of chaoticidealism, not the one I was mentioning, but it sums up the argument wonderfully:

But sometimes, I see people who say, "I'm high-functioning. I'm not like those low-functioning people over there." And then they advocate for the rights of high-functioning people only, by whatever arbitrary standard they're using today to define "high-functioning", because at some level down deep, they're still trying to justify their existence. They feel like they've got to say, "I'm valuable because I can do X, Y, and Z", and distance themselves as much as possible from "disability". They don't realize that the solution is to challenge the disability stereotype that they're taking for granted. And they don't realize that it's valid to say, "I'm valuable," no strings attached, with disability or no disability completely irrelevant.

Comments

[lounalune.livejournal.com]

A person is defined as disabled when their ability to do certain things differs to a certain extent from other people of their age group, so old age is not a disability, though of course elderly people face many of the same difficulties as some people with disabilities, from access problems to abuse and the problems related to institutionalization. Still, I think that the definition makes sense, because I think that temporarily abled elderly people don't experience the same kind of discrimination as disabled people, if only because they are not seen as strange, and less seen as burdens because it is thought that they did contribute to society, while it is thought that disabled people don"t, and never did (which is, of course, bullshit).

Even without old age, I would be careful with the concept of experiencing a disability "at some point or other", because one experiences a disability for a very long time, otherwise it's not a disability. The definition, at least in Germany, says that it has to be expected to last at least six months (at the time you're applying for benefits); all the people I know who self-identify as disabled will probably stay disabled for the rest of their lives. Fibro and some mental illnesses might get better or even be disappear, in the case of fibro, or be cured, in the case of some mental illnesses, but it's very unlikely (not in the case of all mental illnesses, but in the case of those of the people I know who self-identify as disabled). I know that some of us hate it when someone can "totally understand what it's like" because they broke a limb/had a bad flu/were very sad when x happened/etc. It's not. When a situation doesn't last long, the person will limit their activities in ways that a person with a disability cannot, and does not want to.

However, a person might very well become disabled through a disease or accident. Many currently abled people fear that "something like that" could happen to them, or that their children could be born "that way", and often project that fear in their behavior towards disabled people. Expressing the fact that the people could, indeed, become disabled, is for me a way of poking fun at that fear, and at their security when they happen not to be confronted with us. It kind of breaks down the barrier, also. Of course, other people might have other reasons for liking these expressions.

Another reason why I prefer "currently abled" to "temporarily able-bodied" is that a current situation may change, whereas a temporary situation will change.

[greenie-breizh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation - I think that's exactly why I was asking about the choice of word with "temporarily". It implies the situation will necessarily change, and the only way I could make sense of that was by relating it to old age, which is something different from disability (although there are overlaps, like you pointed out).

I definitely understand your frustration with people who experience disability "temporarily" through broken limbs, short illness, etc. It's an interesting balance between being able to empathize ('I am making effort to understand your perspective by listening to you and I occasionally relate it to similar experiences I've had') and appropriating someone's experience by always relating it to your own life ('I understand exactly what you have gone through because I went through x, y and z').