Discussion Provocation #4

When we hear the term “disability”, there is one idea normally comes to mind. That is this idea that someone is less than or not as valuable as those without a disability.  Within Becoming dishuman: thinking about the human through dis/ability  the prefix  “dis” is broken down and explained as something negative, and to deprive something of the power it has; whereas the norm is for someone to be “able. When someone does not fit this norm, they are considered not able, then implementing the actions of causing someone to feel less than, odd, or invalidate. Within the article we are also introduced to the idea that “Intellectual disability is always profound because it enlarges, disrupts, pauses, questions and clarifies what it means to be human”. Even though the term “disses” the human identity, people with intellectual disabilities still look to be identified as human, and we are challenged to find new ways and vocabulary to identify the “humanness inherent in dis/ability alongside its disruptive potential”.

Even though some of the information within this article was new, the message being conveyed was very clear and one that I am familiar with. We need to continuously challenge the norm of what it means to be able, or successful in society. We need to make ourselves think about who we are excluding from the norm, and why we believe they are any less able than us. Why is a successful, intellectually “disabled” adult who has a job and owns their own place, deserve to be treated as less? Is it just because they need a little help at times, in instances like paying the bills or assistance getting groceries? If you ask me, I will say we all need help at times, so why is this any different and why are we belittling them for it? Is a student who has to alter the way they learn, by perhaps taking a test verbally, less successful because they aren’t doing things traditionally? 

Within Eli Clare’s article, Stolen Bodies, Reclaimed Bodies: Disability and Queerness, she identifies that the disability rights movement has created a new model of disability where it  acknowledges that “Disability, is not defined by our bodies, but rather by the material and social conditions of ableism; not by the need to use a wheelchair, but rather by the stairs that have no accompanying ramp or elevator”. It is ablism that needs to be cured not the bodies we have. If we take the focus away from the body, whether that be the dis/ability, gender, sexuality, or anything else that goes against the norm, and focus on the person.