Self-Organizing Man

Disability 101

I’m still learning about disability rights.  Eli Clare’s book Exile and Pride and Joe Shapiro’s book No Pity have taught me much. The latter has provided me a history of ableism and disability rights in the u.s.  Clare’s book offers a queer perspective on disability activism.

In coming to understand disability activism I find the distinction between impairment and disability to be most helpful.

An impairment is a degree of physical or mental functional loss or difference; and, on the basis of these impairments, we exclude people in varying degrees from full participation in society, resulting in disability.

Put another way, impairments live within an individual body.  Disabilities live in societies as the result of fear, ignorance, hate or pity.

In an instant I could become impaired.  And when I look around my town and city and country, I see a really shitty place to have any kind of impairment.  That’s in part why I’m learning more and more about disability rights.  I have vested interest in doing so.

What I’m learning is that disability activism, among other things, denies the charade that we are individuals alone, doing everything ourselves.  Two dear friends and one co-worker live with various impairments.  Two people need my help to complete certain physical tasks.  For the third, I function as a kind of memory keeper because of memory loss as a result of ECTs. 

The assisting makes me realize I’m too always receiving assistance.  I just often don’t see the people picking my food, pulling oil out of the ground and refining it into gas or  the people making sure my moveable type keeps going so I can blog away.

Most of us will experience some physical or cognitive loss in our life.  I’d rather admit the truth now - that I’ve always been vulnerable, relied on the kindnesses of hundreds and hundreds of people - than later, when, in addition to dealing with the physical or mental loss itself, I’ll be dealing with the loss of the myth of eternal, real bodies that are independent and invincible.