I Was Not Born With a Label; Society Gave Me One

Today, as I was preparing to write my next post for this blog, I was bouncing around with my head topics. I thought my next blog would be about the social security problem (i.e., How social security is designed to keep individuals with disabilities on it, rather than intended as an incentive to assist them in better their lives.) While this is an important issue and one that I will discuss later, I came across an article that I feel is my duty as a blogger for disability rights. 

An article by a lady named Sunny Taylor titled The Right Not to Work: Power and Disability. In the article, Miss Taylor indicates that she is an individual who has arthrogryposis multiplex congenital. According to Web MD1, "Arthrogryposis is a general or descriptive term for the development of nonprogressive contractures affecting one or more areas of the body. A contracture is a condition in which a joint becomes permanently fixed in a bent (flexed) or straightened (extended) position, completely or partially restricting the movement of the affected joint."  

When my friend first told me about this article, we got into an argument about how I thought Miss Taylor was incorrect in her view. I said that everybody should be a contributing member of society. However, as I read the article further, I see that while I may disagree with Miss Taylor on one level, I agree with her. (Miss Taylor, if I am mistaken about the point of your article, let me know) I believe she made a good point when she said Disability is more of a social term than an actual name. Miss Taylor puts it more eloquently than I can. If one uses the term disability over the term impairment, it implies something they cannot overcome or workaround. It is a term that immediately subjugates them and reduces them to a lower level of being. That term does not take into account an individual's intelligence or worth to society. This is an ingrained term, and perhaps it can explain why many disabled people have such a negative view about not only their disability but what they can do with it. 

Instead of me summarizing Miss Taylor's article, I have posted it below to draw your conclusions. We need more individuals like myself and Sunny Taylor to begin to discuss the change necessary in society and the disability rights movement overall.  

The Right Not to Work: Power and Disability Article


Footnotes:
1. http://children.webmd.com/arthrogryposis-multiplex-congenita.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life Behind the Camera: Observing the Neurotypical World from the Autism Spectrum By: Michelle Zeman

Image
  Imagine that you are a photographer covering a story. You aren't the story's subject - your only purpose is to zoom in, adjust the settings, and click the button. The subject(s) of the photo are the story - they know what to expect and how to respond given the situation. However, you're not in the picture as the photographer - you're just observing. You aren't asked to be in the photo, let alone be involved in the story, outside of clicking the button. You see the final image, and you publish it online, and when people see it, they comment on the people within the photo and the event that occurred. That is what life is like from my perspective of being on the Autism spectrum - I am on the outside looking into neurotypical life.   Growing up, I didn't have many friends. In elementary school, I went to a Christian school. You would be incorrect if you think a Christian school is different from a public school in terms of how friendships are created. There w...
Read more

Sad Times in Ocala, Florida Reflect Overall Poor Treatment of The Disabled Community in America Today

 The movie-going experience has been part of American life for decades now. At the same time, being disabled has also been a part of the human experience since the beginning of time. This piece will address the idea that although we are thirty-four years into the ADA era, movie theaters in Ocala, Florida, demonstrate how little respect people with disabilities have earned in thirty-four years. Over the weekend, I was treating my friend/caregiver, who I will call Jane, on a trip to the movies for her 24 th birthday. She was nice enough to not only drive my van for only the 10 th time since she started working with me but also because my power wheelchair broke several weeks ago and there was a delay in the delivery process of my new chair; she was willing to push me around. The first of many problems we encountered that day occurred when we got to the front door. It was only then we noticed that even though disabled people do go to places by themselves without caregivers or atten...
Read more

The Movie “Conclave” Makes Me Rethink the Concept of Acceptance and How It Applies to My Own Life: By Jason Hahr

This post comes with a note to readers. This may or may not make complete sense. This post comes from a perspective of being stuck in my head. As much as I use this blog to teach and inform, this time, I am using it as a therapy tool as well. When I ask you, the readers, a question, please know that I am questioning you and my own subconscious. Now that I have said all of that, here we go. Initially, I was going to write a post about a movie I recently saw called “Conclave.” On the surface, the film has nothing to do with disability or disability-related issues. Still, if one looks deeper, one can see that the movie is about both self-acceptance and being accepted by others. I will not go into the movie's plot because, like I said, this is not a film review. I only reference it because it got me thinking. For eleven years now, I’ve been an outspoken voice for The Voiceless Minority, of which I am a member. However, I wonder if I have been an adequate advocate for people with disabi...
Read more