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What is Disability really?
Written by Sophie on Wednesday, August 13, 2008
I met an interesting man today who raised a good point, what is disability. This man had been a firefighter until one day when he was in a car accident and he was brain damaged. You wouldn’t know any of this just by looking at him but he had no long or short term memory. He had no sense of smell or taste and he can’t hear properly. He looks like any normal man joking around about every day things but in reality he’s wondering why the heck people are calling him ___ when he’s been told his name is something else????
He told me when he was in hospital his dad had to be sat down with several different medical professions to have him understand that he won’t be going back to what his father considered normal. After all, what’s normal?
There is a globally accepted definition of normal, it’s what everyone else is doing, but then we aren’t all the same are we? Even in our own little transabled community we have ideas of what is normal and what isn’t. And then there is your own personal definition of normal. What’s normal for me isn’t what’s normal for Mum. Sadly living with BIID is normal for me. One does not really start considering what’s normal and what is abnormal til we have to start giving frames of mind and body definitions. I never considered my shaking an impairment until I had to start explaining myself to others.
It gives oneself a lot to think about.
Tags: Disability, Normal
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3 Comments
2 On 14 August, 2008, Sean said:
Well, “technically” (in most countries), a disability is “a condition that significantly impacts one or more activity of daily living”. These include (but are not limited to) walking, hearing, talking, seeing, eating, thinking, etc. In the US, they even state that anyone who 1) has a condition, 2) has a history of having a condition, or 3) is perceived as having a condition.
This means that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Gordo (who I know lives in Canada) would be protected from disability based discrimination if he were discriminated against because of using a wheelchair!
But that’s rather technical ;)
I think your most excellent post alludes a bit to the difference between “disability” and “impairment” as well. We have BIID, it’s our “natural” state of being, but it is an impairment. It does become disabling when we have to function in the world, and we’re not able to.
In the end, “normal is a cycle on the washing machine” ;)
BTW Sophie, nice to see you post again :)
Good on you, Gordo!!! Do your thing while you´re young enough to make it work!!
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1 On 14 August, 2008, Gordo said:
I had an interesting internal battle about that lately. Even though I haven’t told many friends or my family about my BIID, I crossed a line the other week — the line that divides wheeling as something “weird” I do do cope with BIID and as something that feels “normal” and natural.
After crossing that line, using a wheelchair became as natural a mode of mobility as any other mode. I finally felt “normal” enough to use a wheelchair in broad daylight in red zones (which is what I call areas where I have a high chance of bumping into someone I know).
I’ve already bumped into some people I know while using my wheelchair, and they seem to be taken aback that I’m no longer “normal”… It’s interesting to me because some of those people have friends with various disabilities too. So how come I’m suddenly “abnormal” in their eyes? (Not that I wasn’t weird in my own way before.)