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Transabled
Written by Zoe on Saturday, June 21, 2008
The term transabled has been coined by a person who likens this condition to that of being transsexual (and he will know who he is if he ever stubbles across this blog – BTW, thanks for the great page!).
I don’t disagree, i do think that this is very similar. I do think, as Fiona says in Quid Pro Quo, she already is paralysed, she’s just trapped in a walking person’s body. This is much the same as a transexual might say, for example, i’m a man trapped/living in a woman’s body (or vice versa).
Much of the literature that i have read (and the literature is limited – but not for my lack of research), has argued that being transexual is different to being transabled because being a woman is not a disability, not inherently any different to being a man in this day and age, whereas being abled or disabled are completely diametric things.
But i would argue differently. I would argue that a definition of what is an ‘ability’ or a ‘disability’ is shaped by the culture within which you live. If we were living in Victorian England, we would most definitely say that being a woman is a disability, whereas, thanks to the suffragettes and feminists, being a woman is not viewed the same way today.
So what’s to say then that in 100 years, using a wheelchair wont be considered a disability in the same way that it is today. It’s a matter of public perception, of social conditioning. Perhaps we need to be the suffragettes for BIID, for disability, for wheelchairs.
I dont see why using a wheelchair can’t be a lifestyle chioce (which is not to say that i dont feel for those who have it thrust upon them completely regardless of their wishes). But why should that misfortune preclude me from living the life i feel i was born to live – i have misfortunes enough of my own. It doesnt make me feel any less for anyone who faces challenges in their life, it makes me feel more, because i understand more, because i know exactly what it is like to live each day not being able to be the person who i feel i should be.
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5 Comments
4 On 1 November, 2008, Sean said:
This is going back to the social model of disability. Impairment vs. disability.
I’ve written about that a fair bit. See here: http://biid-info.org/Impairment_vs._Disability
Thanks Sean,
I’ve definitely seen that page before – though it seems to be many years ago now – it certainly does appear to have influenced my thoughts on the subject.
I do that a lot – try to put these thoughts aside and forget them, but they never go away.
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1 On 29 October, 2008, Ada said:
Thanks for making this point Zoe. As a woman, it is never far from my mind that I can have the life I have today, BECAUSE of the women that came before me. A disability is created by others’ (or society’s)stigma of the person with a “disability.”