April 1st, 2010Language and Stereotypes

Dennis LangDisability Studiesdlang@uw.edu

http://depts.washington.edu/disstud

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Agenda-A little bit about me-Readings

-Normal - Health-What do we mean by the term Disability?-Language-ID & Explore Stereotypes

-Explore the Issue of Etiquette-Introduce Some Basic Concepts:

(Ableism; Disability / Handicap / Impairment; Social Model of Disability)

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What is Disability?

“Normal?” “Health?”

Crutch - Bill Shannon, “Crutchmaster”

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Language

What is in common use?

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Language

USE EITHER:

Person with a Disability (PWD)(People 1st Language)

or

Disabled Person; Deaf (Identity Language)

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Language

NEWPeople who experience Disability

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Person with a Disability

Disabled Person

People who experience Disability

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“People First” language

Person With a Disability (PWD)person who is deaf (or hearing impaired)…person with a psychiatric/mental-disorder(illness?)

“People First” esp. preferred by self-advocates of people with intellectual disabilities(ID) community ("intellectual disability" Codified in Washington State Law) 9

Disability Identity / Pride!??Disabled Person (DP)often preferred in the disability rights movementYou will also see disABLED/disAbilityDeaf / Deafhood vs. deaf

Celebrate Disability?

What is there to be proud about?

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LanguagePlease do not use “Handicapped”

Avoid euphemisms:“challenged,” “special,” “differently-abled,”

“handicapable”

Other Terms:“Wheelchair Bound” “Victim” (e.g.: Stroke Victim)

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Language

NO: wheelchair-boundYES: wheelchair user

NO: “suffering from_” or “victim of_”YES: has

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“nondisabled” preferred over “able-bodied”

Why?

Disability POV is centered

Identifies the taken-for-granted norm, e.g. “whiteness.”

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Linton: Centering Disability“In this book, the terms disabled and nondisabled

are used frequently to designate membership within or outside the community. Disabled is centered, and nondisabled is placed in the peripheral position in order to …expose the perspective and expertise that is silenced. The use of nondisabled is strategic: to center disability. …This action is similar to the strategy of marking and articulating "whiteness.’"

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NonDisabled Privilege Modification of Peggy Mclntosh’s White Privilege and Male Privilege

(I can come to class and expect the accommodation of a chair/desk be available.)

I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of nondisabled people most of the time.

I can avoid spending time with people who are uncomfortable or dislike my kind or me.

If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see nondisabled people widely and positively represented

I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my people.

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I can choose public accommodation without fearing that, as a nondisabled person, I cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my nondisability.

I can easily find academic courses and institutions that give attention only to nondisabled people.

I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of being a nondisabled person.

• "In My Language" (Amanda Baggs):YouTube - In My Language.flv

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What is Ableism?

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“Ableism” "discrimination in favor of the

able-bodied." Oxford Wordfinder

• Belief that disabled people are inferior to nondisabled.

• Assumption that disability determines everything about a person.

• belief that one is better off dead than living with disability

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Linton Asks

Who "qualifies" as disabled?

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Differences from Other Minority Groups

– 1. Public: a confusing mix of conflicting emotions: Pity, Charity, Disgust, Fear

– 2. Lack of “Safe Havens“ (Gill, “Divided Understandings,” Handbook of Disability Studies, Albretch, et al 2000)

– 3. OTHER: Considered Sexless; Rudeness OK

– Anybody can find themselves belonging at anytime. 21

Stereotypes: Or how we understand disability

• Stereotypical assumptions about disability?

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UK – Disability Rights Act (DRA) 1995

TALK

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When Stereotypes Tell the StoryBy Jack A. Nelson

• 1. Pitiable and Pathetic• 2. "Super-Crip.“• 3. Sinister, Evil and Criminal.• 4. Better Off Dead.• 5. Maladjusted.• 6. A Burden.• 7. Unable to Live a Successful Life.

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Pitiable, burden - Heroic, inspiringPoster child - Super-crip

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Pitiable and Pathetic

“Super-Crip”

Jerry Lewis’s Muscular Dystrophy Assn. telethon: poster child

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Lewis’s attitude towards “his” disabled kids: cure or nothing

I decided after 41 years of battling this curse that attacks children of all ages, I would put myself in that chair, that steel imprisonment that long has been deemed the dystrophic child's plight. . . . I realize my life is half, so I must learn to do things halfway. I just have to learn to try to be good at being half a person." From "What if I had Muscular Dystrophy?" Parade magazine, Sept. 2, 1990

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“Overcoming your disability”

Successful despite a disability.

Your responsibility to pull yourself up, it’s a personal problem & solution. “Super-crip” drama: heartwarming struggle of a person facing the

trauma of disability, through extraordinary courage and determination she eventually triumphs. She seems so superhuman in her efforts to compensate for her disabilities, it leaves other disabled people feeling inadequate (and ignored).

On the flip side: “If I were you I’d kill myself.” The better-off dead theme of many movies. Bitter, helpless… such a tragedy…

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The highest compliment?

• “He never seemed disabled to me.”

• “He was the least disabled person I have ever met.”

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Quality of Life:

belief that one is better off dead than living with

disabilityThe Standard View

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The Standard View

“…that disabilities have very strong negative impacts on the qualities of life of the individuals that have them. This view is widely held by nondisabled people, both in popular and in academic culture.” - Amundson

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The Anomaly:

disabled people report a quality of life only slightly lower than that reported by nondisabled people, and

much higher than that projected by nondisabled people.

Both the Standard View and its Anomaly have been robustly demonstrated in a number of studies. Amundson

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“I feel the weight of a social obligation to be either healthy or miserable. Nevertheless, I have concluded that I am always sick and often happy, and that this seems very peculiar in my culture.”

Susan Wendell, The Rejected Body

What is Disability Studies? – UK: Primarily political– US: Primarily socio-cultural

• Linton: claims “[T]he curriculum reveals…patronizing & distorted representations of disability….” (p. 4) “Claiming Disability”

• She also states that disability is socially constructed. What does that mean?

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Disability Studies

• Society for Disability Studies (SDS) http://www.disstudies.org/

• Disability Studies Quarterly http://www.dsq-sds.org/

• Disability Studies Program at the UW: http://depts.washington.edu/disstudMinor in Disability Studies – Individualized Studies Major 35

How do you treat a Person With a Disability?

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For Thursday: Disability Models

“Fear of Bees” Easy read and provocative

"Disability: A Choice of Models and Disabling Societies“ Look at:

Chapter 1: Pages 1-5; 11-16; Chapter 2: Skim for themes

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Difference Is Normal (UN):

YouTube - Difference Is Normal.mp4

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