Disabilites and Society

Susan Wendell's "The Social Construction of Disability" brings up the profound idea of how the pace of society and the expectations create disabilities. Wendell states that increasing the pace of society would lead to "fewer people [meeting] expectations of 'normal' performance." This was a new perspective at looking at disabilities, since I had previously associated the term with more conventional ideas of disabilities like blindness and deafness or mental illnesses that in some way or another, limited the individual. I immediately thought of the educational system, where individuals are all forced to cover the same material as their classmates at a pace dictated by the teacher. It is interesting to note that even amongst individuals not officially diagnosed with any learning disabilities, there are variations in the speed with which the student would be able to process information. Under Wendell's idea of disability, the students that learn at a slower pace would be considered disabled relative to their peers, yet they are not diagnosed with any learning disability. Should they be given additional time to learn the information or should they be punished through their grades for not being able to learn fast enough? Given the society that we are in, the latter route seems to be taken. Due to social and economical constructions, there definitely is an emphasis on production. It seems that the reasons why an individual cannot perform as expected is often overlooked, and instead what the individual produces or does not produce matters more in our society. And by creating a strict set of standards, it is easier for the people that hire jobs and admit students to discern who can produce for them and who cannot.

Accommodations for available access to all is something that should undoubtedly be done. Anyone should be able to go to their favorite restaurant and eat there. In addition, like the example Wendell brought up, a situation where a typist whom cannot walk is denied a job due to a companies frugality demonstrates how much value our society puts on money and reinforces Wendell's idea of disability being a social construct. It seems though, as time passes that situations like that will occur less frequently through various acts that will require new buildings to make provisions for disabled individuals. Even my own experience in high school illustrated the growing ways in which disabled individuals were beginning to be given the same opportunities as the "norm". For example, when I played on the water polo team, one of our two goalies was deaf. During games and practices, an interpreter working for the school, would use sign language to relay what the coach said to him. Of course, he played in a position that allowed him to periodically turn to look at the interpreter during the game, but his skills were important enough for the coach to keep him on the team. Still, even without totally reforming our society and economic systems in place, strides are continually being made towards realizing Wendell's dream to allow disabled individuals the same opportunities as "able" individuals.