In reading Susan Wendell’s “The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability,” I learned several new things about disability that were of particular interest to me because I have a close family friend with a nonphysical disability. Wendell’s argument that disability is partly a social construction is quite valid, especially in the light of what we have learned recently about how gender and race can also be socially constructed.
One point that Wendell makes that I find particularly interesting is her argument about how poverty is the single most disabling circumstance for people with disabilities. Poverty, in essence, keeps people disabled because I think that many people could reach a level of functionality if not impoverished. Wendell cites the inability of many disabled individuals to earn enough money to buy medicine, personal care, and technological aids that they need to live comfortably. Governing insurance benefits and social assistance have “irrational rules” (as Wendell says) that keep people from getting care because those that run disability programs (and some others) often jump to the conclusion that disabled people take advantage of or try to manipulate the system to get more than what they actually “need” or deserve. In this manner, people with disabilities are thought of just like people on welfare, as the
As I discussed in class, my mother’s experience working in public schools has taught me about the lack of proper medical care that physically and nonphysically disabled children who live below the poverty line receive. Learning and behavior disorders often go undiagnosed because the parents cannot afford to take their children to a doctor because of a lack of proper insurance. Most importantly, it is these disabilities (among others) that prove to be a huge obstacle in social and educational advancement in their formative years in school, thus socially constructing their disability.
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