Disability in a New Light

I found this article really interesting. Before reading it, I initially was confused. I thought of disability only in the context of someone physically or mentally incapable of doing things; someone that was mentally handicapped or someone with a broken leg. How was society responsible for their injuries or incapabilities? This article shed a lot of light on the subject of disability for me. I was forced to think of it differently. I thought really interesting how Wendell stated that "public health and sanitation that increases lifespan causes more disability because the number of old people with disabilities increases." I have never thought that an increase in public health and sanitation causes disability. These are seen as positive and beneficial to society. To think of the negative impact it does have on society is interesting. To know that society is progressing so as to increase lifespan, yet not supporting that increase is hard to fathom. Society has caused these people to live longer lives and yet is not taking any steps to help these people live productive, longer lives.

I also found interesting her notion that as pace of life increases disability increases. This is a notion well known to many. There are many articles on how the pace of life in the United States has increased and how this increase has lead to health issues such as hypertension (a major cause of cardiovascular disease). In this aspect the U.S. is often compared with Western European nations. The U.S. tends to have a higher percentage of hypertension than many of these nations, and the pace of U.S. citizens' lives is often noted as the cause. I have thought of this before but I had never really put together how this can be a debilitating issue for people. Society creates a world where people are forced to live at a pace they cannot handle. They are still capable of doing their jobs and doing their jobs well, but are forced out of the workplace because they can no longer keep up with the pace.

I really liked how Wendell pointed out the architecture of society, how society was "planned with a young adult, non-disabled male paradigm of humanity in mind." Thinking about this I realize that it is true in many cases. I injured myself in high school, had to have surgery on my leg, and had to use a wheelchair at school for a couple of weeks. When using my wheelchair I realized just how not handicapped accessible my school was. I could not enter school from the front anymore because there was no ramp, only steps. I had to go to the library one day, and in order to get there I literally had to wheel myself around the entire campus because the usual path to the library required going up and down several steps. I felt completely helpless when in the wheelchair. My two week disability is nothing compared to many people that are debilitated for life, but thinking back on that experience I realize some of the struggles they face. I was still capable of getting to class, but I was late to everyone. Special accommodations had to be made for me: I left class early so as to not be too late to the next class, use the elevator to get upstairs in the main building. I realize how real their struggle is. Society creates this world that is supposed to be better, faster, more productive. However, by doing so they take many productive people out of productivity. If a few accommodations could be made more people could stay in the work force and there would be a smaller burden on society to take care of the disabled.