False Assumptions and the Relative Nature of Disability

Society is constructed under the assumption that every participating individual is fully functional and capable of attaining their maximum level of productivity. Architectural design is constructed with the needs of a strong and youthful man in mind. These assumptions are simply incorrect. They rest on another assumption that people are either disabled or they are not, and that those that are disabled do not participate in society at any level. These assumptions are also false. The reality of the situation is that disability is not clear-cut; it is not white-and-black. Like many other things we have talked about, disability occupies a range from no disability, to slight disability (in a rare environment), to mild disability (in the occassional environment), to severe disability (in most environments). Furthermore, disability can occupy the gaps between these arbitrary categories.

Upon realizing this, the next step seems to be a social reconstruction of disability. Stated simply, this step would involve a perpetual effort to create public structures of society that accommodate, to the greatest extent possible, a wide-range of disabled individuals. In doing so, it is crucial that we understand the relative nature of disability to the environment in which the disabled exists. This relative nature of disability will make large-scale accommodations an incredible (but still worth-while) challenge.

Most definitions of disability fail to include the role that the environment plays in determining disability. To understand the relative nature of disability it is important to recognize that disabled people are incapable of functioning in a particular setting. In an extreme case, an individual could be disabled in one setting and, not only functional, but, advantaged in another. Consider an individual over 7 feet tall. This person would be slightly disabled in some environments because some structures are not built with such a tall individual in mind. Conversely, the same individual would be "extra-functional" as a basketball player (or tennis player, etc.) where the environment is completely different.