Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Culture & Identity: Disability & Identity (Tom Shakespeare (1998),…
Culture & Identity: Disability & Identity
Impairment
refers the limitation which the physical or mental condition places on a person's ability to function effectively
Disability
- An impairment only becomes a disability when it prevents people from carrying out normal day-to-day activities.
Tom Shakespeare (1998)
Disability should be seen as a social construction
Social Construction
Something that isn't natural and only created by society
problem created by society and not by the state of out bodies
Disability is created by societies that don't take into account the needs of those who do not meet with society's ideas of what is 'normal'
The stereo type in any society of a 'normal' or acceptable body may generate a disabled identity among those with bodies that do not conform to this stereotype
Particularly those with physical impairments
The Social Model
Disability focuses on barriers encountered by people who have some form of impairment
Environmental
Cultural
Economic
These Barriers create problems such as
Inaccessibility to education environments
Inaccessibility to Working environments
Inadequate benifits
Inadequate support services
Inaccessibility to transport
inaccessibility to housing and public buildings
Disabling identities imposed through negative stereotyping in the media
Barnes (1992) - Stereotyping of Disability
Stereotypes are generated by Mass Media
Dependent on others
Unable to contribute to society
Non-sexual
Unable to speak up for themselves
Less than human
To be made fun of
To be pitied
Master Status
A person has multiple identities, and disabled people may not see their impairment as the defining characteristic of their identity
People with an impairment may experience difficulty in asserting their own choice of identity in the face of the 'disabled' identity
Spoiled Identity
The label disabled frequently carries a stigma arising from stereotyping, which prevents people with impairments from achieving full social acceptance
Interaction of other people may have a dramatic effect on the persons status and identity and may become a self-fulfilling prophecy
Goffman -
"Strained Interaction"
Disability is not mentioned but is uppermost on everyone's mind. such interaction will emphasise to the disabled person the significance of their disability for others and this may impact negatively on their identity
Disability can lead to a
spoiled identity
Disabled people may fail at what Goffman calls
Impression Management
Changing Identities?
Identity Politics
Identity groups campaign against discrimination but also want recognition from the rest of society that they have equal worth
For example
Ethnic Minorities
Gays
Disabled people
Only rarely will the media treat disability as a perfectly normal part of everyday life.
Disability then becomes an identity marking people out as different than others
such images will impact on the identity of people with impairment
However, some disabled people have
resisted
these images and campaigned for changing attitudes and facilities
This has led to the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 and the Equality Act of 2010 which gives additional rights to people with a disability