I found this from an online article. Here is the link too the full article http://tinyurl.com/o4ztb5y
"While the current paper focuses on human rights, in order to ensure these rights are protected the discussion of what disability means and to whom it relates is an integral part of the dialog. The construction of a unifying identity has been a divisive issue among disability groups and one that has challenged progress towards an ethos of inclusion and equality. One fissure in the community lays between people with physical and intellectual differences. This split is partly a consequence of the application of the social construction model to disability by early disability scholars. This model states that disability occurs when one's social and built world does not fluently accommodate one's body and/or mind. The model soon came under criticism for not appreciating the phenomenological experiences of people with various disabilities. Proponents suggest that mass social and infrastructural changes will eliminate all disability while critics claim the model neglects to appreciate the daily difficulties and pain of living with disability. 13 This perspective is particularly dismissive of people with intellectual or psychiatric impairments, such as those on the autism spectrum, who are not primarily disabled from physical, changeable infrastructure.
The split between those with physical and those with intellectual disabilities is a long-standing issue that is also the result of negative stereotypes about the groups. Many people with physical disabilities do not want to be considered under the same identity category as those with intellectual disabilities, fearing that the stigma of cognitive inability will seep into stigmas of physical inability. Meanwhile, people with intellectual differences fear that the matters confronted with physical disabilities, especially in relation to self-reliance, will not properly address their daily concerns and dominant issues. 14 These conflicts prevent a united identity which can inform the progress of widespread improvements in human rights. This split has been reflected in the minds of the public for generations. While people with physical disabilities have historically been more integrated into and visible throughout communities, many communities have not known what to do with people with cognitive, intellectual, or psychiatric differences. Communities frequently turn to segregation, exclusion, and deprivation of rights. 15 This is yet another issue that serves to divide the disability community.
Autism, and related conditions, are defined based on behaviors and characteristics that are similar to those seen in other disenfranchised disability groups. As a disability related to culturally unaccepted social, communicative, and behavioral expressions, autism is relevant to discussions on disability as a socially mediated state. Since it is commonly associated with cognitive impairments, either 'real' in the statistical sense of having a quantitatively lower intelligence score or assumed from a different communicative style, and since there is a tradition of assuming that those with autism are also intellectually impaired, autism corresponds to intellectual disabilities. As a state of being that is often evident in physical behaviors such as repetitive motor movements and unique gaits, autism relates to physical disabilities. Finally, as autism has been historically conflated with schizophrenia and is still perceived as a psychiatrically based disorder, as evidenced by it's continued presence in the DSM IV TR, 16 autism related issues overlap with concerns of the mental illness population.
As as state of being that includes differences in communication styles, behavioral preferences, and social interaction styles, autistic people are often refused equal consideration within their home, local, and global communities. People who do not communicate with a verbal voice, as is the case with many on the autistic spectrum, are assumed to be less capable and, thus, are more stigmatized. This is particularly true in Western communities that place high value on personal independence 17 and where, consequently, autistic people have often been treated as second-class citizens. Hidden in sheltered workshops, refused viable employment, stared at, misunderstood, and misrepresented, this population has been and still is rejected from 'normal' society. When an individual's access to rights is inextricably linked to their position in the social stratum, 18 an autistic person is certain to receive unequal access."
Any interesting points in the paragraphs that you would like to raise?
02 Mar 2014, 10:58 am
