How we view disability, another great blog, thanks Claudia & Geoff
There has been some discussion among sufferers of chronic illness and disability as to the usefulness of theoretical or conceptual models (social, biomedical, etc) to explain the complexity of disability and chronic illness. A concern raised in the past few days, following a blog post that addressed the social model [1], was that no theoretical model could fairly represent the circumstances in which chronically ill people find themselves. Two points regarding this:
1) When we deviate from norms we will invariably be subjected to all manner of analyses that explain through some lens why we no longer form part of the norm. People have always been interested in learning more about difference, and unfortunately that learning often involves (initial) stages of turning those who are ‘different’ into the ‘Other’. It is called ‘othering’ and the more extreme forms of othering range from character assassination and ridiculing, to hate crime. All…
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