Time for a New Disabilities Definition?
Disabilities > > Time for a New Disabilities Definition?
Most of us are familiar with people who have disabilities, or we might even have our own disabilities. But are they truly disabilities as defined
In 1975, people of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act collaborated with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to come up with a definition that would identify and include [in this case] children who might be eligible for special services and attention. According to Bernadette Knoblauch and Barbara Sorenson, (1) IDEA established the following to define a child with a disability: “[one with] mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities…” (2)
But then political correctness and new visions for all people with disabilities evolved as the understanding of disabilities grew, and by the late 1990’s terms were modified to include more subtle definitions as those referring to children with “developmental delays” in areas of physical, cognitive, communication, social, emotional, and/or adaptive ”(3)
Of course, before “disabilities” were uglier words: we might recall in the 1960’s words like “mental” and “retarded” being bandied about, until they gave way to “handicapped.” And once “handicapped” lost its shape, “disability” stuck. But then even more fair and subtle labels were experimented with: for awhile we tried “challenged,” so one was physically, emotionally, or mentally challenged at work, school, play. Soon thereafter we found “differential” and now the above IDEA definitions can rephrase to discuss individuals with differential learning skills, for example. And we have come to light on an even looser term, saying that those of us who are in this category have “differences.”
Does it matter what we call ourselves and others? Sometimes. Those of us who are like Rain Man, who have an impossible time with social interaction but can multiply two three digit numbers in an instant are not disabled, are not completely and utterly unable to function in all areas. And maybe we don’t find it a challenge to fit in as much as those who want to fit us in find us. Maybe, just maybe, we are different, then. But isn’t
What labels shall we use, then, to ensure our differences are taken into consideration in the classroom of 20 other “normal” learners? How do we identify the need to get to work with 100 other “normal,” ambulatory folk when we are in a wheelchair? Or, when John Bradshaw identifies 85 of 100 families as being dysfunctional (4) and we interpret that as being not “normal”, how do we go back to saying we have “disabilities”? What word will work now?
End Notes
(1) Knoblauch, Bernadette, and Barbara Sorenson. “What Disabilities Entitle
a Child to Special Education.” ERIC EC. April, 1998. <
http://ericec.org/digests/e560.html> Nov. 9 2004.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Bradshaw, John. PBS Television. “John Bradshaw on the Family.” 1984.