|
The term "disability" covers a wide range of different functional limitations, which may be physical intellectual or sensory in nature or be linked to a medical condition or mental illness but is also used to refer to the complete or partial loss, by the person affected, of their ability to participate in the life of the community on equal terms with the rest of the population. It therefore refers to the result of the interaction between the social situation, the expectations of the community and the abilities of the individual.
Much of the hostility to anti-discrimination legislation is motivated by an individualistic and medical view of disability. This view seeks to explain the disadvantages experienced by disabled people as simple consequences of their individual physical and functional limitations. According to this definition, discrimination is rare and where it does occur, can be justified.
In contrast, disabled people argue that they face discrimination which cannot be justified and that the problems they face are overwhelmingly socially created. They define disability in a different way: the term disability itself represents a complex system of social restrictions imposed on people with impairments by a highly discriminatory society. To be a disabled person in modern Britain means to be discriminated against.
Many people who have physical impairments do not define themselves as disabled, and are not regarded as such by society, because their impairment does not lead to social exclusion. Some impairments - such as short sightedness - can be easily corrected, while others - such as colour blindness - do not prevent people from participating in most areas of society on generally equal terms. All people have different physical and mental capacities which make them more or less suited to achieving different tasks or playing different roles in life, but such differences need not lead to discrimination. All people in all societies are dependent on others and this inter-dependence, of itself, does not prevent each person realising their full potential as an individual and, in doing so, making a contribution to the whole of society. Disability by definition, therefore, is not just a functional limitation but arises from the discrimination that disabled people face.
|
