SOC212 - 11. Disability Flashcards
People with Disabilities
Global Context
People with disabilities often denied access to normal
social interaction with others.
People with Disabilities
People tend to focus on what the person cannot do, rather than on what the person can do.
People with disabilities (PWD) are sometimes denied employment and housing based on their disability.
People with Disabilities
experience many of the same social reactions as deviants,
such as stigma and social rejection.
50% of world
Most do not regard it as deviant and criminal
Difference vs Deviance
Sociology of difference vs. sociology of deviance.
People with physical disabilities often encounter isolation, segregation + discrimination in their interactions with others (Nagler, 1993).
Obstacles
People with disabilities can face obstacles including: Forming relationships Following normative guidelines Conforming to adult roles Structural issues
Impairment
loss of some ability, usually caused by some physical reason
Affects how they speak - Motor skills
Impairment
Sometimes, a physical conditions present at birth
inhibit functions in the optic nerve, the portion of the
brain that controls:
Talking, a limb, or the inner ear, etc.
Disability
loss of function that accompanies an impairment
describes effect of that loss on affected person’s activities.
Handicap
limitation on normal activities of self-care + mobility that results from some impairment
Thus, physical conditions determine impairments,
whereas disabilities + handicaps represent social
+ behavioral consequences of those impairments
Condition vs Behaviour
central difference between a physical disability and deviance is its identity as a condition rather than a behaviour
Society regards criminal offenders + drug addicts as choosing forms of deviance.
Condition vs Behaviour
less of a behaviour and more of a condition
not seen as stemming from choice
Condition vs Behaviour
assigns deviant status to people with visible physical handicaps, physiologically obese people, + intellectually disabled because they are outside normative conceptions
Disabilities & the Idea of Deviance
Physically disabled persons acquire deviant identities
not as a result of their behaviors, rather because of
they are different, violate social norms
Society defines conditions + behavior, as examples of deviance
Master Status
Disability can become a master status.
Deviant labels may depend on the individual’s perceived responsibility for condition.
Master Status
other aspects of identity filtered through most important status
Disability and the Sick Role
Parsons (1951), sick role emerges from two interrelated sets of exemptions.
Most people exempt individuals defined as ill from certain
obligations and responsibilities.
Disability and the Sick Role
No one blames them for their illnesses, nor does anyone
expect their conditions to improve due to their motivation
alone.
sometimes there can be perks, but generally seen as undersirable
Disability and the Sick Role
Four elements make-up the sick role:
- No attribution of responsibility of individuals for their own conditions
- Exemptions from normal role obligations.
Disability and the Sick Role
- Recognition of undesirable character of illness despite the benefits of these role exemptions.
- An obligation to seek help to heal sickness.
Disability and the Sick Role
ablist
disability still are able to take care of themselves
deterministic
biased - doesn’t incorporate view of disabled
doesn’t challenge social order
defines disability as deviance
Blindness
humanitarian movement promoted attempt to restore
self-confidence and self-reliance by:
• Securing a relief status
• Creating special schools
Blindness
Common public stereotypes:
• Helplessness
• Dependency
• Useless
Blindness
totally blind: absence of sensation + perception
legally blind: can still see within a 20 degree arc
functionally blind: can see but can’t read ordinary newspaper even with corrective lenses
people can have vision problems but still be able to see something
