Rating Disability – Questioning Systems

The determination of a rating in regards to a person’s level of disability on the parts of organizations in America is something that can be considered necessary, or it can be considered discriminatory; depending upon your particular perspective. One of the most noticeable rating systems in relation to disability in our nation is the Veterans Administration, which regularly rates veterans with disabilities according to an antiquated model from decades past. Another government organization that rates people according to their level of disability is the Social Security Administration, placing people in either the SSI or SSDI programs, or denying people coverage in either program entirely, based upon their perception of the person’s level of disability. Every doctor in America regularly rates people with disabilities according to a medical model of disability, for example.

Physical therapists, disability organizations, health insurance companies, employers attempting to either comply with or avoid ADA laws, and many other organizations and companies, to include life insurance companies, rate people with disabilities according to their own systems and perceptions of disability. There is no one, common system in place that rates people with disabilities in an organized, systemic fashion by their disability. For example; the VA has rated me as 40% disabled after a fight of over twenty years, while the Social Security Administration has rated me as disabled enough for SSDI over the same period of time. Employers pursuing background checks on me have found my disabilities so distasteful that they do not hire me; apparently the disabilities I experience present enough of a sour taste that the local able-bodied candidate in their twenties is much more appealing – despite my educational achievements or experience.

None of the organizations or companies mentioned above, with the exception of disability organizations, takes into account the social ramifications of disability. Whether they are aware of the stigma, bigotry, hate, and prejudice that often are experienced by people with disabilities in America – whether that person’s particular form of disability is hidden or not – these organizations and companies do not seem to be able to justify taking the social ramifications into account when rating a person’s disability. The reason for this is because endless years of the medical model of disability have found ways to somehow, ‘measure,’ a person’s disability by the type of diagnosis a person receives. Yet it is apparently impossible to measure hate, bigotry, prejudice and stigma. Meanwhile, people with disabilities continue to see counselors and psychiatrists for depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and other things that are associated with the social fallout of the treatment they receive from others in American society.

Religious personnel have heard more than their share of the social fallout experienced by people with disabilities, yet their word is not considered worthwhile, or measurable. The testimony of family members and friends of people with disabilities, who have heard the experiences of people with disabilities in relation to stigma, prejudice, hate and bigotry in society, is not considered valid in measuring a person’s disability rating either. How many times have I had a gran mal seizure on the street, on the city bus, on campus, or elsewhere in public – only to find a crowd of, ‘lookie-loo’s,’ staring at me and making rude comments as I regained coherency? The trauma is very real.

Yet the Veterans Administration does not take things like this into account when measuring my VA disability rating. Neither does the Social Security Administration. There is no accounting of the endless number of rude comments and outright hate expressed towards me in society as a direct result of my disabilities. How many people are there in America who experience a form of disability? Greater than fifty-million; we are America’s largest minority population. Even the President of the United States is unable to say, ‘People with Disabilities,’ with consistency. He makes rude, off-the-cuff comments in regards to people with disabilities, and his advisor says things like, ‘that’s F-ing retarded.’

I suggest that every system in place across the entire nation of America is hopelessly inadequate due to the fact that they are based upon the medical model of disability, which does not include any of the social ramifications of having a disability in this nation. All of this can only point to one conclusion: People with Disabilities in America are being mis-rated by nearly every single system in place to rate their disability in the entire nation of America. The systems in place to rate disability in this nation are as antiquated as the notion that people with disabilities should be hidden in back rooms, away from public eyes.

Tags: Questioning Systems, Rating Disability