Disability
Disability Articles and Information
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.
The goal of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) is to build the premier organization for the advancement of economic, civic, and social participation of persons with disabilities in a global society through the creation of a collaborative environment. The institute is doing this with both entrepreneurial innovation and best business practices in order to foster dialogue between public and private sectors while creating the capacity to transform systems, policy, as well as people through the workforce, education that is inclusive, and communities. The BBI is using education, research, training, outreach and technical assistance to reach their goals.
Availability of things such as high-speed Internet access and the ability to create a personal website at inexpensive costs empower people with disabilities to become more independent. Internet connections with enough speed to allow things such as data and video transfers through personal websites and other forms of exchanges, as well as allowing for two-way voice transmissions, can assist in removing barriers that keep people with disabilities from fully participating in everyday activities such as education, employment, social interaction, and even civic responsibilities.
Understanding how design, systems and persons with disabilities might have something to do with each other is a challenge. I went to Bela Banathy for some understanding of what design is, and to Draper Kauffman Jr. for an understanding of what a system is. I pursued the Whole Systems Design program at Antioch University. Along the way, I have found that I have something to say about systems theory and design in relation to disability. This section is a reflection of my thought on design, systems and persons with disabilities, but I begin with a short description of my educational process through Divergence and Convergence.
One person cannot possibly know everything, there is too much to experience in life. We are all individuals, and collective knowledge must be experienced through a sharing process. The sharing process itself is expressed through such things as writing, speaking, the arts, and other forms of communication. Efforts to communicate with one another to promote shared knowledge concerning experiences in life must be done with all honesty, openness, and as much individual ability as each one of us can muster from within.
Defining disability can be difficult, and I have chosen to pursue the views of people like Marta Russell and Paul Longmore in an attempt to better understand a definition of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act has also provided one take on what disability is, and I have used it to aid me in my own understanding of disability. In this section, however, I chose to start with some thoughts from Joseph Shapiro, a person without what might be considered a disability, concerning what disability might be.
Part of understanding persons with disabilities is knowing who is not to be considered disabled. Marta Russell has something to say about the word, "normal," and the term, "nondisabled," and I have a greater understanding of those words because of her. The struggle between nondisabled persons and persons with disabilities, for understanding of disability, is partly reflected through events like the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. In this section I present a statement by Mr. Lewis, and responses from disability culture leaders. I write my own opinions on these issues, as well as my opinions on the medical model of disability, but I begin with a small understanding of what the well-being of persons with disabilities might be.
Disability Culture is a continuously changing, wonderfully entrancing part of understanding who persons with disabilities are. To understand Disability Culture, I reached for some understanding of the subject from the likes of Barbara McKee, Stephen Brown and Cheryl Marie Wade. In this section, I respond to each of these people and their statements on Disability Culture, I also present my own writings on Disability Culture. I begin with Barbara McKee's writing on the subject.
Disability myths may change or stagnate over time. The rate of change from what are often negative myths to ones that portray people who have disabilities in a sense that is seen as more positive by them is often slow, but not always. In speaking about a woman named Deborah who has Schizophrenia, Rollo May states that, "…myths are necessary ways of bridging the gap between our biological and our personal lives….Myths are essential to the process of keeping our souls alive and bringing us new meaning in a difficult and often meaningless world." I think that this is an agreeable statement where all of us, disabled or not, are concerned.
Personal Mastery is a process of living that involves some specific points. Creative tension, emotional tension, conflict, vision, honesty, openness, shared vision, and complexity are all parts of personal mastery. I approach the parts of personal mastery in relation to persons with disabilities in this section of my paper. While reading about personal mastery, I found myself thinking, "this could really be a tool for persons with disabilities." I think that personal mastery can help persons with disabilities find direction in life, and help them achieve goals.
Getting to work means more than jumping the "A" train for persons with disabilities. Often, persons with disabilities cannot even get into buildings to apply for work. The idea of inclusive building design points out that there are some problems with designing a truly accessible building, and that you can't make "special" access – it creates social divisions. There are some barriers of inclusion in building inclusively, and there is no such thing as a generic building. In this part of my paper I write about these subjects, beginning with Salford's definition of design.
As I have pursued the Whole Systems Design degree, I have found myself examining my sense of spirituality. Spirituality means different things to different people. I have found that efforts to relate myself and what I do in nature to be a spiritual activity. I will present that spirituality through a comparison between some Taoist thought and reflections on people with disabilities. Metaphors are one of the ways that I experience myself and my efforts with a sense of spirituality, and what follows is my use of metaphors to compare Taoist thought and persons with disabilities.
For many persons with disabilities, the hardships that many nondisabled Americans are feeling today is an everyday, all the time experience that they would gladly accept in exchange for what they live in now. Even with the current unemployment experienced by nondisabled persons today, they are still far more employed than persons with disabilities. In this section of my paper I present examples of corporate discrimination and oppression concerning persons with disabilities and employment. I also talk about ways that disabled and nondisabled persons in companies learn from each other. I begin with a statement on disability and poverty.
We are all aware that there is a Health Care Crisis in America today, but are we aware of the crisis among the very base of our providers, the Nurses and Nursing Assistants who are the, “hands-on,” caregivers to the patients in our Nation? Apparently not – we continue to staff our medical facilities at dangerously low levels, based on a system which places Nurses and Nursing Assistant on the floors of Hospitals and Long-Term Care facilities in ratio to the numbers of patients instead of by patient needs, or their, “acuity.”
he purpose of this letter is to raise your awareness of a dangerous situation that is costing lives and causing needless suffering among patients and residents of persons in Nursing Homes, In-Home care situations, and Hospitals in our State. At this time, in our State and elsewhere in our nation, Nursing Facilities are allowed to staff their facilities according to a, “warm-body,” theory which accepts a level of Nursing and Certified Nursing Assistant staff as, “adequate,” based on the ratio of numbers of residents per numbers of medical staff. The problem with this theory of staffing by the numbers of residents is that the residents have health conditions which vary greatly.
I knock but there is no answer
I knock harder, only to find out
there is no one on the other side
to hear my knock.
