Exploring Disability: From Personal Struggles to Social Opportunity

The term disability inherently suggests a lack of ability that, if corrected or mitigated, can—and should—be turned from a negative into a positive. People with disabilities have embraced the term out of a sense of unity and pride, but we are not willing to embrace the underlying social attitudes that go along with it. Activists in the Disability Rights Movement continue fighting for equal rights, while academics in the field of disability studies produce work that examines and elucidates disability as a complex socio-political category. Still, unlike other social categories, disability remains outside the scope of mainstream consideration beyond cures, accommodations, and inspiration. This paper presents disability from different angles with the goal of expanding the reader’s conception of the topic and encouraging further discussion in mainstream circles. I start with a personal narrative of my life as a disabled person and discuss how I began to see abstract connections between my experiences and those of people in other marginalized social groups. In subsequent sections, I examine the following: theoretical models of disability and their practical implications; some ways in which stigma surrounding disability prevents progress; how the concept of disability has been used against social groups throughout history, causing them to work towards distancing themselves from the danger and unconsciously legitimizing some underlying causes of marginalization, and whether disability should be a part of the future. I close by explaining how general support in the realm of higher education offers people with disabilities the best hope for a path forward. Although this paper is constructed using philosophical insights, the writing style and structure are not representative of the discipline.