Group 5 Questions: Wells & Berezin

1). As we are discussing “ableism” this week, I wanted to take a closer look at the word “disability”. There are people who find this word problematic as they believe it undermines the wholeness of an individual by creating a divide between “disability” and “ability”, essentially saying that people with disabilities are “unable”. Etymologically, the word “disability” began being used to define people who were in “want of ability”, but over time, the word has taken a different course and attached itself to different social connotations. In an article where this issue is discussed, Frances Ryan says, “The word ‘disability’ is not disabling. The meaning that’s attached to it is. That meaning that defines a person singly by one aspect, an aspect that is often said to be frail and tragic.”

So what do you think? Do you agree that we should not encourage the use of the word “disability”? Why or why not?

Frances Ryan’s article: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/dont-forget-the-word-disability-but-dont-pity-it-either-8125961.html

2). In Jared Berezin video on disabled capital, he teaches us that in a society where there is a dominant and “normal” way of being, everything else is considered abnormal, unacceptable, and invaluable. This ties into the way Nunez was labeled as “imperfect” in the Country of the Blind. Just because he had a different set of skills and a different perspective of the world around him, he was seen as deficient and an “idiot”. As I noticed these societal patterns in Berezin’s video essay and H.G. Wells’ short story, it became clearer that the overall message was that Berezin’s and Nunez’s “different” did not equal “abnormal”, “unacceptable”, “invaluable”, “deficient”, or “idiot”. It's just different, and just as Nunez recognizes the value of his gift of sight when he escapes, so does Berezin when he compares his pencil tapping to the talent of drumming. 

How does this influence your perspective of how students with disabilities should be approached in school? Is it educators’ objective to assimilate these students to “normalcy”-Nunez to the ways of the blind and Berezin to his classmates- or to hone the skills and talents they already have, even if they differ from those of the rest of the student body?