Essay on "Comparing No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro and My Body Politic by Simi Linton"

Essay 3 pages (1440 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Disability Book Comparison

The author of this paper is asked to answer five questions regarding No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro and four questions about My Body Politic by Simi Linton. Quotations that appear throughout the book will be quoted for each individual answer given.

Shaprio

The first question offered about the Shapiro book asks the author of this response to differentiate between the medical model of disability and the model presented by the PDSP. As noted on page five of the Shaprio text, there are hundreds of disabilities and they manifest themselves in one or more ways depending on the particular disorder in question. Shapiro goes into this when he says "some are congenital; most come later in life. Some are progressive, like muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and some forms of vision and hearing loss." He goes on to talk about other disorders like seizure disorders, cancer and so forth.

As for the other part of the first question, the definition of disability vis-a-vis the PDSP focused more on people with obvious physical limitations such as what would require a wheelchair or another physical aid device. In fact it was incorporated as part of their outreach method as they group "hired disabled counselors who would scope out available and accessible departments for people in wheelchairs." The PDSP clearly focus on people who had obstacles that impeded their independent living and offered solutions to address that. The Shapiro mentions of PDSP do not seem to address less obvious disabilities as mentioned in the more standard medical definition.

As for the second question, it asks about the changing attitudes towards people with disabilities over the years from the founding of this country the present and how the care/agencies used to address the plight of disabled people has changed over time. The Shapiro text is full of good material in this regarding. One subheading goes into gritty detail about disabled people having to suffer for much of the history of the United States. One of the subheadings contains many relevant quotes. One such quotes was that "early colonies put a premium on physical stamina." It is also noted that "people with physical or mental disabilities who were potentially dependent could be deported, forced to return to England." Progress became even quicker when experiments in fast revealed that "disabled people could be integrated into society rather than sent away to institutions." This started a chain reaction that eventually led to modern frameworks and policies such as the Americans with Disability Act.

The third question asks about the "conservative" Bush administration going out of its way to cater to the disabled community. The text makes clear that the motivation as clearly a personal one at the very least. It is noted that in 1953, "Bush's three-year-old daughter, Robin, was diagnosed with leukemia and died an agonizing death from it.." Similarly, he had an uncle named John Walker who "contracted polio at the height of his career and could no longer pick up a scalpel." As far as how this all pertains to politics and social movements, the motives of people that lead and follow these movements can stem from simple personal convictions but can also involve personal motivations and events in the politicians' lives.

The last question covers Shapiro's question about slavery as compared with institutionalization. Ed Roberts struck a similar chord when he noted that he thought the rights of disabled people was a "civil rights" concern. It is noted above that disabled people used to be doomed to institutions but perceptions changed over the years and disabled people were instead given the chance to become contributing members of society, which is not all that dissimilar from black people who were originally conscripted to be workers in the field but eventually gained freedom and self-choice. Another similarity between the disabled becoming institutionalized and slavery is that both groups of affected people end up in their predicament largely (if not entirely) because of the traits and details of their birth and life itself and not because of anything they did or did not do.

The final question relative to the Shapiro book asks what normalization is. As is noted in Chapter 6, it is related to a movement in Sweden that led to people with retardation not being institutionalized and that they can and… READ MORE

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