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Theorizing Disability - Impact on Society

Disability, as described by Paul T. Jaeger and Cynthia Ann Bowman in their book “Understanding Disability,” is not static; it is everchanging, and its definition is adapted to fit into whatever society perceives it to be.

Disability, as a social construct, is defined differently across cultures and over time, reflecting the prevailing societal attitudes and technological advancements.

It can be a physical condition impacting our bodies and how we interact with the world around us or a cognitive condition impacting our minds and surroundings. Just as we have defined gender, race, or language, disability is a social construct.

There are four primary perspectives on disability: Medical, Social, Materialistic, and Post-modern.

  • The medical perspective considers disability to be a complication of human anatomy. This mistake needs to be corrected so that the person with a disability can return to a more “normal” state of being.

  • The Social perspective views the disability as a result of society defining a “normal” state of being. Since the “normal” state is something created by us, anything outside this state of being would be considered a disability.

  • The Materialistic perspective, like the medical perspective, considers disability as a limitation to human productivity. However, instead of working to return it to a “normal” state, it thinks of the person with a disability as a disadvantage; they are viewed as a less competent equivalent of a “normal” person.

  • The Post-modern perspective considers that there is no fixed definition or explanation of disability. Every incident is unique, and the concept of disability is just a collection of these unique incidents.

Disability lies somewhere between the Social and the Post-modern perspectives; it is something we as a society decide to classify as a disability, but at the same time, there is no set explanation for it. It is just a collection of individual experiences defining a condition.

From the research I did about emerging technology trying to help people with disabilities, I found two instances of technology that could reduce the impacts of disability on a person. The first is an Exoskeleton designed by a company called ReWalk Robotics in Massachusetts, USA. This Exosuit helps people with lower limb disabilities sit, stand, walk, and turn. It also allows them to climb and descend stairs independently. This tool would help people with disability become more independent and give them the ability to perform tasks that they see others in society perform daily, like walking, standing, and turning. This technology attempts to eliminate the “otherness” of being unable to walk, and I believe it partly succeeds.

While assistive technologies offer significant benefits, they may also inadvertently perpetuate feelings of difference or ‘otherness.’ Continuous societal and technological efforts are needed to address these perceptions effectively.

However, I also think that sense of “otherness” would persist. Even though the person with a disability would be able to walk and stand, they would still have this large device attached to their legs, without which they would not be able to perform these “normal” tasks.

If there is a visual element of assistance attached to someone, society will maintain the feeling of “otherness” to people with disability. In the coming future, when this technology is almost invisible, I do see it almost wholly reducing the feeling of “otherness” imposed on the person with a disability.

As assistive devices become more integrated and less visible, society must remain vigilant to ensure that the normalization of technology does not overshadow the need for broader accessibility and inclusion measures.

Another technology I discovered was a pair of augmented reality glasses created by the company XRAI Glass, based in London. These glasses convert audio input into visual output by turning speech and conversations into subtitles that can be seen on the glasses in real-time. These glasses aim to help the deaf and hard of hearing better adjust to the “normal” world around them using Augmented reality. This is a good concept; these glasses have huge potential over time. With good speech recognition software and the ability to transcribe speech to text in real-time, they would be accommodating for people with disability. I also feel like this would reduce the feeling of “otherness” that gets imposed on a person with a disability because it uses an everyday tool like sunglasses and incorporates it into their condition.

Augmented reality glasses, like those from XRAI Glass, represent a leap in technology designed to bridge communication gaps, particularly benefiting the deaf and hard of hearing by converting speech to text in real time.

Although “Disability” is an everchanging concept, its existence is significant. While we are far from ideally identifying, classifying, and accommodating disabilities, I believe that in some cases, especially for people with disability who need extra care or have a severe condition, this term does help create awareness and encourage people to assist and look out for these individuals.

Even though society has this idea of a “normal” state of being, having disability challenges this idea and forces us to realize that there is no “normal.”

The concept of ‘disability’ plays a crucial role in fostering awareness and prompting action towards inclusivity, but it also challenges us to rethink our definitions of ‘normal’ in society.

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This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.