Our society is obsessed with categorizing things. It seems like everything has to go in neat little boxes for us to examine and understand. Within that realm, there’s a category for “normalcy,” and for things considered “abnormal.” The latter carries a negative connotation, one that made it difficult for me even to use that word.
It’s no secret that “abnormal” is a word commonly used by our society to refer to people with disabilities. I hear the kids yell the word at each other in the hallways, and I listen to adults using the word to insult others.
The word “abnormal” is almost synonymous with “other.” It’s a way to isolate people who don’t fit the social standards of ability or beauty.
As a teen, I remember being diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. It mean that for me (not all women have the same symptoms), I had facial hair on my face. It also meant that I was a target for crude and rude comments from other students and even adults.
A teenager asked me, “go shave.”
An adult felt the need to point it out with huge surprise, “you have hair on your face!”
As a result, the hair on my face became a reason for low self-esteem and social isolation. Emotionally, as a teenager and an immigrant, I felt embarrassed by my socially assigned “abnormality.”
The hair on my face was not a disability, but it certainly shaped how I feel about the word itself.
During a class, we went around the room talking about our experiences with people with disabilities in public education. All of us, figure Special Education Teacher, recall the lack of representation of people with disabilities within our classrooms growing up. Special Education was that place was “Special Education” students, somewhere out of view from the rest of the school.
In retrospect, I realize that the isolation of students with disabilities in schools was a disservice for both general education and special education students. After all, how are we supposed to break the social standards of normalcy and stereotypes about people with disabilities?
As I continue in my journey to become an educator, I’m thinking about ways in which I can provide equity to students. I’m also thinking about ways to break stereotypes about people with disabilities and to make sure that we are creating a more inclusive world.
Not to mention, teachers hold a lot of power, and it is our responsibility to advocate for our students and to learn from them.
I love Molly Burke. She’s a young, smart, and beautiful Youtuber who also happens to be blind. Ms. Burke’s candid conversations about blindness with curious non-blind Youtubers are always insightful. Molly is not the girl stereotyped blind person who see depicted on television. She comes up as a self-assured, intelligent, and ambitious young lady.
Therefore, Molly’s video “Meet My Eye Doctor” came into my mind when I was asked by my professor to write about the differences between social and medical models of disabilities. I think Molly’s candidness and her self-reflection can teach us a lot about how social and medical models can sometimes merge, good or bad.
According to Susan Baglieri’s “Perspectives on Disability,” the medical model of disability “makes meaning of disabled person’s experiences in terms of objective, innate conditions that limit their ability to participate in communities and learn in the general classroom” (Baglieri, 2017, pg. 18). The author justly argues that the medical model emphasizes the root of the disability and provides a “limited understanding of the individual itself” (Baglieri, 2017, pg. 20). This line of thinking is “based on the premise that being healthy is better than being sick” (Hardman, Drew, & Egan, 1996, pg.18). In the end, a person’s disability is categorized as “abnormal” and victimized. The victimization of people with disabilities is referred to as the “charity model of disability.” The charity model portrays people with disabilities as “victims of their circumstances who are deserving of pity” (Disabled World). The charity model is also known as the “tragedy model of disability,” and the medical model perspective supports it. It sees individuals with disabilities as clients.
In contrast, the history of children with disabilities in the United States shows that our society has held to the belief that “disability and dependency were closely related” (Shapiro, 2000, pg.188). Educators play a significant role in the experiences of students in educational institutions. Educators are tasked with educating students, meeting the demands of the state, and they are held liable for the performance of their students. Hence, educators are placed on the front lines and run the risk of becoming gatekeepers to just and fair education. According to the professional model of disability, “professionals follow a process of identifying the impairment and its limitations using the medical model and taking the necessary action to improve the position of the disabled person” (Disabled World). As a result, service providers and teachers are placed in a position of power in the classroom. Based on my experience in the classroom, I believe it is the job of educators to stay educated, to listen to their students, and to take responsibility for the role they play in the experiences of children in their schools. Educators should not only acknowledge dangers of sticking solely on the medical model of disability, but they should also recognize the cultural ideals of “normalcy” affecting the lives of students with disabilities inside and outside the classroom.
Baglieri, S. (2017). Perspectives on disability. In S. Baglieri, Disability studies and the inclusive classroom: Critical practices for embracing diversity in education (pp. 17-32). New York, NY: Routledge.
Shapiro, A. (2000). Early Attitudes and Their Legacies. Change Negative Attitudes Toward Classmates with Disabilities (pp. 145-265). Martha J. Larkin. Published May 1, 2002
Defining Equity 