Social and Cultural Environmental Factors That Create or Contribute to Disability

Social and Cultural Environmental Factors That Create or Contribute to Disability

Social Factors Contributing to the Construction of Disability

·      War, terrorism

·      Violent crime — shootings, rapes, knifings, beatings

·      Drug and alcohol abuse

·      Lack of basic resources — water, food, clothing, shelter

·      Tolerance of dangerous working conditions

·      Neglect of children

·      Low public safety standards

·      Degradation of the environment by contaminating water, air, food

·      Daily grind, overwork and stress of poverty

·      Lack of medical care, inappropriate medical care — prenatal care,

innoculations

·      Improved medical techniques and practices increase the numbers of people

with disabilities who live or people live long enough to become disabled

·      Increase in the pace of life that leads to accidents, stress, alcohol, and

drug abuse, increased performance/output expectations, lack of rest, and

recreation

·      Physical structure and social organization of society – physical barriers in

architecture, inadequate public transportation, communication systems,

inflexible work arrangements

·      Failure to give people the amount and kind of assistance needed to participate

fully in public sphere, especially work and school

·      Assumption that temporarily able-bodied people do not receive assistance

(for example job training, social support, child care, transportation, and

communication assistance is taken for granted)

·      These social factors affect some groups more than others because of racism,

classism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism

Cultural Factors Contributing to the Construction of Disability

·      Lack of representation and experiences of people with disabilities

·      Pervasive stereotypes of people with disabilities

·      Stigmatization of physical and mental limitations

·      The cultural attitude that physical or mental differences that deviate from

“normal,” but do not in and of themselves affect ability, are disabling (eg., facial

scarring)

·      Invisibility, stigmatization, stereotypes of disabilities and people with disabilities

feed fear, ignorance, and pity in temporarily able-bodied people

·      Assumption that disability is a personal, family problem rather than a matter

of social responsibility

The concept of social construction of disability and these examples are from Susan Wendell’s book, The

Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. (New York: Routledge, 1996).