In the past, people who were different or those with disabilities were hidden away, or were forced to hide their differences and disabilities if they could. People with disabilities were regarded as only people to be pitied or  who were being punished by God for their personnel sins, or as incapable, dangerous, bad, or lazy. However today people are expecting participation, acceptance and accommodation in the world. Just as people fight racism, sexism, and homophobia, more and more people are fighting able-ism.

 

 

The Social Model of Disability along with other changes in society brought on by other movements for equality and new technologies has radically changed perceptions about disability and ability.

"once social barriers to the re-integration of people with physical impairments are removed, the disability itself is eliminated. The requirements are for changes to society, material changes to the environment, changes in environmental control systems, changes in social roles, and changes in attitudes by people in the community as a whole. The focus is decisively shifted on to the source of the problem -the society in which disability is created." ¹ Finkelstein, Attitudes and Disabled People, London, 1980, p.33. 

A simple example is a person who is colour blind is not disabled until he or she is presented with signs or print materials which use the wrong colour combinations. The "problem" is not the persons colour blindness or deficiencies, but the persons church which creates signs, print materials and powerpoint presentations using the wrong colours. 

 

A person that uses a wheelchair is not disabled until presented with steps and no alternate way to go where the steps leads. However buildings, including church buildings exist for people, people do not exist for buildings, thus it is the building that is really disabled, not the person. It is the building that needs fixing.

 

 

 

 The 'social model' was extended and developed by academics and activists to include all disabled people, including those seen as having mental illness, or disabilities, developmental disabilities and learning disabilities."

All people deal confront barriers in their day to day living, however the more barriers that you are faced with, the more likely you are to be excluded and be seen as disabled.

 

Societal changes, racism, and poverty also create barriers to people with disabilities, and limits their abilities, thus increasing their disability.   Remove just one barrier a person faces and that person still may not be able to participate because of other barriers. That is why many people believe barriers have to be approached systematically. People living with disabilities, illness, or difference are more then defined by just one difference. In fact the one way we are all alike is that we are all different, and removing barriers for one person often results in a barrier being removed that impedes many others.

 

 

 

Persistence is your greatest weapon.
It is in the nature of barriers that they fall.
Do not seek to become like your opponents.
You have the burden and the great joy of being outsiders.
Everyday you live is a kind of triumph, this you should cling onto.
You should make no effort to try and join society.
Stay right where you are.
Give your name and serial number and wait for society to form
itself around you, because it most certainly will.
Neither look forward where there is doubt, or backward where
there is regret, look inward and ask not if there is anything
outside that you want, but whether there is anything inside that
you have not yet unpacked.

Quentin Crisp