Transcript Sociology of Disability

Sociology of
Disability
Somatic Structures & the
Independent Living
Movement
What is the Independent
Living Movement?
The Independent Living
Movement philosophy:
people with disabilities
should have the same civil
rights, options, and control
over choices in their own
lives as do people without
disabilities

Independent Living Movement

Prior to the 1960’s, people
with significant disabilities
were invariably
incarcerated in state-run
institutions. People with
mental illness,
developmental disabilities,
and sensory or physical
disabilities were kept in
conditions often far worse
than criminals were
subjected to.
Independent Living
Movement
 Deinstitutionalization:
 Begins
in the 1960’s
 gradual release from institutions
to return to home communities
where treatment was to be
available.
deinstitutionalization
 result
of advocacy
 Advocates
fought to
move people with
developmental disabilities,
out of institutions and
back into their home
communities.
deinstitutionalization
 Advocacy
led by service providers
and parents of people with
developmental disabilities and was
based on the principle of
"normalization" developed by Wolf
Wolfensberger, a sociologist from
Canada.
 His
theory was that people with
developmental disabilities should live
in the most "normal" setting possible if
they were to expected to behave
"normally."
Independent Living
Movement
 The
process of deinstitutionalizing people with
disabilities created, for the first time in American
history an opportunity for people with disabilities to
live more independent lives. From this, a
community and a culture were born.
Creating New “Somatic
Structures”
 What
is a “Somatic Mode of Attention”?
 What
is a “Somatic Structure”?
 How
would this concept apply to an
understanding of the structures produced
by the Independent Living Movement?
Independent Living
Movement



other historically important
factor:
emergence of new
technologies and
medications
better assistive technology.
Independent Living
Movement
 Attitudes
 Were
of the “non-disabled
people with disabilities
entitled to their civil and human
rights regardless of disability?
Creating a Disability-oriented
Somatic Structure
 Importance
of Activism -Emancipation from staterun institutions came for the “disability community
“amidst massive Civil Rights Movements nationally
and abroad.
Independent Living Movement
 Recognition
that human rights and civil liberties
would come only as they fought for them, and that
they would have to fight in order to force politicians
to enact anti-discrimination and civil rights laws that
applied to people with disabilities directly.
Independent Living
Movement With most state-run institutions
closed, people with significant
disabilities became more visible,
and more audible, too. But
society’s unwelcoming attitude
did not change.

This situation created an
opportunity for the private
medical industry to appropriate
the position once held by staterun institutions.
Independent Living

Nursing home expansion

nursing home industry began
to spin the issue as a social
welfare cause.
Independent Living


The nursing home industry
worked to enact laws that
created an “institutional
bias,”:
government will pay for
needed services for a
person residing in a nursing
home, but not for the
same services provided in
one’s own home, even
when the cost is less.
Independent Living
 With
people with
disabilities out of sight and
out of mind, segregation
remained a viable option
for America
 Nursing home industry
became a formidable
and affluent opponent for
the Disability Rights
Movement.
Independent Living
 The
words "Independent
Living" have been
appropriated by the
nursing home industry.
CILs are not residential
facilities and are
opposed to segregation
and forced
institutionalization of
people with disabilities.
So how did the Independent Living
Movement address these issues???
 Beginning
in the 1940’s and 50’s, people with disabilities
began to organize for political change. Leagues
developed for “The Blind,” “The Deaf,” and “The Physically
Handicapped,” advocated for an end to discrimination in
Federal programs, education, and employment.
Independent Living

Disability-specific
advocacy efforts
initiated and pioneered
the Disability Rights
Movement and realized
significant
accomplishments in
opportunities available
to people with
disabilities, but real
political power was
achieved with the dawn
of the Independent
Living Movement
Independent Living

One critical aspect of
Independent Living
philosophy is the conversion
from the Medical Model to
the Independent Living Model
(or Social Model) of
understanding disability
Ed Roberts and Independent
Living
 Ed
Roberts and other disability activists
founded the first recognized and funded
Center for Independent Living in Berkeley,
California.
Independent Living

Centers for
Independent Living

*created to be run by
and for people with
disabilities

*offer support,
advocacy, and
information on
empowerment in the
attainment of
independence from a
peer viewpoint
Independent Living
 Ed
Roberts is often
referred to as the
“Father of
Independent
Living.”
* faced a great deal
of discrimination in
his efforts to pursuit
an education.
Independent Living-Ed Roberts

The California Department of Rehabilitation
refused Roberts request for financial aid to
attend college on the basis that he was “too
disabled” to work.

The University of California accepted him as a
student, but later rescinded their decision with
the comment by one Dean, “We've tried
cripples before and it didn't work.”


Independent
Living
After going public with his story, both the University and
the Department of Rehabilitation reconsidered their
positions
Ed eventually went on to become the head of the
Department of Rehabilitation, the very same agency
that had dismissed him as unemployable fifteen years
earlier.
Independent Living-Judy Heuman



After winning her right to a public
education after having been declared a
Fire Hazard, Judy Heumann faced similar
discrimination in access to employment in
her field.
The New York City Board of Education
refused to allow her to teach on the basis
that she could not pass a physical
education exam.
She eventually persuaded the Board that
their decision was discriminatory and
taught elementary school for three years
before going on to found Disabled in
Action in New York.
Independent
Living
 Across the country, other Centers for
Independent Living began to grow
simultaneously in Houston, Boston,
and Chicago. Wade Blank and the
Atlantis Community established
ADAPT, an activist organization that
reformed access for people with
disabilities to public transit and
continues its fight for
deinstitutionalization today.
Independent Living



Disability Rights Activism:
longest occupation of a Federal building in
history April 5th through May 1st, 1972.
*rallies and sit-ins were held in nine cities across
the country, and the action led to the release of
the regulations of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
which bans discrimination against people with
disabilities in federally funded programs.
Independent Living



Independent Living philosophyemphasizes consumer control
people with disabilities are the
best experts on their own needs,
particularly in reference to
services that powerfully affect
their day-to-day lives and
access to independence.
Independent Living
 As
the Independent Living
philosophy took hold
nationally and the Disability
Rights Movement gained
acceptance and political
influence, a grassroots
movement for a
comprehensive disability rights
law was implemented.
Independent Living


Today, Centers for Independent Living and
other Disability Rights organizations fight similar
battles to ensure that the rights of individuals
with disabilities, as well as people with
disabilities as a class are protected.
Even with the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, people with disabilities often
find that advocacy and support from the
disability community and the Disability Rights
Movement is an essential element in
enforcement of the civil rights law.
Somatic Structures
 Why
is activism and disabled involvement
in structures for people with disabilities so
important?
 Why
is disabled involvement important in
all aspects of our lives?