Firstly I’d like to share one of my shameful experiences encountering people with disabilities. I used to find it difficult to commute from the Dabai Shu subway station to home. Walking is too slow while calling a cab is too expensive. One day, a fleet of disabled cars caught my attention. The car is specially designed for the disabled in Shanghai: manual operation, windshield with electric wiper, two-seater with a large shed. The disabled drivers were waiting for the customers on the front seat by the station in order. It’s thus a perfect solution for me. So I asked for the price and checked the safety belt. Everything is perfect.
However, one thing lingers on my mind: only people with a disability license can buy a disabled car in Shanghai. But plenty of drivers I encountered barely embodies visible disability. At that time, my limited and shadow conception of disability is people with broken limbs or impaired sensory abilities. Therefore, every time I get on the disabled car, the first thing I check is how they are disabled. I would make an inspection tour of their body and carefully check any assistive technologies, or suspect hearing or sight loss. On reflection, this action really disgusts me. Since I focused more on the deprivation of their functioning, instead of their capabilities empowered by the disabled car, which facilitates my way home. Thus, when reading about the Human Development model and the capability approach in Disability Health and Human Development that focuses on “the process that expands capability and how hearth deprivations may relate to other dimensions of well-being”, my experience of simply defining disability as functioning deprivation shames myself.
As to my discipline, English Language and Literature used to be my area of focus. (My apologies for my poor English writing since we actually spent most of the college time reading and analyzing English novels, and it’s also cool) My instinct for exploring the negative connotation of the word “disability” is to see it’s etymons. Clearly, “disability” has a prefix of “dis”, plus “ability” noun. The “dis” prefix in Latin and English can mean:
a. in different directions, apart, asunder,
b. between, so as to separate or distinguish
c. with privative sense, implying removal, aversion, negation, reversal of action
d. a sense of division, solution, separation, or undoing
e. the sense of undoing or reversing the action or effect of the simple verb.
As we can see, the prefix “dis” is naturally intensive and negative, which makes the word simply means “Lack of ability (to discharge any office or function); inability, incapacity; weakness.” However, the evolution of the word “disability” ’s meaning in different contexts somehow reflects the perspective people take with the disabled. In 1561, “disability” is firstly used to designate a person’s mental limitation, which shows that the mental aspect of disability is put into the spotlight. Gradually, the word has the connotation of “incapacity in the eye of the law or created by the law” and “inability to pay”, which indirectly reflects that the society no longer merely considers the disabled to be physically impeded, but to be more attentive to their participation in society and whole wellness as a human being. Besides, in Chinese, the word disability is interpreted as being both disabled and ill. However, recently the word “autism” has been used in a daily context to indicate that a person is not in the right mood and intends to be alone for a while. It also shows that the demarcation between the disabled and others has been gradually bridged at least in the context of language usage.
Lastly, I’d like to share one of the simple yet enlightening quotes I have read recently, which perfectly suits my feelings when reading research papers or reports on disability these days:
Another world is not only possible, but she is on her way.
Maybe many of us won’t be there to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.
Thanks for reading so far, and have a nice day 🙂