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Toppling the Hierarchy
Jan. 29th, 2011 03:25 amI was just talking about why a Hierarchy of Disability doesn't work in another forum and thought it deserved repeating here.
A Hierarchy of Disability is the idea that Person A is more disabled than Person B (or vice-versa). That might seem obvious to a non-disabled person and even to a lot of disabled people, but when you start to look into it at a deeper level you realise that it the Hierarchy of Disability is a major problem for us, because it is often used as a tool to oppress us and because it just plain doesn't work.
We see its use as a tool to oppress us when we hear governments talking about 'focusing their help on the most needy' (or the even more repellent 'most vulnerable') when what they really mean is 'we don't want you to think about what these cuts really mean for disabled people'. It is divide and conquer in action, or should that be 'divide and oppress'?
That is bad enough, but what I really want to focus on is that the concept of a Hierarchy of Disability simply doesn't work, disability does not work like that. Disabilities are almost fractal in the complexity of the way they affect us and absolutist comparisons cannot reflect that.
To illustrate my point: I use crutches, most non-disabled people would say that someone using a wheelchair is clearly more disabled, there is that Hierarchy of Disability embedding itself in society's thinking, but perceptions aren't necessarily reality. As a wobblie I can undoubtedly manage better on uneven terrain than a wheelie, but put us on level ground and the wheelie can often leave me in the dust, whether we're looking at speed, endurance or distance covered. Ask us each to carry something even marginally bulky and I'm stuffed, while the wheelie can just prop it on their lap. Challenge us to slip through an 18" gap and I can manage it with a little difficulty, the wheelie is completely stuck. Tell us to just wait around and I'm in serious trouble within a couple of minutes, a wheelie may be able to sit for hours (it is entirely possible that a wheelie isn't in any significant pain, I am in pain to varying degrees whether I'm standing, sitting or lying and the longer it goes on the worse it gets, you just can't tell by looking). Ask us to walk up a flight of steps and the difficulty flips back the other way again.
Or look at another set of disabilities, is someone with a serious visual impairment more or less disabled than someone with a serious hearing impairment? Are we asking them to listen to an announcement? Read a sign? Or what?
'A is more disabled than B' turns out not to work in reality, relying solely on personal prejudices and misconceptions. Who of any two or more disabled people has most difficulty with the environment varies from moment to moment. The deeper you look, the more complex and unpredictable the comparisons become.
It isn't simply non-disabled people using the idea of a Hierarchy of Disability against us because they don't know better, we can use it against ourselves, particularly if we are dealing with acquired disabilities. If I say 'that person is clearly more disabled than I am, it is more important that their needs are met than mine', then I am making assumptions that I am not qualified to make about the other person's disability and I am undercutting my own needs and working against accepting my disability and approaching its management in a professional manner. The other person may even be thinking exactly the same thing, that I am more disabled than they are, and that they are not worthy of help. Ultimately it is a recipe for leaving everyone's needs unmet. And of course the opposite is also true, if I say 'I am clearly more disabled than that person', then the chances are good that I am just plain wrong, and that is before we even get into invisible disabilities.
Ultimately the Hierarchy of Disability isn't just not useful, it is actively damaging. The lesson we all need to internalise as we develop our understanding and acceptance of our disabilities is that we need to be vigilant about stopping our own subconscious from using other people to run down our own needs and to concentrate on managing our own disability and the needs that flow out of it as professionally as we would approach any project at work. And when we hear a government spokesman or anyone else talking about 'helping the most vulnerable', that is a message that we need to think long and hard about whatever it is that the smoke and mirrors is meant to stop us from realising.
A Hierarchy of Disability is the idea that Person A is more disabled than Person B (or vice-versa). That might seem obvious to a non-disabled person and even to a lot of disabled people, but when you start to look into it at a deeper level you realise that it the Hierarchy of Disability is a major problem for us, because it is often used as a tool to oppress us and because it just plain doesn't work.
We see its use as a tool to oppress us when we hear governments talking about 'focusing their help on the most needy' (or the even more repellent 'most vulnerable') when what they really mean is 'we don't want you to think about what these cuts really mean for disabled people'. It is divide and conquer in action, or should that be 'divide and oppress'?
That is bad enough, but what I really want to focus on is that the concept of a Hierarchy of Disability simply doesn't work, disability does not work like that. Disabilities are almost fractal in the complexity of the way they affect us and absolutist comparisons cannot reflect that.
To illustrate my point: I use crutches, most non-disabled people would say that someone using a wheelchair is clearly more disabled, there is that Hierarchy of Disability embedding itself in society's thinking, but perceptions aren't necessarily reality. As a wobblie I can undoubtedly manage better on uneven terrain than a wheelie, but put us on level ground and the wheelie can often leave me in the dust, whether we're looking at speed, endurance or distance covered. Ask us each to carry something even marginally bulky and I'm stuffed, while the wheelie can just prop it on their lap. Challenge us to slip through an 18" gap and I can manage it with a little difficulty, the wheelie is completely stuck. Tell us to just wait around and I'm in serious trouble within a couple of minutes, a wheelie may be able to sit for hours (it is entirely possible that a wheelie isn't in any significant pain, I am in pain to varying degrees whether I'm standing, sitting or lying and the longer it goes on the worse it gets, you just can't tell by looking). Ask us to walk up a flight of steps and the difficulty flips back the other way again.
Or look at another set of disabilities, is someone with a serious visual impairment more or less disabled than someone with a serious hearing impairment? Are we asking them to listen to an announcement? Read a sign? Or what?
'A is more disabled than B' turns out not to work in reality, relying solely on personal prejudices and misconceptions. Who of any two or more disabled people has most difficulty with the environment varies from moment to moment. The deeper you look, the more complex and unpredictable the comparisons become.
It isn't simply non-disabled people using the idea of a Hierarchy of Disability against us because they don't know better, we can use it against ourselves, particularly if we are dealing with acquired disabilities. If I say 'that person is clearly more disabled than I am, it is more important that their needs are met than mine', then I am making assumptions that I am not qualified to make about the other person's disability and I am undercutting my own needs and working against accepting my disability and approaching its management in a professional manner. The other person may even be thinking exactly the same thing, that I am more disabled than they are, and that they are not worthy of help. Ultimately it is a recipe for leaving everyone's needs unmet. And of course the opposite is also true, if I say 'I am clearly more disabled than that person', then the chances are good that I am just plain wrong, and that is before we even get into invisible disabilities.
Ultimately the Hierarchy of Disability isn't just not useful, it is actively damaging. The lesson we all need to internalise as we develop our understanding and acceptance of our disabilities is that we need to be vigilant about stopping our own subconscious from using other people to run down our own needs and to concentrate on managing our own disability and the needs that flow out of it as professionally as we would approach any project at work. And when we hear a government spokesman or anyone else talking about 'helping the most vulnerable', that is a message that we need to think long and hard about whatever it is that the smoke and mirrors is meant to stop us from realising.
