Arguments Against Impairment Disability

Is Impairment Disability? Society comprises individuals and communities of remarkable diversity. In addition to racial, ethnic, social, economic, and religious differences, people also have physical differences, which include a wide spectrum of abilities. Along this spectrum lie a range of impairments, or disabilities, and to fully understand the implications of impairment and disability, it is important to define the two terms. In an effort to accomplish this, and to illustrate two opposing views on impairment and disability, the ideas of artist-activist Liz Crow and film director-producer Josh Aronson will be examined. In doing so, the argument will be made that in order to move toward a society where prejudice and barriers no longer
Crow insists that acknowledging the positive aspects as well as the negative implications of impairment in impaired people’s lives will lead to a more inclusive and successful disabled people’s movement. Throughout her article, Crow argues that despite the importance of being honest about impairment, this acknowledgement is lacking in the current social model. The Artinians, however, wholly stand by and reinforce this flawed social model by consistently refusing to recognize deafness as an impairment, actively contradicting Crow’s arguments. Moreover, not only do the Artinians, and many other deaf people in Sound and Fury, not think of deafness as an impairment, but they also insist that they are not disabled. Throughout the film, deaf people repeatedly deny the potential benefits of giving a deaf child the ability to hear, maintaining that they live successful and happy lives, unhindered by their inability to hear. Although these claims may be true, the deaf characters in the film fail to admit the reality of their situation: they are limited by this inability to hear. The belief of the Artinians and the others in the deaf community that they are neither impaired nor disabled consequently hinders the movement toward the social change for which Crow is
Sound and Fury shows how Peter and Nita, in order to provide their family with security and a bright future, make decisions about where they live and whether their children receive the opportunity to hear. In contrast to the attitude of impairment acceptance presented by Aronson, Crow claims that society needs to change the attitude of prejudice that results from the concept of disability. Via “Including All of Our Lives: Renewing the social model of disability”, she models a way to eliminate the very element that the Artinian family believes does not exist within the deaf