Good grief! I spend four hours this morning reading (or at least having my
research assistant read), a ream of stuff on the social theory of disability
and intigration, for my phd, ---- which is intended to defign disability,
then I get it on this list as well!
Aaaaaaaagh! ;D.
My own thought is that any discussion of these issues needs to recognize
flexibility.
Yes, there are blind people i've met from the specialist education system
who've now ended up in a total mess. Equally however, there are occasions (I
experienced one myself as a teenager), where intigration doesn't work simply
because of the nature of the environment in question.
Yet neither environment can be said to "create" the disaibility in the first
place (as many theorists argue), the blindness is there and needs dealing
with.
What I'm trying to do in my phd is derive a theory of disability based on
questions of quality of life, not related either to specific social or
environmental factors, or tied to specific conditions which can then be
named and pointed to.
Sinse it is based upon quality of life, any answer to "intigration vs
specialization" has to be looked at on a case by case basis.
Yes, for a blind person of normal interlect, a sympathetic intigrated
environment might work, however for someone of less than usual
interlect, ---- or indeed someone who requires huge amounts of independence
training, maybe some degree of specialization would help.
On the "appearing normal" front, Again, there seem to be two things. Yes,
the majority of people are bloody stupid about blindness. however wandering
around bellowing at others for help or expecting assistance to always be
there doesn't work either (an atitude I've encountered far too often among
blind people and indeed people who work with blind people). Such things are
an interaction and should be thought of as such.
I carry a kane, not to warn people I'm blind, but simply to make certain I
don't fall down steps. On the other hand, I turn and look at people when i'm
talking to them to make their communication and interaction with me easier,
so that I can live with people on a more reasonable basis.
Btw, my special school was as vile as my main stream one, my teacher was!
professor umbridge! so I'd say I've seen both sides of the education coin
fail miserably.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
---
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