Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Visibility of Disability
In class today we briefly discussed what it means to be disabled, and one idea I found interesting was the Visibility of Disability aspect, because it hits close to home for me. My father has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a somewhat rare illness that makes him tired all the time. Though unless you were living with him to notice his frequent naps, you would probably never notice his disability. Because he doesn't have a visible condition, the insurance companies have followed around and harassed my dad on numerous occasions in hopes of finding a reason to take away his social-security benefits. If he were instead required to be in a wheelchair all the time for his illness, I'm sure he wouldn't have to deal with this nuisance. I feel like when disabilities are out of sight, their severity can often be underestimated. It's a shame that people should need a visible aspect to their disability for it to be taken seriously.
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Kevin-I want to thank you for sharing your personal story with us. It must be extremely difficult for your father to live with CTF, as well as you and your family. You're right that it is rare-but it is extremely debilitating. I know a few people who have it too, and they have battled with insurance companies, employers, etc. who don't understand and/or are skeptical of the illness. It must be so frustrating for anyone with a disability that is "invisible", so to speak, to have to justify their disability and explain themselves. In the Simi Linton article, she is talking about how we categorize people as being disabled. And her answer was that if people say they are, that that should be enough. Among the disabled community-that holds a lot of value, and a more detailed explanation is not needed. Do you have any thoughts on that particular part of the article?
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I've never known anyone who knew anyone who had the syndrome before. My dad has had it for about 20 years now and it has definitely been frustrating for him. Thankfully he is no longer harassed about it anymore, to my knowledge at least. In response to the idea in the Simi Linton article, My first thought was that just saying that you are disabled isn't enough because I feel like a lot of people could easily abuse that system. However, after thinking back when even doctors of my fathers told the insurance company that my dad was okay to work because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, I start to think that maybe just saying that you are disabled should be enough. Maybe if the person had to take an oath or something while declaring that he/she was disabled? I'm not really sure. I'm sure there are a lot of disabilities out there that are hard to prove, in which case it might be best to just take the person's word for it.
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