ABSTRACT

Whilst it is my contention that an historically and socially constructed category of ‘disabled people’ experience, as members of that category, a common oppression, it is also true that the modes in which that oppression are experienced vary in relation to a number of factors, one of which is the nature of their disability. The illustrations and examples employed in this chapter relate most directly to individuals with motor impairments who embody the most commonly held stereotypes of disabled people, and indeed ‘stand for’ disabled people in the ‘disabled’ logo to be found in parking spaces and public lavatories. It should not however be assumed that all disabled people experience their oppression in the forms outlined here, nor that people who do not experience these particular forms of oppression are therefore not disabled. For such sections of the social category ‘disabled people’ such as deaf people, blind people, mentally handicapped people, different constraints operate, and these require separate and detailed analysis if we are not ourselves to fall into the trap of the social stereotyping of disabled people. The recognition of this should be seen as greatly strengthening my case as to the inadequacy of social work education in relation to the needs of disabled people.