ABSTRACT
In grounding a care ethics model of disability, how we imagine and understand caring practices is critical to mapping intellectual disability and ways of being human, largely because caring is not a strange activity which is undertaken by a few brave souls, but it is ingrained into the existence of every person. In understanding intellectual disability the social model can seem somewhat alien, as certain difficult behaviours and day-to-day occurrences, whether for the intellectually disabled person or for the one caring, are not eradicated via the processes of a social model of disability. This is probably the most significant aspect of alienation when talking about intellectual disability and being human, largely because we are estranged from each other, not in a Hegelian sense, but as a result of modern capitalist society. It attempts to do here is to understand being human and intellectual disability from a position that does not comfortably sit within a rights-based position.
