I used to work with people with disabilities during high school and college. Thus, the issue is important to me as I still visit the people I used to work with when I go back to Nebraska. I think sociologists have paid little attention to the issues of disabilities, in lieu of Goffman’s work on stigma. Race, class, and gender seem to be the statuses we are most concerned about. However, I think ability and disability are important issues for sociologists to engage in.
There was an article in Sunday’s Mpls Start Tribune about Valley Fair’s new policy on people with disabilities. In short, they must wait in line with everyone else now instead of using a special entrance to the rides. Except they have bent the rules for Autistic children because they get angry. In the article, people are quoted saying though parents are frustrated, this is a good thing because people with disabilities are treated the same as everyone else. Here is a link to the article
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/20631259.html?location_refer=Homepage
I thought about this article a lot yesterday. There are few things from a sociological perspective that need to be addressed. One is that the idea that only one person from one organization is quoted saying this is a good thing because now people with disabilities are treated the same. Is this the consensus? Where are the voices of others; especially those with diabilities?
But the idea of “equal” also needs to be explored. Okay, so one argument in favor of this would be that having a different access to the rides is like lowering the bar for women in sports, math, etc. But the other part of me really hones in on how this “equal access” argument relates to arguments against affirmative action. That is, it assumes that there is a level playing field. The structures of society have not set up an equal playing field for many people with different statuses: gender, race, class, and disabilities. Hence, how can we say it’s equal when society has structured inequity? Though there are biological and psychological roots to disabilities, we have also socially constructed the meaning of disability and put a stigma on it.
