Disability

Identity and

Australia

Martin MantleReader’s Advisory SeminarSLNSW 7 March 2012

Beliefs about disability

Language

Social and

InstitutionalLegislation

Literature

First description of disability in Australia?

“Their sight is peculiarly fine, indeed their existence very often depends upon the accuracy of it…once at Broken Bay I saw in a canoe an old man who was perfectly blind. He was accompanied by a youth who paddled his canoe, and who, to my great surprise, sat behind him in it. This may, however, be in conformity to the idea of respect which is always paid to old age.”

David Collins AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY IN NEW SOUTH WALES (1798). David Collins was the deputy judge advocate, who came to the colony with the first fleet.

Acts of Parliament• Immigration Act 1901• Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act 1908• Migration Act 1958• Social Services Act 1947• Disability reform package 1991• Disability Discrimination Act 1992• UN Convention on Rights of Persons with

Disabilities ratified 2008

Disability Discrimination Act• "disability" , in relation to a person, means: • (a) total or partial loss of the person's bodily or mental functions; or • (b) total or partial loss of a part of the body; or • (c) the presence in the body of organisms causing disease or illness; or • (d) the presence in the body of organisms capable of causing disease or illness; or • (e) the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of the person's body; or • (f) a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently from a

person without the disorder or malfunction; or • (g) a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person's thought processes, perception

of reality, emotions or judgment or that results in disturbed behaviour; • and includes a disability that: • (h) presently exists; or • (i) previously existed but no longer exists; or • (j) may exist in the future (including because of a genetic predisposition to that

disability); or • (k) is imputed to a person. • To avoid doubt, a disability that is otherwise covered by this definition includes

behaviour that is a symptom or manifestation of the disability.

Disability Discrimination Actions

• S11: the defence of unjustifiable hardship

• King vs. Jetstar (Jan 2012). Jetstar had discriminated against a wheelchair user by denying her a place on a flight that had already booked two other wheelchair users. But it was able to argue that having more than two wheelchair users on place entailed increased costs and increased inconvenience to other passengers (increased delays) and meant that it could use the provisions of the defence of unjustifiable hardship to avoid having to offer more seats on its flights.

Eugenics to Genetics• Eugenics: “well-born”• 1900-1940

• Disability as a threat

• Genetics– 1953 Double helix DNA– 2003 Human genome project

• Disability as a problem

• Exercise: measuring “fit-ness”– "Physical fitness is the basis for all other forms of

excellence” (John F Kennedy)

Language• Inclusive language. Avoid words like spaz,

schizo, mong, retard, etc.• But what about the rest of language?

– Blindness = ignorance. “She was blind to the consequences of her actions”

– Why is this phrasing not inappropriate?

SMH 19.2.12

Symbolism

Medical Model

Body

Mind

Senses

Environment

Culture

Technology

/ Social Model

Disabled Fiction A Christmas carol (1843)

For the term of his natural life (1874)

Peter Pan (1904)

The secret garden (1911)

The fortunes of Richard Mahoney: Ultima Thule (1929)

Harp in the south (1948)

Lord of the flies (1954) Tim (1974)

Cloudstreet (1991)

Slow man (2005) Little people (2011)

Disabled Fiction Pitiable and pathetic

Object of violenceSinister and evil

To enhance the mood Super cripple

Object of ridiculeTheir own worst enemy

BurdenSexually abnormal

Incapable of participating

Title recommendationsDVDs:• Murderball – a documentary about wheelchair rugby• Unusual Travellers – a documentary about a group

of men on a trip to Egypt

Books:• Disability in Australia: Exposing a Social Apartheid

by Gerard Coggin and Christopher Newell• Little people by Jane Sullivan• The black book of colours by Menena Cottin and

Rosana Faria

WebsitesABC Rampup

http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/

BBC Ouch! http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/news.shtml

World Health Organization: World Report on Disabilities

http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html

Disability informationHistory of disability South Australia

• http://history.dircsa.org.au/

University of Maryland

• http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/disability.html

PWC 2011 report: Disability Expectations• http://www.pwc.com.au/industry/government/publications/

disability-in-australia.htm

Love rolls on! (blog)• http://loverollson.wordpress.com/

Finding resources• librarybooklists.org• librarything.com• Libraries Australia:

People with disabilities – fiction (485) Physically handicapped– fiction (481)

(Only 35 are cross-referenced)Blind – fiction

Disability and libraries?• Lists, lists and more lists in libraries• Readers Advisory wiki• A Readers Advisory book.• Adding subject headings to LA• Recognition disability action more than

physical access:– Cooperative committees– Employment– Sensory walls