#but like... our pal mike oliver was also a wheelchair user who broke his neck in a swimming accident as a teenager | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

obstinatecondolement · 2 months

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It feels like every day I read attempts to debunk the social model of disability that fundamentally misunderstand what the social model of disability is and who the people who developed that model were, including what the nature of their disabilities was, and I want to scream.

But I don't, because yelling at people on the internet is basically pointless. Instead I check to see that I'm not mutuals with whoever reblogged said misunderstanding and vague about it.

#'but [x impairment] would still exist and have [y implications] even if the world were completely accessible!'#okay well yeah but equating impairment and disability is explicitly the opposite of the social model of disability #the union of the *physically impaired* against segregation who developed this model #*were* by and large privileged in ways many other disabled people are not‚ yes #mike oliver who wrote the fucking book on the social model of disability #(social work with disabled people‚ published in 1983)#was a white man with a phd who pioneered an academic field‚ for one #and there *are* criticisms about the limitations to a purely social model of disability to be made #but like... our pal mike oliver was also a wheelchair user who broke his neck in a swimming accident as a teenager #which caused paralysis that affected his upper and lower body #not a clueless 'physically abled' autistic who didn't understand how physical limitations work #he lived the first 17 years of his life as a physically abled person #so I think he was aware of the difference between what his body could do before and after his accident #and like 'disability is socially constructed'#is not saying that differences between people and what they are able to do or do easily do not exist??#my eyesight is so bad that if I could not access corrective lenses I would be functionally blind #and even with glasses my myopia and astigmatism cause a lot of tangible effects on my body #e.g. migraines‚ eyestrain‚ so many floaters that even looking through pristine glasses is like the lenses are scratched to hell #but my eyesight is not considered a disability #because the accommodations that enable me to participate in society fully in this area are so standard as to be invisible #can I magically see without corrective lenses? no #does wearing glasses not being considered a disability mean that I do not get migraines and eyestrain? no #so the arguments the thing I am vaguing are trying to debunk are not what is being argued!#well seems like I screamed about it after all #oh well

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