2007-09-29 - 11:52 a.m.
I recently read an article which recounted the words of David Hevey, a photographer with a disability, of the effect on his work when he discovered the social model of disability. He described it as a �blinding flash on the road to Damascus�. Learning about the social model of disability in a class a few weeks ago had an equally revelatory effect on me. Hey, I realized. It�s not me, it�s you!
The the social model says that disability is not a product of the individual who has an illness or injury. Such affliction does indeed cause impairment but not disability. Disability is created by a society that forgets that a lot of people in it are different physically (or even mentally). The built environment is hard for me to navigate, not simply because of my MS, but because its builders made it hard for me to navigate.
The ramp (for easier access) and the wheel (for wheelchairs) are both ancient, like from caveman times. But people seem to have forgotten them even in the construction of early buildings. I remember looking at Greek temple facades in an architectural history class at Brown. I realized, who cares if what style the pediment is? Blind Oedipus at Colonus can�t get up the steps and neither can I now!
Although references to counterweighted lifts are found in the works of Roman architect Vitruvius (who claimed that Archimedes had used them), the modern safety elevator was not invented until 1853. Such a modern invention of course can�t be expected to be incorporated into current building designs. Better to stick with stairs�
My personal favorite example of thoughtless design is uncut curbs. It�s really not difficult or expensive to make a sidewalk with slight slopes at the ends of blocks down the few inches to roadway-pavement level. But it�s sometimes simply not done. This, possibly more than anything, suggests the veracity of the social model. Why is it hard for me to cross the street where there are no curb cuts? Because I have MS? No, because someone didn�t put them there.
An environment where the needs of all people were included would not only be nice, it would be the way things should always have been. I guess what should have been done in the past is water under the bridge. But all of us can help make the world more inclusive now. It�s not hard, it�s not expensive. Let�s do it.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
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