A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

ound the hat rack‟. Her relief at being diagnosed with a medical condition is expressed, not
only because it meant that she could start to receive treatment for her condition, but also
because her own experience was validated.
I suggest that in a disabling society impairment can only be acknowledged if it is
medically diagnosed, an experience which draws the self into discourses which name
impairment as defect. Ali‟s comments here further illustrate this point. For Ali,
disability is associated with a sick role with which he does not identify. He states his desire
to reject identity as somebody who has an impairment:
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I really … deep down... I like to think I don‟t have a disability but … I‟ve had more
… I had another test just to confirm it again for my job that I just had and … I
jokingly said to this work psychologist when he told me I was dyslexic… erm …
“Have you made that up?”... and he said... “Oh no, you‟re dyslexic … you have
classic dyslexia...” but … erm … I think … deep down I still think that I haven‟t got
a disability (l.1:529).
Tanya Titchkosky‟s description of the cultural expectation that „people should
simultaneously be and not be disabled‟ (Titchkosky, 2003:76) is helpful here:
Getting as close as possible to „normal‟ standards of bodily engagement... is a
cultural expectation of disabled persons and assures that normalcy maintains its
status as a dominant but taken-for-granted phenomenon. This expectation... also
leads to normalcy as able-bodiedness remaining an unexamined social ideal
(Titchkosky, 2003:76).
The tension experienced by Ali is one that involves measuring himself against the social
ideal of normalcy and finding himself wanting. Because it is so clearly understood that
disability is a shortcoming when measured in these terms he is uncomfortable about
accepting dyslexia as part of his identity. When dyslexia is measured and considered only as
a deviation from „normal-thinking‟ then the ground for considering this as „useless-
difference‟ is established (Michalko, 2002:97).
Conclusion
Internalised oppression is a term that has been used by numerous writers in Disability
Studies to describe something which happens: