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

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definite contexts of meanings carried in the ineffable details of the comportment we
acquire from those around us, through which the world becomes meaningful as a
subjective space (Charlesworth, 2000:90).
This is why segregation is so important. Even while, as Mary and Charles have told us, the
word disability is hardly ever mentioned, it is within special schools that the first lessons in
becoming disabled are encountered: to become disabled is to learn to desire above all things
the achievement of normality while being made aware by one‟s location just how far beyond
one‟s reach this goal is. Outwith special schools, also, parallel lessons about disability are
learned: „the disabled‟ are frightening. Andrew Collins, in his memoirs of „growing up
normal in the 70s‟, recalls that one of his teachers, Mrs Munro:
had a mentally and physically handicapped son called Steven whom she occasionally
brought into school just to scare the life out of me (Collins, 2003:67).
The „ineffable details of the comportment we acquire from those around us‟ Charlesworth
speaks of include the actions, gestures, and attempts made by people with impairments to
prove just how „normal‟ they are. Disability involves people with impairments being taught
to want to act, and wanting to act, and attempting to act in ways which conform with social
expectations of people who do not have impairments; which are regarded as customary and
appropriate in order to participate in the social mainstream. It also involves a disavowal by
people with impairments of ways of doing things which might suit their physical, sensory,
emotional or intellectual needs and a sense of shame and inadequacy when such ways of
doing things are necessary or unavoidable, in private as well as in public.
Roshni recalls that:
I always used to think that living and being and acting like the non-disabled person
was something I should aspire to... and something that I should try to do... so I
remember for example when I was doing long cane training I would always be very
conscious of not... you know... there are different landmarks and different
positioning techniques that you use to navigate as a visually impaired person... so
maybe like if you‟re walking along a street you keep to the wall, for example, so
you‟re aware of when the wall turns and you have a corner... or when a road
crossing‟s coming up... those kind of things... but I would always, always, always
walk down the middle of the pavement... I would never, ever... and because of it I
made so many errors... and I would miss some of those landmarks... in terms of
crossings and turnings and things... and my instructors would always say... but why