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

Her appraisal of why she finds herself situated in such uncomfortable places is perceptive
while still remaining bound within disabled role thinking :
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Cos we have this idea that everything should be perfect… and that everything should
be a certain way… and that if you‟re not a certain way… then you‟re not perfect…
and it‟s not right… and because we‟re told that we have an impairment or something
wrong with us, then we automatically feel that we‟re not perfect… and…I think it
can be worse if you‟re, like, not that I‟m saying that people who are all there don‟t
feel it, but I think… (l.1.810ff.)
Sarah recognises that self-identity as flawed or imperfect is the result of being told „that we
have an impairment or something wrong with us‟, demonstrating an intuitive awareness that
the problems she experiences arise not so much from impairment itself as from society‟s
response and reaction to impairment. Yet she also refers to non-disabled people as „people
who are all there‟, implying an acceptance of the identities of people with impairments as
being „not all there‟.
In describing his excitement at having first encountered the social model, Charles recalls
that:
at first it was such a head rush… trying to go too fast… I can remember
trying to teach my mother the difference between disability and impairment and
being angry with her… she still hasn‟t got it… and she works as a carer… works
with disabled children… (l.1:821ff.)
Charles had told me earlier that his mother had drummed into him as a boy the idea that:
“You‟re not disabled, you‟re handicapped, because disabled sounds like you‟re not
able to do… You are, so handicapped is better, cos it‟s like you‟re disadvantaged,
you‟re handicapped…” (laughs)… (l.1:15ff.)
This was a position that, with some amused embarrassment, Charles admitted to holding
until his mid-twenties. He talks about the first time he attended a Disability Equality
Training session: