Updated: CNN , developmental disability and institutionalization
There's a CNN special report about to air (today or possibly tomorrow,
I'm told) on the treatment of developmentally disabled people in the
1950s and '60s that features a family reunited after the loved one
with DD was institutionalized for many years. I don't know much more
about the coverage yet, except that I've contributed a comment that
will probably appear on a discussion forum at the CNN site. I'll put a
link to that forum right here when I have it. So, go over there and
contribute yourself.
For those coming here from CNN, my indexing is incomplete and doesn't
cover all the oldest posts, but you can browse the categories as they
are for relevant topics like developmental disability, institutions,
children, and choice. Also, many of the links at the sidebar at right
are to bloggers who discuss developmental disability more often than
me. There's good browsing there, for sure.
Update: I added the link just above, but here's the full skinny:
The story is set to air on tonight's Paula Zahn Show on CNN, at 8 pm
ET (7 pm central). Further update: It appears as though a freeway
bridge collapse that occurred just over an hour ago in Minneapolis
will preempt the story tonight. Look for it tomorrow, August 2.
The online story is here. There's room there to comment, so go check
that out and read what others have said.
Here's me (in my huge-photo glory) and the statement I offered them.
I don't think they edited my comment (that link just above), but here
again is what I said about the general story of
developmentally-disabled folks' institutionalization and the changes
since decades ago:
My personal thoughts on what happened 40+ years ago is that it was
a tragedy for whole families and has undoubtedly had a lasting
impact on how we view developmentally disabled people today. That
is, we're still living with the legacy of those folks being
segregated, made invisible, and devalued. It has impacted how we
view developmental disability and the way we think of difference --
we have all been taught implicitly by this history that people who
are intellectually or developmentally different do not belong among
us because they're dangerous, completely incompetent and lack any
ability to contribute to society. And those beliefs are not true.
One example of the historical legacy: The institutionalization of
developmentally disabled people in the 1950s and '60s happened
before Roe v. Wade and the legalization of abortion, and while I
absolutely support full choice in reproductive issues for women, I
do believe that the very high rates of abortion of fetuses with
known developmental disabilities has some connection to our social
history of what has been considered the potential and worth of
certain people. Instead of doctors of decades ago telling families
who have just had a baby with a disability that they should
institutionalize the child, doctors now are providing the option of
never having that child at all. And we don't have much of a modern
legacy of integration of developmentally disabled people into our
culture to balance those messages with, to make the choices a woman
and her family make about these pregnancies complete choices about
potential. Because of this history of institutionalization, fear
and stigma are a bigger part of that choice than they might
otherwise be if acceptance and providing community resources and
integration were a bigger part of our social history instead.
And, you know, diagnosing developmental differences is one thing --
tricky by itself -- but determining how differences affect
potential is even trickier. The very act of deciding a person has
limited potential can limit their opportunities. I know a few
people whose abilities were radically underestimated because of
developmental diagnoses, and I've read of or conversed online with
dozens of other disabled people whose lives have been seriously
affected by judgments -- faulty judgments -- about their worth and
ability.
Overall, I do think things are somewhat better now because
institutionalization and abandonment of disabled children aren't
considered the obvious solutions for families. And communities are
actively struggling with the education of disabled children in
public schools, which is a complicated issue but is, I think, much
better than silence, shame and automatic segregation.
The daily difficulties that come from raising (or being) a
developmentally disabled person and finding the resources and
support needed for that aren't an aspect of the disability
experience I'm intimate with, but my perception is that while
things have improved there is still a long way to go.
I think the main thing that nondisabled people don't necessarily
know or understand is that developmentally disabled people are not
this separate category of human beings. People tend to think, "We
can do things. They cannot." And there's no line like that dividing
all of us. There are shades of ability, varying talents that
surface in surprising places. This is true for physical
disabilities as well. Most of us, in the course of our lives,
discover we have abilities or affinities for some things and lack
talent elsewhere, so this idea that a certain class of people lack
value or the ability to contribute inevitably underestimates and
wastes a lot of human potential.
Another big disability story in the news just now is of the transplant
surgeon hastening the death of a developmentally disabled man in order
to harvest organs. I mentioned it briefly here. And the CNN show
transcript on that story, including some discussion with disability
activist Lawrence Carter-Long is available here (scroll toward the
bottom for this particular story). These two stories are intimately
related, of course.
Posted by Kay Olson at 12:24 AM 12 comments Links to this post
Labels: developmental disability, institutions, media
August hiatus
It's time for a summer vacation from blogging for me, quick before I
burn out completely. I'm not going on any big trip, but I'll be taking
a break from blogging for at least two weeks (maybe four). Yep, I had
this planned before CNN contacted me for a comment on their latest
disability story, and while the attention might force me to moderate
commenting here more than I planned on I'm still taking that holiday.
(Damn ye, thwarted vacation plans!)
I might not even read other people's blogs for a little while, though
that's sort of like saying "I'm taking a break from chocolate."
Inconceivable! If I do comment elsewhere, you can join me at those
conversations by checking the CoComments linking to them on my
sidebar, far below at right. (CoComments seems a bit buggy today, but
they say it'll be better soon.)
In the meantime, use the comments for this post to link to anything
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