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The Problem With Disability
To some disabled people, their disability is an identity. Is there a problem in the way we classify disability and how we treat disabled people?
While pursuing my master’s in clinical psychology and psychotherapy, I took a class titled Assessment and Occupational Therapy for People with Special Needs. This class turned out to be an eye-opener. The coursework was divided into 2; a general class, and a seminar — which everyone had to attend.
As I walked into the seminar hall on the first day of class, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited to find out. The presentation was on people with hearing problems and deafness. There were a lot of interesting facts and new knowledge flying around — at least for me. For instance, we learned about the causes, classification, and evaluation of hearing problems and the popular interventions to fix these problems. Toward the end of the seminar, my colleagues who were presenting the topic read a passage from the book Far from the Tree, by Andrew Solomon. The questions that followed — at least one of which was directed to me — have been on my mind to this day.
Imagine that you give birth to a kid, born with severe hearing problems.
