00:00
STACEY MILBERN: So if you and I go to a building and
00:02
there's no ramp typically people think
00:04
the problem is that we use wheelchairs.
00:06
Whereas a social model of disability would
00:08
say the problem is that the building is
00:11
not accessible. And it doesn't seem like
00:13
a radical concept, but it changes the
00:16
fundamental way we think about
00:17
disability, and the work that we need
00:20
to do to include people with disabilities.
00:22
PATTY BERNE: People often don't
00:24
understand ability to be within this
00:27
kind of context and access to adaptive
00:31
devices, and where we are located
00:33
economically. You know when I have my
00:37
access needs met I'm functionally not
00:40
disabled, you know? But when places have
00:44
stairs and everything is built for
00:47
people that stand so I can't see anything,
00:50
and you know, it's a really dark
00:52
environment so I can't see anything...
00:56
because you know, as you get older your vision
00:57
changes so now I need a lot of light to
01:00
see things. An environment like that, of
01:02
course I'm disabled.
01:04
STACEY MILBERN: I really like separating out impairment from
01:06
disability. So impairment as, you know,
01:10
like physical or neurological
01:12
manifestation - like what's real. I have a
01:15
physical impairment. And then
01:17
disability is like what society creates
01:19
as barriers because of the impairment.
01:23
So like as you're saying, if we're in a
01:24
place where my access needs are
01:27
getting met then my impairment isn't so
01:30
significant. But when it's not because
01:33
society doesn't want to, then that's the
01:36
problem. So I think it's important to
01:39
really think about disability and the
01:41
context of what is disabling, like the
01:44
environment. The last building I worked
01:46
in it was really cool because it was
01:49
universally designed, so all the doors
01:51
had push buttons or they like
01:53
magically open, you know, as you walk up,
01:55
or everything is like automatically at
01:58
my height. And in that place I didn't
02:00
need a lot of accommodations. But then in
02:02
an environment where it's not universally
02:04
accessible, where people with
02:06
disabilities and parents and all types
02:09
of folks weren't thought of in the
02:11
design process,
02:12
that's when there's problems.
02:14
PATTY BERNE: I'm not saying it's easy to live with an
02:16
impairment. It's not easy to live, you know,
02:18
when you have like four kids, it's not
02:21
easy to live when it's like 20 degrees
02:23
outside. And you know,
02:24
for those of us in the Bay Area, 55 is
02:27
freezing... but you know. I mean there are
02:30
times when it's just not convenient to
02:32
have a body. But that's not what
02:35
oppresses us. What oppresses us is living
02:38
in a system which disregards us, is
02:41
violent towards us, essentially wants to
02:44
subjugate our bodies or kill us.
02:47
That's oppressive. My body doesn't
02:51
oppress me - my body... my body's fun! But
02:54
society - that can be incredibly oppressive.
03:00
STACEY MILBERN: I think when we focus on a
03:02
person's individual impairment or
03:05
diagnosis, as you said, it kind of like
03:07
lets society off the hook. It makes all
03:09
the focus on that individual
03:12
circumstance, when really ableism and
03:15
exclusion and violence happen because of
03:18
systems of oppression. So we know it's
03:21
not like an individual person with a
03:23
disability that's the issue, but we can
03:25
look at the way, for example with
03:26
policing - victims of police violence are
03:29
50 percent people with disabilities, if
03:31
not more. Or if we look at the
03:34
special education system, it's not the
03:37
individual special education student, but
03:40
we can see how special education becomes
03:43
continued segregation for so many black
03:46
and brown students. So when we focus on
03:48
like the individual impairment, it kind of
03:50
takes away from that bigger picture.
03:53
PATTY BERNE: We're seen as disposable. Because for those of
03:57
us that are not going to have like a
03:59
treatment or a cure with our bodies,
04:03
we kind of fly in the face of this idea
04:05
of medicine as God.
04:07
So we're seen as less than.
04:10
And you're awesome!
04:12
You're fabulous and you are beautiful!
04:14
And you're... how could... the idea that some
04:17
one would think that you're less than is just
04:20
absurd. Yet that's the framework
04:23
that we're in.
04:26
And it's incredibly painful.
04:28
There are always going to be crips. There are always
04:29
going to be, you know, people in pain - it's
04:33
just the nature of being in a body. But the
04:35
social body we can change! And that's... I
04:39
think it requires a power analysis.
04:42
[Music]