SOCI 210: Sociological perspectives

Social construction
of disability

  1. Administrative
  2. Social constructionism
  3. Social construction of disability

Administrative

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Social construction

A precarious tower of wooden blocks stacked on top of a barrel. The blocks are arranged as in Jenga.

Social construction

  • “If something is a ‘socially construct’, that means it can be whatever you want it to be.”
  • “Socially constructed = fake”


  • These interpretations are usually based on a serious mis­under­standing (or deliberate mis­repre­sentation) of social construction.

Screenshot of a Tweet (user redacted), with text 'Gender's a social construct, remember. Just have half the scientists 'identify' as female. #problemsolved'

Screenshot of a Tweet by James Lindsay, with text ''Unvaccinated' is a social conostruct. So is 'fully vaccinated.' All artificial. All hyperreal.'

Screenshot of a Tweet by Jordan Peterson, in reply to another Tweet. Peterson's text reads 'Science is a social construct, remember? That's why planes fly...'

Social construction

Sociology of knowledge

  • The Social Construction of Reality (1966)
    Peter Berger & Thomas Luckman

Basic argument:

  • Humans learn about the world through social interaction.
  • Interactions reinforce the things we agree on, and push us to come to agreement on everything else.
  • This process reinforces norms — how the world ought to be.
  • Over time, shared expectations become so regular that we do not think of them as something we came to agree on. They become something we know.

Symbolic interactionism

  • The meaning of things is not essential to
    those things. It is negotiated through social
    interactions.

Book cover. Peter L Berger and Thomas Luckman; The Social Construction of Reality; A treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge

Social construction

A photo of a very old, moss-covered stone cathedral wall. The roof, windows, and most everything else is gone, leaving what appears to be just a free-standing wall of stone. The windows are vaulted, and some keep the remnants of Christain iconography in the stonework.

Screenshot of a Tweet by Katherine Cross. Text reads: 'This is false. Religion is socially constructed, but I can't declare that a table is now a cathedral and have it mean anything. That last bit, meaning, is the key. We can play however we like. But most social constructs are like their physical counterparts: durable.'

Social construction

The social is real

  • We often think of the social as somehow less real than the physical or biological.
  • A social construct is real because it has real consequences. It ‘pushes back’ on our attempts to alter it.
  • Sociologists study how social systems are consequential and durable.

In short: social constructs …

  • … have socially-negotiated definition and meaning
  • … have real consequences in the world to
  • … require widespread, collective action to subvert or change

Social construction

Three terms (loosely)

Social construct

  • A ‘social fact’ that is actively maintained, widely held to be true, and consequential.
  • E.g.: race, gender, customs, scientific method, …

Social constructionism

  • A sociological stance that focuses on social constructs, their maintenance, and their meanings.

Social constructivism

  • An epistemological stance that focuses on the ways that social constructs inform what people know

Social construction of disability

A shop door that requires mounting six narrow steps and making a sharp turn before getting through the awkwardly shaped door.

Soc. construction of disability

Disability in Canada

Bar chart comparing Percentage of Canadians with a disability by age group in 2017 and 2022. The total average is around 20%, slightly lower for people under 64 years old and considerably higher for people 65 and older. In all age groups, the percentage has increased between 2017 and 2022.

Source:
Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability

Language of disability

Terminology

  • “People with disabilities” (people-first)
    or
    “Disabled people” (identity-first)
  • Stigmatizing terms should not be used
    Crip/cripple (by someone non-disabled), lame, …
  • Euphemisms that try to avoid saying the word “disability” are considered inappropriate and infantilizing
    “Differently abled”
    “Special needs”
    …
  • A good resource for those writing about disability:
    https://cdrnys.org/disability-writing-journalism-guidelines/
A QR code

Models of disability

  1. Moral model
  2. Medical model
  3. Social model

Moral model of disability

  • Views disability as a moral failing of an individual
  • Disabled person (or parents/caregivers) are culpable for disability
  • Divine punishment (e.g. sin, witchcraft, etc.)
  • “Deserved” disability (fatness, diabetes, lung
    cancer, neurodivergence, etc.)
A gingerbread man cookie with one leg missing. Text underneat reads 'Not as sweet as you think. Every 30 seconds, a leg is amputated due to diabetes - International Diabetes Federation'. The ad is sponsored by the Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka

Models of disability

  1. Moral model
  2. Medical model
  3. Social model

Medical model of disability

  • Views disability as a disorder afflicting a person
  • Defines an idealized state for human body, with disability defined as deviation from norm
  • Disability is ‘problem’ to be ‘fixed’
  • Encourages stigmatization, marginalization
Leonardo di Vinci's Vitruvian Man. A drawing on yellowed paper of a human incribed in a circle with arms and legs represented multiple times, fitting into the circle at different points.

Models of disability

  1. Moral model
  2. Medical model
  3. Social model

Social model of disability

  • Views disability as the result of systematic barriers to participation in everyday society
  • Differentiates between disability (social) and impairment (medical/ physical)
  • Disability is not deviation from a norm, as in the medical model
  • Disability is the failure of society to account for human variability Steps leading to courthouse entrance Vancouver, BC
    (Infrastructure, laws, culture, behavior, …)
  • Dominant model among disability activists
Black and white sign showing a stick figure person running down a flight hof stairs with flames behind them. The text reads 'IN CASE OF FIRE USE STAIRS', which is repeated in braile below.

Is disability socially constructed?

Disability …

✓

has socially-negotiated definition and meaning

 

has consequences in the real world

 

requires widespread will to subvert or change

Contested social construct

  • The definition and meaning of disability is determined socially
  • Conflicting models
    Medical, social, moral, …
  • Institutionally determined thresholds
    What are the criteria for ‘blindness?’In which Contexts?
  • Categorical delineation (medicalization)
    E.g. homosexuality, schizophrenia, drapetomania, …

Is disability socially constructed?

Disability …

✓

has socially-negotiated definition and meaning

✓

has consequences in the real world

 

requires widespread will to subvert or change

Social consequences

  • Employment
    Discrimination for jobs.
    Minimum-wage exemptions.
  • Immigration and travel
    People with certain disabilities are not allowed to immigrate to Canada (and many other countries).
  • State violence
    Historically: murder, forced sterilization, forced abortion, …
    Currently: disproportionate police violence, forced sterilization, …
  • Non-state violence
    Increased risk of homicide, domestic abuse, and sexual violence.
  • Intersectional
    Women, Black and Indigenous people, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and people in poverty are all disproportionately likely to be disabled.

Devaluing disabled lives

Screenshot of DailyWire news headline: 'CDC Director: Over 75% of COVID Deaths in Vaccinated Had 'at Least 4 Comorbidities''

“The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities. So, really, these are people who were unwell to begin with. And yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron; this means not only just to get your primary series but to get your booster series. And yes, we’re really encouraged by these results.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control

Tweet from Mar Hicks (@histoftech) from Jan 28, 2022: “It is very encouraging news,” said the government, “that only people like you will die.” “Excuse me?” I said. “Very encouraging news,” they repeated🤗

Is disability socially constructed?

Disability …

✓

has socially-negotiated definition and meaning

✓

has consequences in the real world

✓

requires widespread will to subvert or change

Black and White photo of a crowd of people, mostly in wheelchairs, in front of a capital building. The closest wheelchair to the camera has a sign attached reading 'We shall overcome'

Image credit

A precarious tower of wooden blocks stacked on top of a barrel. The blocks are arranged as in Jenga.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

A photo of a very old, moss-covered stone cathedral wall. The roof, windows, and most everything else is gone, leaving what appears to be just a free-standing wall of stone. The windows are vaulted, and some keep the remnants of Christain iconography in the stonework.

Photo of Hore Abbey by Christian Bowen on Unsplash

A shop door that requires mounting six narrow steps and making a sharp turn before getting through the awkwardly shaped door.

Photo by Jelle van Leest on Unsplash

A gingerbread man cookie with one leg missing. Text underneat reads 'Not as sweet as you think. Every 30 seconds, a leg is amputated due to diabetes - International Diabetes Federation'. The ad is sponsored by the Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka

Ad from Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka, via Ads of the World

Leonardo di Vinci's Vitruvian Man. A drawing on yellowed paper of a human incribed in a circle with arms and legs represented multiple times, fitting into the circle at different points.

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo di Vinci, via Wikimedia

Black and white sign showing a stick figure person running down a flight hof stairs with flames behind them. The text reads 'IN CASE OF FIRE USE STAIRS', which is repeated in braile below.

Image via Winmark Stamp & Sign Company

Black and White photo of a crowd of people, mostly in wheelchairs, in front of a capital building. The closest wheelchair to the camera has a sign attached reading 'We shall overcome'

Photo via Patch

Origin of the term comes from an area called the "sociology of knowledge" that looks at the social processes that influence how people know what they know

e.g. the church, money, college degree, etc

* Low vision, dyslexia, chronic pain, sleep disorders, diabetes, autism * what about: homosexuality? near-sightedness? * WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) * 27% of Canadian adults reported having a disability (more than 10 million people)

Disability is incredibly stigmatized, and as such there is a lot of language that is seen to build on or reinforce that stigmatization

Disability is marginalized and stigmatized in virtually every dimension of social life (note: comorbidiuties include “caffeine dependence”, “anxiety”, “insomnia”, “headaches”, “fatigue”, “restlessness”,…)