Social Deviance
Chapter 13: Physical Disabilities
Chapter Goals
:Understand physical disabilities as deviant. Be able to describe the "sick" role. Learn about key disabilities legislation.
Deviance and Physical Disabilities
Societal members tend to focus on what the person cannot do, rather than on what the person can do. The disabled are regarded as "outsiders." Disabled people experience many of the same social reactions as deviants, such as stigma and social rejection. Disabled individuals are forced to overcome obstacles such as forming relationships. following normative guidelines, and conforming to adult roles. Disability is the loss of function that accompanies an impairment. Handicaps involve the limitation on normal activities of self-care and mobility that results from some impairment. Thus, physical conditions determine impairments, whereas disabilities and handicaps represent social and behavioral consequences of those impairments. The central difference between a physical disability and deviance is its identity as a condition rather than a behavior. In other words, people do not choose it. Disability becomes the master status. Disability may reflect personal discredit. Deviant labels may depend on the individual's responsibility for the condition.
"Sick"Role
Disability and the Sick Role According to Parsons, the sick role emerges from two interrelated sets of exemptions. a. Most people exempt individuals defined as ill from certain obligations and responsibilities. b. No one blames them for their illnesses, nor does anyone expect their conditions to improve due to their motivation alone. c. Some individuals assume the sick role, although many have difficulty because it goes against their own values. Four elements make-up the sick role: a. No responsibility for their own conditions. b. Exemptions from normal role obligations. C. Recognition of the undesirable character of illness. d. An obligation to seek help to heal the sickness.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975) was intended to stop discrimination against children with disabilities. Subsequent amendments have been passed (see next slide for 1990). Before passage of the act, many children had been excluded from public schools, institutionalized, or placed in programs with little or no learning component. The American with Disabilities Act provisions apply to three kinds of people: Anyone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Any person with a record of such an impairment. Any person perceived as having a physical or mental impa