Social Deviance
Journal Entry 13
Disabilities are a category that are separate from groups such as disease and injury.
Disabilities are items that provide the individual capacity limitations or handicaps. The process of normalizing disabilities includes the recognition, legitimization, and attribution of the disability. Those suffering from chronic illness and/or impairments are seen as not having conscious control over this issue, but it does not mean they are responsible for the predicament. Sick roles are expected to be temporary while disabilities are expected to be long-term issues. Those using the sick role are expected to get better and will want to get better. Those with irreparable disabilities are not expected to get better and have the will to get better, in fact, it can be seen as inappropriate for them to want to get better. It is expected of them to come to terms with their disability and the fact that they cannot become better. Control agents suppress any unwanted behaviors that break social norms and will reward socially acceptable behaviors. There are issues with disabled individuals being abandoned by families if their disabilities are too much for them to handle. There are societies similar to The Giver by Lois Lowry that remove those with disabilities, such as the elderly, through abandonment, though it may not be as severe as in the novel. Determining if someone is disabled is hard as it can be hard to define what how severe the impairment has to be to be classified as a disability
Disabilities are deviant in a statistical form as they do not fall within the main part of the curve. Disabilities can be considered deviant because they fall outside of the curve, in the edges of the curve. There are those that have disabilities that lay within the upper portions of the curve. Those with joint hypermobility syndrome are deviant in that they can move their joints more than the normal person. Individuals suffering from sever arthritis can be considered deviant as their joints may no longer be flexible or are less flexible than the normal range. The issue with deviance is that it has a negative connotation. Individuals tend to associate deviance with illegal crime when it can be applied to anything outside the social norms. There do need to be classes on disabilities as those with disabilities tend to be discriminated against whether the people around them notice or not. The University Commons are discriminatory in a way in that they don't have elevators installed or handicapped accessible bathrooms. Those with physical disabilities restricting them to items such as wheelchairs would not be able to live there, even if restricted to the first floor because they cannot reach the upper floors due to the lack of an elevator and cannot use the bathrooms as the showers and toilets do not have arm rails or shower seats. We need programs to teach students to be aware of their surroundings and that they don't need to help someone with