Towards an Integrated View of Disability: Bridging Theory and Praxis

Abstract

For a long time, disability was perceived through a medical lens as a purely individual, physical manifestation. This view has changed through the works of various social model theorists who presented disability as a socially imposed experience, as opposed to the experiences of individual impairments. Nevertheless, each of these perspectives present an aspect of what seems to be a complex reality. The aim of this paper is to pursue an understanding of the disabled identity that is holistic and takes into account the built environment, and the historical aspects of the disabled identity. Another problem that we must confront ourselves with is how such a complex understanding of the disabled identity which draws from the post-structural critique of the same could be meaningfully used to inform policy. This paper tries to integrate John-Sebastien Beaudry’s method of liminal reasoning and Mari J. Matsuda’s method of multiple consciousness in order to conceive a method that may help to employ critical perspectives that inform theory into practice in policy and legality, bridging the gap between theory and practice.