This activity requires you to spend some time viewing the worldusing the perspective of the social construction of disability.
From the social constructionist perspective, disability iscreated through interaction between individuals and theirenvironments.
Include at least two separate observations.
Each of your observations should illustrate a differentway that disability is socially constructed.
Describe what you observed and then briefly explain howyour observation illustrates the social construction ofdisability.
Professors Example: Today I was in line at HEB behindan older person who was moving at a slower pace than the youngerpeople. It was difficult for the older person to manage his caneand use his credit card at the same time. He seemed to havedifficulty reading the “prompts†on the credit card device. Theperson directly behind the older person was noticeably impatient.Clearly the whole setup of the check-out line and credit carddevice is aimed for people whose hands are free (not needing acane) and who have good vision. People are also expected to managethe check-out process quickly and keep the line moving. Wendelldescribed the way in which the pace of life does not accommodateanyone who requires more time or needs to rest or needs helpopening a door. Our pace of life also does not readily accommodatesomeone who needs large print on credit card devices and somethingto lean on to free his hands to manage his wallet and credit card.We create disability by not accommodating variations in vision andmobility.
Today I heard about a school shooting in which several peoplewere killed and others were injured. The violence we allow insociety is creating disability for the injured people who may neverregain their previous levels of physical functioning. Wendellexplicitly mentioned that by failing to protect people fromshootings and other violent crimes, society creates disability. Inour module on the criminal justice system, we learned that the U.S.has more gun violence than any other country. This and other schoolshootings suggest that by failing to adequately regulate guns, weare creating disability.
