Saturday, September 10, 2011

Visualizing the disabled body

I do not agree with Davis on his opinion of how we subconsciously categorize and avoid people of a different capability than our own. He is correct to say that, as a whole, that people over generations of time have not treated the disabled as superiors, but we have not cast them into a distance either. When you group people together it is easy to say that as a mass, they are unaccepting people who have made a tumultuous history for the abnormal beings. When looking at the past events of the disabled, and how they were treated, we could assume that everyone in that period of time had similar views. When the mass of people is broken down, so does the trend of how people act in regard to the disabled. Individuals may treat the disabled with more respect and less like outcasts.
Though Davis clearly made points to how normal humans have shunned and eschewed the abnormal humans, He does not mention how much society has made adaptions for their everyday life. Nearly every building has handicap accessibility and modern science and therapy has mad it possible for the paraplegics to run and the deft or blind to communicate. Though scientist are still working on more improvements, they are still years in the future. Looking at the conditions for the disabled in the past compared to the conditions now, there is a very clear advancement. Humans have tried very hard to better the life of those who don't have the same advantage's, and have made remarkable progress.
Though average citizens may give the occasional stare, it is fairly common. If a genius was working on an equation in the middle of a store, people would stare as they passed by on their daily routines. Anything that seems to stand out will draw attention to our eye,such as bright blinking lights or a person walking with a waddle rather than perfect balance, which should not to accuse humans of gawking at the disabled just because they appear different. The eye catches things that attract attention to themselves, and Davis should not assume that its because humans are judging them.