Relationships with Severely Disabled People: The Social Construction of Humanness

TLDR

Although severely disabled individuals may exhibit traits many find undesirable, they are accepted by nondisabled people as valued and loved human beings. The study examines how nondisabled people in caring relationships with severely disabled others define and perceive them. Four dimensions of nondisabled perspective—attributing thought, recognizing individuality, perceiving reciprocity, and assigning social place—help maintain the disabled person's humanness. The paper shows that people with conventionally negative traits can pursue moral careers toward inclusion, suggesting acceptance research should complement rejection studies.

Abstract

This paper presents the perspective of nondisabled people who do not stigmatize, stereotype, and reject those with obvious disabilities. We look at how nondisabled people who are in caring and accepting relationships with severely disabled others define them. Although the disabled people in these relationships sometimes drool, soil themselves, and do not talk or walk—traits that most would consider highly undesirable—they are accepted by the nondisabled people as valued and loved human beings. We look at four dimensions of the nondisabled people's perspective that helps maintain the humanness of the other in their minds: (1) attributing thinking to the other, (2) seeing individuality in the other, (3) viewing the other as reciprocating, and (4) defining social place for the other. The paper illustrates a less deterministic approach to the study of deviance, suggests that people with what are conventionally thought of as extremely negatively valued characteristics can have moral careers that lead to inclusion rather than exclusion, and argues that the study of acceptance needs to be added to the more common focus on rejection.