Disability Culture or Disability Consciousness?

Abstract

“Disability culture” has become a taken-for-granted phenomenon in the disability community. Here I argue that this usage of the concept of culture does not fit anthropological definitions. Rather, I suggest that the concept of collective consciousness better describes what is occurring in the disability community than does the term disability culture. While a culture functions to maintain the social order, a collective consciousness impels the actions which comprise social movements. Disability consciousness impels the social movement actions which are occurring within the disability community at this time. The distinction has implications for the process of policymaking, as well as for its content. Disability culture has become a frame around which disability consciousness can be built, and it will be judged by the success of the social movement it has engendered.