Week 3 comment paper

Cynthia Anne Tighe. (2001). ‘Working at Disability: A Qualitative Study of the Meaning of Health and Disability for Women with Physical Impairments.’ Disability and Society 16 (4): 511-529.
French, Sally. (1993). ‘Can you see the rainbow?’ The roots of denial, pp. 72–77 from Swain, Finkelstein, French and Oliver (eds.). Disabling Barriers: Enabling Environments. London: Sage.
Murphy, Robert. (1995). Encounters: The Body Silent in America, pp. 140-158 from Benedicte Ingstad and Susan Reynolds Whyte (eds.). Disability and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.


Spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disability, Down syndrome, paraplegia and schizophrenia. It may be hard for some to believe that I have committed a grave injustice by placing these words side by side and if I were to ask what is wrong with this grouping some may have no answer. Robert Murphy’s Encounters: The Body Silent in America and Sally French’s ‘Can you see the rainbow?’ The roots of denial were written to not only address this unfairness but to correct it with awareness. Both Murphy and French emphasize their denial of their impairments and disgust with the treatment by others, which may seem to others as illustrating similar intentions. However it is made known that we cannot treat the readings or authors as such. In Cynthia Anne Tighe’s article we see firsthand how a non disabled person learns about being impaired and struggles with this idea of their individuality. In actual fact in order for us to understand disabilities we must recognize every person as an individual with different needs and wants as illustrated in their personal stories.

Robert Murphy and Sally French have both chosen to write about living a life labelled as being disabled. Each can account for many times in their lives when they would be forced to deny their impairments in order to ‘fit in’ in society. French who is partially sighted explains this by saying, “As a child, explaining my situation without appearing disagreeable, sullen and rude was so problematic that I usually denied my disability and suffered in silence.” (French 1993: 70) Murphy who is quadriplegic tries to explain this feeling in a general sense by saying “The disabled in America are pulled back into themselves by their own sense of loss and inadequacy, an impulse to withdraw that conspires with their devaluation by society to push them further into isolation.” (Murphy 1995: 157) In French's work she talks about the pain that the disabled often encounter as a result of living a life of restriction and not having the ability to do specific things. It is clear that both authors are very passionate about their quest to relate to others the discomfort they constantly feel living in a world where it is frowned upon when you are not ‘able’ or ‘the same’ as others.

It is a sad reality that we ‘abled’ must face in the fact that the point of denial for an individual is only reached when they are made to feel so alien that they must cover up the truth. French and Murphy illustrate the reality in which our society relates and treats the disabled. “To the extent that people look on the disabled as an alien species, they cannot anticipate their reactions; the disabled individual falls outside the ken of normal expectations.” (Murphy 195: 144) It may also be shocking but none the less true that these individuals with impairments are often seen, not only by the general public but also by their own doctors, as being of a lower social position. It was illustrated in French’s writing that when she attended a school for the seeing impaired that the instructors were pleasured by the “slightest glimmer of hope that our sight could be improved.” (French 1993: 71) It becomes clear that we must shift our thinking from fixing impairments to accepting them. However we must be careful not to embellish this in the form of viewing the disabled with a sense of pity. French indicates that it is extremely aggravating when others try to make the disabled feel better about themselves. After reading these articles it is clear that the authors want the public to treat them as they are literally and with no more or less attention than they would give to anyone else.

It becomes apparent in Cynthia Anne Tighe’s article that Murphy and French are quite true in their accounts of disabled people and the stigma they carry with them. Tighe has no impairment herself however, by interviewing a number of women in her article she seeks to have some understanding and aware the public. The stories of the women that Tighe interview echo those of French and Murphy in their sense of purpose such as speaking of the stigma that is attached to their disability, in particular when mothers shun their children from paying attention to those who are ‘different’ and the many barriers they have to overcome in a society built for the ‘abled’. However it is in my belief that Tighe may have sought to aware the public of the impaired’s views and opinions however I believe that she has completely contradicted herself in that she has somewhat lumped her interviewees into a group. I found that in her conclusion she was confused by the fact that each woman could not tell her ‘Their Disability Story’, in this way if they did they would be ‘grouped’. However whether subconsiously or not I do believe that she illustrated very well the fact that those without disabilities do label those with disabilities. She talked about her discomfort in the initial meeting of her interviewers; what to say and what to do, which is precisely the awkwardness that Murphy, French and Tighe’s interviewers talked about, when being forced to associate with the ‘abled’.

It is clear that it is in an impaired person’s best interest to be seen as an individual and not as one of the disabled population. Sarah French and Robert Murphy have addressed the public in their writings to try to create awareness and in hopes for change. Cynthia Anne Tighe sets out to do the same however she writes from a non-impaired person’s point of view and in this way we are not adequately enlightened. Despite this all three authors write to raise an awareness of the impaired and their struggles with disability.