Undoing the Disability Hierarchy

• In Event: 168 - Section on Disability and Society Paper Session. Conceptual and Practical Challenges across Disabilities

Abstract

The disability hierarchy is commonly understood as a process where the needs of some disabled people are prioritized over others. Traditionally, the disability hierarchy is understood as a social dynamic which privileges those with physical impairments and marginalizes those whose non-physical impairments. Another form of the disability hierarchy, which is closely connected to (but not exactly the same as) is the visible/invisible hierarchy, where people who have impairments which are easily identifiable (for instance, someone who uses a white cane, or who has a service dog) are seen to have quite different experiences from those with non-visible impairments (such as mental illness). Signs of the disability hierarchy are everywhere, such as the handicapped parking signs which symbolize those who use a wheelchair, but marginalize people with other impairments. But in this paper I want to propose a different take on this familiar topic: what if the disability hierarchy does not simply reflect power dynamics about visible/invisible or physical/nonphysical impairments – what if it also contains and reproduces multiple levels of race/class/gender inequality? Do people of color, women, and people from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds tend to have impairments which are lower on the disability hierarchy? How can an intersectional social model of impairment help us to understand and undo these social dynamics? How will this enable us to work more effectively across different impairment groups?

Author

• Mark Sherry, University of Toledo