Disabled people are
found in all most all areas of our life. One may find them in shops, stations,
galleries, and other common normal platforms. Often they are not given so
attention but our looks or talking about them are presumably scornful. Some
other people even act and look as if they are regretful about the person’s
present condition. Somehow, it’s a forgotten part in every human mind to discover
the life of other individuals which they consider menial than themselves. It is
necessary to delve into this part of society and understand more than merely
common presumptions which will be of no benefit for advancement of a society.
This paper within a limited scope of space and time attempts to explore the
theme of person with disability and theological understanding.
PART-I: BASICS
A disability may be physical,
cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, and developmental or some combination of
these. Disabilities are an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity
limitations, and participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in
body function or structure; an activity
limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in
executing a task or action; while participation
restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in
involvement in life situations. Thus disability is a complex phenomenon,
reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of
the society in which he or she lives.[1] Some advocates
object to describing certain conditions (notably deafness and autism) as
"disabilities", arguing that it is more appropriate to consider them developmental
differences that have been unfairly stigmatized by society.[2]
I. Terminologies:
(1)Impairment:
Impairment is the correct term to use to define a deviation from normal, such
as not being able to make a muscle move or not being able to control an
unwanted movement.
2)Disability:
Disability is the term used to define a restriction in the ability to perform a
normal activity of daily living which someone of the same age is able to
perform. For example, a three year old child who is not able to walk has a
disability because a normal three year old can walk independently.
(3)Handicap:
Handicap is the term used to describe a child or adult who, because of the
disability, is unable to achieve the normal role in society commensurate with
his age and socio-cultural milieu. As an example, a sixteen-year-old who is
unable to prepare his own meal or care for his own toileting or hygiene needs
is handicapped. On the other hand, a sixteen-year-old who can walk only with
the assistance of crutches but who attends a regular school and is fully
independent in activities of daily living is disabled but not handicapped.
All
disabled people are impaired, and all handicapped people are disabled, but a
person can be impaired and not necessarily be disabled, and a person can be
disabled without being handicapped[3].
II. Language:
The American Psychological Association style guide states
that, when identifying a person with impairment, the person's name or pronoun
should come first, and descriptions of the impairment/disability should be used
so that the impairment is identified, but is not modifying the person. Improper
examples are "a borderline",
"a blind person",
or "an autistic boy";
more acceptable terminology includes "a woman with Down syndrome"
or "a man who has schizophrenia".
It also states that a person's adaptive equipment should be described
functionally as something that assists a person, not as something that limits a
person, e.g., "a woman who uses a wheelchair" rather than "a
woman in/confined to a wheelchair."[4]
III. Types of disabilities:
Disability
is caused by impairments to various subsystems of the body - these can be
broadly sorted into the following categories:
1.Physical disability
Any impairment
which limits the physical function of limbs or fine or gross motor ability is a
physical disability. Other physical disabilities include impairments which
limit other facets of daily living, such as severe sleep apnea.[5]
2. Sensory disability[6]
Sensory
disability is impairment of one of the senses. The term is used primarily to
refer to vision and hearing impairment, but other senses can be impaired.
(a)Visual impairment
Visual
impairment (or vision impairment) is vision loss (of
a person) to such a degree as to qualify as an additional support is needed
through a significant limitation of visual capability
resulting from either disease, trauma, or
congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by conventional
means, such as refractive correction, medication, or surgery. This
functional loss of vision is typically defined to manifest with
2.
significant peripheral field defect
including homonymous or heteronymous bilateral
visual,field
defect orgeneralized contraction or constriction of field, or
3.
reduced peak contrast sensitivity with
either of the above conditions.
(b)Hearing impairment
Hearing
impairment or hard of hearing or deafness refers to conditions in which
individuals are fully or partially unable to detect or perceive at least some
frequencies of sound which can typically be heard by most people. Mild hearing
loss may sometimes not be considered a disability.
(c)Olfactory and gustatory impairment
Impairment
of the sense of smell and taste are commonly associated with aging but can also
occur in younger people due to a wide variety of causes.
There
are various olfactory disorders:
Complete
loss of the sense of taste is known as ageusia,
while dysgeusia is
persistent abnormal sense of taste.
(d)Somatosensory impairment
Insensitivity to stimuli such as touch, heat, cold,
and pain are often an adjunct to a more general physical impairment involving
neural pathways and is very commonly associated with paralysis (in which the
motor neural circuits are also affected).
A
balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady,
for example when standing or walking. It may be accompanied by symptoms of
being giddy, woozy, or have a sensation of movement, spinning, or floating.
Balance is the result of several body systems working together. The eyes
(visual system), ears (vestibular system) and the body's sense of where it is
in space (proprioception) need to be intact. The brain, which compiles this
information, needs to be functioning effectively.
3. Intellectual disability
Intellectual
disability is a broad concept that ranges from mental retardation to cognitive
deficits too mild or too specific (as in specific learning disability) to qualify as
mental retardation. Intellectual disabilities may appear at any age. Mental
retardation is a subtype of intellectual disability, and the term intellectual disability is now
preferred by many advocates in most English-speaking countries as a euphemism for
mental retardation[7].
4. Mental health and emotional disabilities
A
mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern
generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an
individual, and perceived by the majority of society as being outside of normal
development or cultural expectations. The recognition and understanding of
mental health conditions has changed over time and across cultures, and there
are still variations in the definition, assessment, and classification of mental disorders,
although standard guideline criteria are widely accepted[8].
5. Developmental disability
Developmental
disability is any disability that results in problems with growth and development. Although the
term is often used as a synonym or euphemism for intellectual disability, the
term also encompasses many congenital medical conditions that have
no mental or intellectual components, for example spina
bifida[9].
6. Nonvisible disabilities
Several
chronic disorders, such as diabetes, asthma, Inflammatory Bowel Disease or epilepsy,
would be counted as nonvisible disabilities, as opposed to disabilities which
are clearly visible, such as those requiring the use of a wheelchair[10].
IV. Elements:
The International Classification of
Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF),
produced by the World Health Organization, distinguishes
between body functions (physiological or psychological, e.g., vision) and body
structures (anatomical parts, e.g., the eye and related structures). Impairment
in bodily structure or function is defined as involving an irregularity,
defect, loss or other significant deviation from certain generally accepted
population standards, which may fluctuate over time. Activity is defined as the
execution of a task or action. The ICF lists 9 broad domains of functioning
which can be affected[11]:
§
Learning and applying knowledge
§
General tasks and demands
§
Communication
§
Interpersonal interactions and
relationships
§
Other major life areas
PART-II: STATISTICS AND MANAGEMENT
I. Statistics:
Here
are some statistics:
·
650 million people in the world are
disabled, according to the World Health Organization.
·
80% of disabled people live in
developing countries.
·
20% of the world’s poorest people are
disabled, and tend to be regarded in their own
communities
asthe most disadvantaged.
·
1 in every 10 children around the world
copes with a disability.
·
Only 2–3% of disabled children in poor
countries go to school.
These
numbers are gravely underestimated because disabled people are typically
shunned, isolated and stigmatized by their community, so they are often left
out of census reports[12].
(a)Assistive
technology
Assistive
Technology is a generic term for devices and modifications (for a person or
within a society) that help overcome or remove a disability. The first recorded
example of the use of a prosthesis dates to at least 1800 BC. The wheelchair
dates from the 17th century. The curb cut is a related structural innovation.
Other examples are standing frames, text telephones, accessible keyboards,
large print, Braille, & speech recognition software. People with
disabilities often develop personal or community adaptations, such as
strategies to suppress tics in public (for example in Tourette's syndrome), or
sign language in deaf communities. Assistive technology or interventions are
sometimes controversial or rejected, for example in the controversy over cochlear
implants for children.
(b) United Nations Declaration
On
December 13, 2006, the United Nations formally agreed on the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first human rights treaty of the 21st
century, to protect and enhance the rights and opportunities of the world's
estimated 650 million disabled people. As of April 2011, 99 of the 147
signatories had ratified the Convention. Countries that sign the convention are
required to adopt national laws, and remove old ones, so that persons with
disabilities will, for example, have equal rights to education, employment, and
cultural life; to the right to own and inherit property; to not be
discriminated against in marriage, etc.; to not be unwilling subjects in
medical experiments.
(c) Disability rights movement
The
disability rights movement is the movement to secure equal opportunities and
equal rights for people with disabilities. The specific goals and demands of
the movement are: accessibility and safety in transportation, architecture, and
the physical environment, equal opportunities in independent living,
employment, education, and housing, and freedom from abuse, neglect, and
violations of patients' rights. Effective civil rights legislation is sought in
order to secure these opportunities and rights.
PART III: THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND EVALUATION
I. Theological Understanding:
The
people who are suppressed, oppressed, marginalized, pushed-out, neglected,
left-out, rejected, considered not-capable, not-normal, either because of their
social, financial or physical status are in the margins. People with
disabilities (PWD) are one such neglected voice from margins. Felix Wilfred
opines that “the whole Biblical revelation points to the fact that God is
someone who journeys to the margins, and is to be found at the periphery (Exo.
3). Anyone who wishes to encounter God will have to migrate to the periphery.”[14]
In
reflecting theologically on disability we wish to point to three fairly basic
Christian doctrines that might help us as we try to think about a theology of
disability. They are first the idea that every person is made in the image of
God, second the incarnation – the belief that God took human flesh and blood in
Jesus and became one of us and third the idea of the Christian church as the
Body of Christ.
A) Made in the image of God
The
idea that every person is made in the image of God says something very
important about the high degree of worth that God attributes to each human
being regardless of race, religion, gender or ability. Disabled people are made
in the image of God – they are not a distortion of that image or a lesser image
than non-disabled people but each one is an equal and complete image of God. As
Nancy Eisland, a theologian who herself lives with disability has said, “Our
bodies participate in the imago Dei, not in spite of our impairments and
disabilities but through them”.[15]
Disabled people are not incomplete examples of so called “normal” humanity but
are complete persons before God. Their impairments and disabilities are part of
their human identity. The idea that every person is created in the image of God
is also an invitation for everybody to discover that image in each other – to
treat other people as though they are made in the image of God rather than
anything less and to expect other people to reveal something to us about the
nature of God. God has called each one of us into being. None of us is a
surprise or an accident or a mistake and certainly not an embarrassment to God.
He has called us into being and each one of us has a vocation[16].
B) The incarnation
Christianity
is an incarnational religion which means that all of us whether we are disabled
or not have to take our bodies seriously. At the centre of our Christian belief
is the idea that God took our human flesh and blood in Jesus and came among us.
God takes our flesh and blood seriously and he continues to be incarnate, to be
present in the flesh and blood of those he has called into being. St Augustine
said: “You are to be taken, blessed, broken, and distributed that the work of
the incarnation may go forward”. If he is to be incarnate in the world today
Christ needs to work through our flesh and blood. We need to see this mode of
suffering from the point of view of N.T. and O.T. – as a challenge to action,
as a test of faith, as a form of discipline, as an opportunity for witness, as
sharing in the vicarious, redemptive suffering of Christ.
By
taking human flesh and blood God in Christ became disabled. The incarnation
involves God becoming human in Jesus of Nazareth. God assumes human form and
thereby participates fully in humanness. Humanness means frailty, weaknesses,
illnesses, accidents, impairments, ageing and many other marks of mortality.
The theologian Jürgen Moltmann writes: “The eternal God took on not only the
limited and mortal aspects of humanity..... He took on our disabilities and
made them part of his eternal life. He takes on our tears and makes them an
expression of his own pain”. Being nailed to a cross is certainly disabling.
When the Risen Christ appears to his disciples his risen body still bears the
marks of the nails.... in fact that is how he is recognized. The wounds caused
on nailed hands of Christ are part of his identity as God incarnate. Our
identities are as much established by our limitations as by our gifts. Living
an abundant life means living with limitations as well as creatively using our
God given abilities[17].
C) The body of Christ
St
Paul describes the church as the Body of Christ. It is the risen but crucified
and wounded Body of Christ and just as the risen body of Jesus bore the marks
of the nails, of impairment, so also must the church if it is to be whole and
complete in a broken world. The church as Christ’s body reminds us that all
bodies are vulnerable. By accepting the brokenness of the church we may learn to
realize that the brokenness of disabled people may also be gifts.
The
church if it is to really be the Body of Christ has to be totally inclusive. A
statement from the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network of the World Council
of Churches (EDAN) says: “Members of EDAN believe that all persons with and
without disabilities are created in the image of God and called to an inclusive
community in which they are empowered to use their gifts. This inclusive
community of all the people of God is holy in Christ irrespective of the
physical state of their bodies and level of psychological functioning. Through
the Holy Spirit, this inclusive community is called to repentance,
transformation and renewal.” The WCC has also declared in a slightly catchier
phrase that “when disabled people are missing from the church the whole church
becomes disabled”[18].
John
Swinton is a Scottish theologian who wrote an article in the Journal of
Pastoral Theology with the title “The Body of Christ has Down’s Syndrome”. In
the booklet “Building a Church for Strangers” he tells the story of his friend
Stephen.
Stephen's story:
Stephen
is a young man with Down’s syndrome. He spent much of his life in a long stay
hospital. Stephen loves to worship God. In the hospital he would go regularly to
the services in the chapel. He has very little speech – just a few words. He
knows the word “Jee shus” – which is how he says it, and he would take great
pleasure in shouting it out often during the quieter parts of the service. But
that was fine in that worshipping community in the hospital there was a real
sense of everyone belonging, everybody being accepted as themselves. For
Stephen the hospital chapel and its worship provided a place where he could
find acceptance, peace and a place to be with the friends of “Jee shus”. The
hospital, however, was due to be closed and Stephen was to go and live in a
small supported living project in the community. So one Sunday morning John
Swinton took his friend Stephen to the morning service at the local church near
to where he would be living. Several times during the service Stephen shouted
out “Jee shus” as he tried to participate in the church service in a way that
was natural for him. After this had happened three or four times a steward came
and asked that they should either leave or alternatively John might like to
take Stephen to the Sunday School where he would be less distracting for those
who wanted to “worship in peace”.
John
Swinton reflects on that experience of being asked to leave the local church with
Stephen in the light of what St Paul says about the Body of Christ. Paul says
“We are Christ’s body and each one of us a limb or organ of it”. He says “The
head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you! On the contrary those parts of
the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think
are less honorable we treat with special honor, and the parts that are
unpresentable are treated with special modesty”. Paul goes on to say that if
one part of the body suffers every part suffers with it. If each part shares in
the suffering experience then disability is a shared experience. John Swinton
concludes “Stephen doesn’t simply have Down’s syndrome – the Body of Christ has
Down’s syndrome. When Stephen is excluded, stigmatized and misunderstood so
also is the body of Christ. When society fails to see the beauty of those it
sees as different, it fails to recognize the beauty of Christ. When Stephen is
excluded from worship in the name of “peace” we cease to be the Body of Christ
in any kind of meaningful sense. Instead Jesus finds himself sitting with
Stephen outside the walls of the church as we continue to praise, oblivious of
his absence”[19].
D) What healing might mean for disabled people
The
stories of the healing miracles in the gospels present a problem for many
disabled people because they seem to suggest that the attitude of Jesus to
disability is to fix it, to get rid of disability. A number of disabled people we
know have suffered at the hands of what we assume were well meaning people -
Christians who felt they were called to lay hands on disabled people and to
pray that God would take away their disabilities and sometimes they have hurt
and exploited vulnerable disabled people by their action. It’s clear from the
Gospel stories that Jesus welcomed disabled people and often they sought him
out. In that culture at that time disabled people were unable to play any part
in either the religious or economic life of the nation. They could only survive
by begging or with help from their families. When Jesus heals people they are
restored to their families and to the community. He declares that they are part
of the Kingdom of God.
Alongside
the stories of healing miracles in the gospels we need also to put the
experience of St Paul. It seems that Paul had some sort of disability – he
refers to it as the thorn in his flesh. He writes in the second letter to the
Corinthians that three times he asked the Lord to take away this disability but
the answer he got was, “My grace is sufficient to you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness” and Paul goes on to say, “for when I am weak I am strong”.
He is aware of his vulnerability and dependence on God and God can work through
him[20].
II.
Evaluation:
As the paper have dealt with the issue
of disabled people and the theological understanding, it is necessary to evaluate it in our own terms regarding
the understanding we have gained as well as on the account of actions which
might be taken in order to enhance the
situations of disabled people. Basically, as humans we may end up in
discouraging the PWD (person with disabilities) directly or indirectly through
our words or actions, all springing up from the disheartened thinking that they
are “different” or “not-normal” or “incomplete”. A change in our course of
thinking can change our own attitude towards them and in turn can modify our
societal attitude. Chiefly, it is essential for any human being to do two
things in relation with PWD, which is the intention of our paper: (1) to call
out the real potential of the disabled people (2) to ‘walk’ with them.
To call out the real potential of the
disabled person – in other words, is to challenge him/her to become whatever is
possible for him/her to become, i.e., helping the disabled person tom help
themselves. Usually, the disabled person desires to be as independent as they
can be. They earnestly wish to operate as best he can in the “mainstream” of
life. They even know by themselves that everyone has certain disabilities
regardless of how nearly normal the other person seems to be. Also it is to be
“specifically” noted that, to be pitied, ignored, avoided, catered to, or in
any other way singled out for special treatment in either a supercilious or
patronizing way can be deeply distressing to a disabled person who primarily
wishes to live with and make the best of, his/her disability rather than to be
forced to be aware of it continually.
The next best thing which can be done is
to follow the example of our master in “walking along” with them, out of
willingness to experience, what the other experiences. Therefore we are
required to be ‘advocates’, the one who “stands by the other” in the sense of
taking the other’s suffering upon themselves. Jesus Christ is the model for
this kind of advocacy. No less is required of one who would presume to offer
the best care to PWD.
Fundamentally, PWD is not a restricted
fact or term. It has a vast intention of meaning as no human beings are perfect
by any strategies. Each of us has some or the other disabilities. If we are
disabled in performing the same task, as a person like us could do, we need to
understand that we are not fully able. When we find that a person even with
disabilities are performing something better than us, then it is time to think
“what disability would mean for each of us”? Also, reaching a good longstanding
age is not often dreamt by today’s old people because of the knowledge of
disabilities which are going to limit their activities when they become old.
Thus as humans we are disabled and are moving to a part of life were disability
is going to wider meaning for us than merely, wheel-chairs, crutches, or other
accessories. Therefore, it is the duty of “body of Christ”, to not forget even
this “organ” in its complete functionality.
CONCLUSION:
PWD
are often left with two choices in their life: either to show resentment to
life or to spewing out anger at disability, and to find their fullest
potential. Society is the arena where every individual develops. Thus it is the
function of our society as well as Church to help them grow into their full
potential. Many opportunities are left for Church to improve their condition
like conducting special meetings, treatment aids, counseling etc… We need to
regard them as persons first and then consider what is possible for them under
the conditions of their disability, as they wish to have equal opportunities
with other people and not face discrimination in employment or in other areas
of life.
Also it
is important to distinguish between curing and healing. Curing means the
removal of the condition and all its symptoms, healing implies being restored
to wholeness, growing in spiritual wellbeing so that someone can be healed
while still living with the symptoms of a particular illness or condition. For
some people healing might take place as they begin to move on from the sense of
loss and grief they feel to an acceptance of the situation they find themselves
in – moving from asking the question “why” to asking, "What does God want
me to do with my life? How is he going to work through me with all the
limitations that I have"? All of us, disabled or non-disabled need
healing. Therefore let’s move towards a thinking of “what do we do with what we
have left, when everything else is gone?” and also help disABLED to think that
they are “able” like us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBLIOGRAPHY:
Wilfred, Felix,
Margins: site of Asian Theologies (Delhi: ISPCK, 2008)
Solomon,
Andrew. "The New Wave of Autism Rights Activists".New York
Magazine.(30 October 2011)
http://www.communitymission.org.uk/resources/disability_resources/my_faith_and_my_disability.aspx
www.abdn.ac.uk/divinity/staff/details.php?id=j.swinton
http://www.communitymission.org.uk/resources/disability_resources/the_theology_of_disability_a_starter.aspx
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability
www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/22eiesland.html
www.disabled-world.com/disability/types
nichcy.org/disability/categories
www.who.int/icidh
www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics
web.jhu.edu/disabilities/faculty/types_of_disabilities
http://www.who.int/topics/disabilities/en/
http://gait.aidi.udel.edu/gaitlab/cpGuide.html
[1]http://www.who.int/topics/disabilities/en/
[2]Andrew Solomon. "The New Wave of Autism Rights
Activists".New York Magazine.Retrieved 30 October 2011.
[3]http://gait.aidi.udel.edu/gaitlab/cpGuide.html
[4]http://gait.aidi.udel.edu/gaitlab/cpGuide.html
[5]web.jhu.edu/disabilities/faculty/types_of_disabilities
[6]web.jhu.edu/disabilities/faculty/types_of_disabilities
[7]nichcy.org/disability/categories
[8]www.disabled-world.com/disability/types
[9]www.disabled-world.com/disability/types
[10]nichcy.org/disability/categories
[11] www.who.int/icidh
[12]www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/
[13]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability
[14] Felix Wilfred, Margins: site of Asian Theologies (Delhi: ISPCK,
2008), 11
[15]www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/22eiesland.html
[16]http://www.communitymission.org.uk/resources/disability_resources/the_theology_of_disability_a_starter.aspx
[17]http://www.communitymission.org.uk/resources/disability_resources/the_theology_of_disability_a_starter.aspx
[18]http://www.communitymission.org.uk/resources/disability_resources/the_theology_of_disability_a_starter.aspx
[19]www.abdn.ac.uk/divinity/staff/details.php?id=j.swinton
[20]http://www.communitymission.org.uk/resources/disability_resources/my_faith_and_my_disability.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment