Normal Human Variation

Out of the Shadows: Resilience and Living with Ableism

by Fiona Kumari Campbell

Please note this paper is a composite of previous work with some new additions - it's very rough. I have put it up here because of requests as it has  taken longer to revise it (new job). I will pull it down from this site when it is revised. Any comments on argument would be gratefully received.

James Overboe (2007) and Fiona Kumari Campbell (2008, 2009)  noted that disabled people experience reality... more James Overboe (2007) and Fiona Kumari Campbell (2008, 2009)  noted that disabled people experience reality through the prism of a 'normative shadow' which assumes the preferability of abledness and holds that disability is inherently negative and harmful. Whilst disabled people may experience periodic acute attacks on the integrity of their person in the form of hate crimes & the denial of access to goods and services, Campbell (2009) has argued that day-to-day, business as usual experiences of ableism not only wear disabled people and their families down, but can lead to internalised ableism. This seminar extends Campbell’s work through a discussion about the strategy to promote resiliency skills in the lives of disabled people to firstly reduce the effects of ableist harms/oppression and secondly as a tactic of resistance.