Discussion: Colin Cameron - further towards an Affirmative Model of Disability
Introduction
DAO editor, Colin Hambrook, interviews Colin Cameron to discover how Cameron’s work is defining and redefining models of disability
Photo of Colin Cameron by Maggie Cameron
You are currently writing up your thesis at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. How did the PhD research looking at an Affirmative Model of disability come about?
In 2000, an article by John Swain and Sally French entitled Towards an Affirmation Model was published in the journal Disability and Society. The authors proposed a new model of disability drawing upon the spirit of the disability arts movement and the whole notion of disability pride.
Their starting point was that even if the Social Model was put into practice and all the barriers around were removed to give equal access to employment, inclusive education, public transport, housing, leisure, information and so on, it would still be possible for impairment to be seen as a personal tragedy and for disabled people to be regarded and treated as victims of misfortune.
If the Social Model was disabled people’s political response to the Medical Model, Swain and French’s idea was for a new model which addressed the personal tragedy model of disability.
This personal tragedy model can be seen as the cultural materialisation of the Medical Model. Current cultural representations for example still go right back to the old stereotypes - the pathetic victim, the plucky crip, the monstrosity, the burden, the scrounger, the object of comedy.
So the Affirmative Model was initially proposed as a counter to this personal tragedy narrative of impairment. It is expressed in the voices of people who say, 'Deafness is normal for me. I wouldn’t want to be other than Deaf.' Or, 'I’ve been blind since birth. Why would I want to change? This is who I am.' Or, 'I have learning difficulties. I have Down’s Syndrome but I don’t ‘suffer’ from Down’s Syndrome. This is who I am as a person. This is me.'
In many ways, there’s not exactly anything new about it but it’s about putting a name to a perspective developed within the disabled people’s movement and the disability arts movement.
And I’d say it’s important because all this is stuff that’s easily forgotten in the face of the ongoing negativity and patronisation disabled people encounter on a daily basis. Talking about ‘little acts of degradation’, Cal Montgomery says that it’s impossible to go for more than a few hours at a time without someone somewhere reminding her of what they see as her proper place in the world.
It’s also important, I’d say, because very often, still, disabled people find themselves under pressure to keep quiet about their impairments, to try and assimilate as if their impairments weren’t part of who they are or are just a minor part of who they are and to regard their impairments as embarrassing hindrances to be overcome.
The Affirmative Model was proposed as an idea to enable us to recall that, actually, our impairments are a core part of our being and of our experience.
Comments
Marian
Well done, Dr Cameron :) I worked with Colin on preparing the final piece for publication. It was so enlightening and gave me much to ponder.
sarah p
This reminds me how important it is to not apologising for who you are in any way - I remember refusing to apologise for being a woman and a mum at a job interview in the 80s
Peter Kearns
As an Irish disabled academic, artist and activist I feel that the language of creating other models of disability can muddy the waters when we here in Catholic strangled Ireland are still just arguing the necessity of the Social model. The 'affirmative' model just needs to be addressed through terminology building on the bedrock of the Social model. It is also primarily concerned with an antithesis capacity built response to medical model cultural & social experiences. Although these medical model experiences are very real, the affirmative 'strategy' is only viable if it is part of a disability equality superstructure built up from the Social model, informed by equality values and effective advocacy principl,es and practice.
rich
Thanks for the article. I hope people read through the following pages too.
However, i think that the affirmative model has described here is no more and no less a consequence of the social model - a model built on a model. And it is at that point that we need to value it.
We must always return to the social model and look at where we have come as a consequence of pursuing it. We have a very rich history of achievement in this the 21st century already. We are moving forward as a consequence.
If we take up the affirmative model and build it on the social model as yet another consequence then we are enriched again.
I would like to see some suggestions as to how this can be built on to disability equality training.
Mary Marshall Fowler - FaceBook
The Affirmative Model would be particularly important for people with autism. People need to see that there are other ways of behaving, of seeing things, of understanding things, etc.
Well, probably most parents of people with autism wish their child were "normal", but most of the parents don't know what it feels like to have autism
Janet Taylor - FaceBook
I alreay do this when I disclose my dyspraxia & dyslexia some poeple say theres no need to tell us we would never had known if you hadnt mentioned it.
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