DMP Proposal

The overcoming/compensation myth is the expectation that society often has of disabled people. Many movies/films/books will use a disabled person as a source of inspiration, stating that the disabled person has ‘overcome’ his/her disability. What they are really saying is that the disabled person is acting more like ‘them’ or like a non-disabled person. It is a way in which non-disabled people try to ‘normalize’ a disabled person. It is insulting in two ways: one is that a person may have low expectations of the disabled person (like Stella Young, who was given an award for not really achieving anything, or someone congratulating her for knowing her name or getting out of bed). Or high expectations, where a disabled person will ‘compensate’ in some way, through hard work, to be more accepted. An example of that would be praising a deaf child because his speech is clear and ‘is almost close to normal.’ That child will never have perfect speech, so it is a no-win situation, and the focus is on sound when it should be more about the child learning language. It is also about expecting a disabled person to be a ‘supercrip,’ which is unfair because a disabled person should not have to go above and beyond in everything they do just to be accepted, get a job, etc.

Overcoming obstacles, in contrast, is something that disabled people do every day because they do not have a choice – they have to find ways to adapt or make their world work for them: this is not the overcoming/compensation myth. For example, a wheelchair user might use a pair of barbecue tongs to pick something up from the ground or a person with dyslexia may choose to wrap their left index finger with a ribbon during a driving test to remind themselves which way is left.  Or someone with dwarfism will place a few wooden stools around the kitchen, so he or she can work on the counter.  

Remember a disabled person cannot 'overcome' their disability.  They can only try to overcome the obstacles in their social and physical environment. Their disability is with them for life.