Discussion Reflection

Something that I found particularly interesting was Bauman's discussion of the language of disability in the piece "Designing Deaf Babies". He discusses the two distinctly different approaches to taking about disability: medical and social. As a society, we tend to focus almsot entirely on the medical aspects of disability. From a purely medical standpoint, it is easy to make the claim that a disabled individual would have a harder life than someone who was not disabled; it is complete logic, like in the writing of Peter Singer. However, when we shift to a social view, the questions become more complicated as disability, culture, and identity all mix together. I think that generally, people stick to the medical standpoint because it is easier to understand. However, as a society we recognize many different types of cultures--- so why are we so eager to overlook disability culture? Why do we not try to understand it, and its meaning? Is either of these definitions of disability incorrect? Should they be looked at together, or is one more important? Why do we choose so often to ignore the social definition and its implications? What kind of impact would focusing on the social definition have?