by Simon Stevens
There are lots of sides to my identity, but as disability turns mainstream I feel the need to reassert my impairment.
Who am I? I often joke during presentations that this is what I ask myself each morning. As someone born with cerebral palsy, understanding my identity has been challenging and ever changing. I would like to argue that my disability identity and my impairment identity are two very different elements to my total identity.
My disability identity has radically changed over my lifetime. As I have described before, 20 years ago being disabled meant being a freak or alien. While it was a negative status it was easier to define and there was a clear culture and sub-cultures in terms of physical impairment and learning difficulties. We were all outcasts and that was easy to handle.
However, since the Disability Discrimination Act, the disability identity has dramatically changed and I believe it has been weakened. Everyone seems to be aligning themselves as a disabled person and it is now more accepted and more mainstream. As inclusion becomes the norm and the discriminatory barriers are removed, I feel the disability identity will slowly fade away.
However, if the disability identity no longer exists or is now considered mainstream it does not automatically mean I am normal. Even without a disability identity, I will still have an impairment, cerebral palsy, and that has an identity of its own which I feel now has more relevance within this increasingly post-social model society. Like my gender, race, nationality and sexuality, it is important to me that I understand my impairment and to have contact with other people who not only have the same impairment as myself but also a similar level of severity so we are able to share each others experiences and support each other. I am not arguing for segregation but rather a balanced contact with people relevant to their identity.
Different impairments affects identity in different ways and has differing levels of importance to people's core identity. For myself, cerebral palsy is quite important to my core identity due to the impact it has on every aspect of my life, which not all impairments do, and the coping strategies I employ to maintain a positive identity.
Identity politics is very complex and personal and the concept of impairment identity is very cutting edge. Social care policy should no longer talk about disabled people as a single group but consider the needs of each impairment group and their identity implications within a social context.
Simon Stevens is chief executive of Enable Enterpises and has his own blog at www.simonstevens.com/blog
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