disability fact file
Motion-related disabilities
This is a very broad category in medical-model terms, but all the following
people are handicapped in very similar ways by capitalist society:
- people in wheelchairs
- people with partial or no use of limbs, including amputees
- people with co-ordination disabilities, ie ataxia
- people of short stature, eg dwarves
- people with arthritis or similar pain-causing joint or muscle conditions,
eg whiplash.
In all such cases, allowances must be made for the limited ability to move
or carry objects, or to exert force on controls.
How are people with motion-related disabilities handicapped by Capitalism ?
- In the interest of mass-production of cheap goods, most equipment is designed
around the person of average size and build. Kitchen, bathroom, entertainment,
computer and - perhaps most importantly - workplace equipment could easily
be re-designed to be usable by people with a wide range of disabilities, but
to do so would make the equipment slightly more expensive to produce. The
market forces associated with Capitalism decree that everything must be made
in the cheapest possible way, so profits can be maximised. (Even a saving
of a fraction of a penny per unit manufactured, becomes significant in terms
of the profits made when tens of thousands of a product are sold).
- In the leisure industry and in some workplaces, space and time are minimised
- so more profit can be made per second and per unit area - by designing around
the average person. Again, the forces of capitalism lead to this happening
in very small, but nonetheless restrictive, ways - notably in the air travel
and cinema industries.
- In shops, supermarkets included, items are often placed on shelves either
too high or too low for people with disabilities to gain easy access to the
products. This is aggravated by capitalism's love for age-restrictions
on certain products, which are then placed on high shelves to keep them out
of the reach of young people.
Who else could gain by improvements which
help people with motion-related disabilities ?
- People who need to operate, or at least watch, a number of things at the
same time (eg in a kitchen) would benefit fom having easily accessible controls.
- A lot of temporary disabilities (eg burns, fractures, sprains) affect people's
ability to use equipment which requires a lot of force. Whiplash injuries
caused by car accidents - which are becoming increasingly common - can make
it difficult to operate controls placed in inaccessible places, and to lift
un-necessarily heavy or bulky items.
- The lifting of heavy items, or the un-necessary stretching to reach awkward
areas, is a contributory factor to the eventual onset of conditions such as
arthritis or back pain - reducing these problems would mean less people would
go on to acquire these disabilities in the first place!
- Adaptations for people of small size would also make such equipment or facilities
more accessible to children. (Including young carers,
where still needed ...)
- The replacement of hard-to-operate switches, hard-to-open bottle caps or
door knobs, etc, with alternative security features (eg number codes, smart
cards or finger-print recognition) would make equipment more secure against
unauthorised and/or unsafe operation, including accidental operation.
Did you know
- For a significant part of the 20th Century, being left-handed was considered
to be a disability, which was "corrected" (sometimes in abusive ways) at school.
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