Theorizing With Modality: Concepts of Normality and Neurodivergency
In Leonard J. Davis’s essay titled “Disability, Normality, and Power,” the modern concept of the “norm” is dissected. Davis explains how the current concept of a normalized or ideal human body, ability, and intelligence came about in the late 19th and early 20th century due to the rise of eugenics. Along with these established rankings came a way of categorizing anyone who didn’t fall into the desired or “acceptable” societal, physial, and intellectual norms as “feebleminded, crippled, depraved,” thus lumping in mentally and physically handicapped individuals with “criminals” and “degenerates.”
This lead to a societal stigma against mentally and physically handicapped people, as well as the belief that for humans to progress as a society, mentally and physically handicapped people must not proliferate and so should be sterilized. Obvious results of this belief can be found in the forced sterilization of mentally and physically handicapped people, as well as those believed to be deviant in behavior, such as “habitual alcoholics,” and more famously, in Hitler’s mass murder of such individuals.
Additionally, due to the more recent historical narrative of handicapped people being outside the established “norm,” much of modern society is structured in a way that excludes such individuals. For example, most buildings were built without thought given to how those with physical handicaps might not be able to enter or move around in them. Only in recent decades have public structures added features such as ramps, elevators, and accessible bathrooms.
Even then, because these features were usually added long after the building was completed, they are not fully integrated into the architecture, and still make it difficult for handicapped individuals to access a structure in the same way someone without handicaps would. For example, a building could have four different entrances, but only one accessible entrance. A person in a wheelchair may have to wheel around three sides of the building in order to enter, while a person without a wheelchair could enter normally and without impediment.
Although Davis’s paper was focused mainly on those with physical handicaps, I would like to address the issue of those with mental handicaps/illnesses or certain mental features that affect their lives in ways those without such mental features wouldn’t ordinarily perceive.
For example, although Asperger’s syndrome (also referred to as high-functioning autism) isn’t usually thought of as a mental handicap or illness, it can significantly affect the lives of those who have it. Although the disorder affects different people in different ways, typical symptoms include having difficulty in reading social cues, hyperfocusing on certain topics, sound sensitivities, being unable to make or maintain eye contact, and fidgeting or repetitive movements.
In American society, some social “norms” of communication are to make eye contact while speaking, sit still, be able to switch conversational topics (rather than focusing on one certain topic for a prolonged period of time), etc. Because many individuals with Asperger’s are unable to do such things, they are often perceived as being untruthful, socially inept, annoying, or unintelligent. As a result, this can impact the lives of people with Asperger’s significantly. It can make it hard to make friends, to get hired for jobs, to establish romantic relationships, to communicate effectively in academic or workplace environments, and more.
Currently, at least in the case of those with Asperger’s syndrome, those who are lucky enough to get it diagnosed at a young age are sometimes able to take classes that teach them social cues and how to function “normally” in society. For example, a young person with Asperger’s could be taught or teach themselves that “when someone says x, the proper response is y.” This allows them to act according to society’s “norm” by constantly monitoring their interactions and adjusting their behavior thusly, which can be extremely exhausting.
In an ideal society, rather than people with Asperger’s having to constantly self-regulate, those who don’t have such mental features would be educated about the symptoms of Asperger’s and taught how to recognize individuals with the syndrome and communicate with them.
Additionally, workplaces and academic institutions would restructure in such ways that would be more accessible for those with Asperger’s syndrome. For example, many individuals with the syndrome have sound and light sensitivities or auditory processing issues. Being aware of this and providing subtitles when videos are shown in class or not assuming that an individual wasn’t listening when they ask for clarification or for an instructor to repeat something would be one such way in which academic institutions could become more accessible to those with neurodivergent features such as Asperger’s syndrome.
In American society, the established “norm” is built in such a way that it unintentionally excludes those with not only visible physical handicaps, but invisible mental handicaps, illnesses, and neurodivergent features. Although many buildings and institutions have retroactively put in features to make them more accessible to those with physical handicaps, many have yet to socially restructure themselves in ways that make them more accessible for those with mental handicaps, illnesses, and neurodivergent features.
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