|
1. INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL DISABILITY It is not easy to specify who belongs to the group of people with physical disabilities, as there are several ways to conceptualize physical disability. It depends on the point of view of a given scientific field or opinion of particular individual. To get an idea of what “physical disability” can be, we provide three partially contradictory descriptions. From the medical point of view, physical disability is a “loss of a body part or failure to develop a specific bodily function or functions, whether of movement, sensation, coordination, or speech, but excluding intellectual impairments or disabilities”. This definition is based on a list of skills or abilities, which the people in question do not have or cannot perform. Therefore, they are defined by their dis-abilities. From the educational point of view, people with physical disabilities may be the children, youth and adults, who are limited in their learning, social behavior, verbal communication or psychomotor skills, which makes their participation in social and school life more difficult. As you may see, the possibilities of participation or level of disability depends again on the extent or severity of their physical impairment, this time influencing the performance in school related activities. Another point of view is called socio-critical, which characterizes this group of people as “Any person who is believed to deviate from culturally acceptable physical norms.” It suggests that the society and its built environment is designed for those who fit the socially constructed physical norm. Those, who do not fit are declared as physically disabled. In this sense it is rather the environment not the individual characteristics that’s defining who is and who is not a person with physical disability. Despite the different views on physical disability, there is one common feature, all people with physical disabilities share – restricted movement
|