French and Swain

There are a number of different possible explanations of this personal tragedy theory of disability. It is sometimes thought to reflect a deep irrational fear of non-disabled people’s own mortality.  A second form of explanation refers to dominant social values and ideologies, particularly through the association of disability with dependence and abnormality. There is a third type of explanation, however, which 4 suggests that the personal tragedy perspective has a rational, cognitive basis constructed through experiences in disablist social contexts. Unlike within other social divisions, such as between men and women or between members of different races, nondisabled people daily experience the possibility of becoming impaired and thus disabled (the causal link being integral to the tragedy model). It can be argued that so-called ‘irrational fears’ have a rational basis in a disablist society. To become visually impaired, for instance, may be a personal tragedy for a sighted person whose life is based around being sighted, who lacks knowledge of the experiences of people with visual impairments, whose identity is founded on being sighted, and who has been subjected to a daily diet of the personal tragedy model of visual impairment. Thus, the personal tragedy view of impairment and disability is ingrained in the social identity of non-disabled people. Non-disabled identity, as other identities, has meaning in relation to and constructs the identity of others. To be non-disabled is to be ‘not one of those’. The problem for disabled people is that the tragedy model of disability and impairment is not just significant for non-disabled people in understanding themselves and their own lives. It is extrapolated to assumptions about disabled people and their lives. From this point of view, too, the adherence to a personal tragedy model by disabled people themselves also has a rational basis.

Sally French and John Swain