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American Pragmatism, Sociology and the Development of Disability Studies
Gary L. Albrecht
American Pragmatism, Sociology and
the Development of Disability Studies
Disability is increasingly in the public consciousness for a myriad
reasons. As populations age and world news concerning illness,
disease and impairments is broadcast around the globe, disability is
becoming recognized as a universal experience (ZOLA 1989). The
visibility of impairments; the personal experience of disability in
our lives; the effects of the degraded environment, tobacco,
HIV/AIDS, accidents, land mines and civil wars on our well being
and that of others; and, vulnerability of the food chain to disability
causing agents; neo-natal intensive care; and, escalating health
interventions for the elderly all contribute to our awareness of
disability (ALBRECHT AND VERBRUGGE 2000; MICHAUD, MURRAY
AND BLOOM 2001). As these issues are played out in public,
disability becomes a case study of the values, worth and position of
people in a society. Indeed, a society can be judged on how it
treats it children, women, elderly citizens and disabled people.
Disability studies developed as a field in response to the perceived
universality of the problem, academic interest in explaining the
place and meaning of disability in society and activist expressions
of empowerment, inclusion, normality and the politics of difference.
Policy makers and politicians contributed to the growth of the field
through their concern with the economic and social costs associated
with disability and public discussions of how government
support might better be organized to plan for increased numbers of
disabled people and the elderly (CHARD, LILFORD AND DEREK
1999; BLENDON AND BENSON 2001). Disability studies, then, is an
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