This was presented at History in the Dixson, a readers advisory seminar, 7 March 2012

1. Disability
Identity
and
Martin Mantle Australia
Reader’s Advisory
Seminar
SLNSW 7 March 2012

2. Beliefs about disability
Social and Legislation
Institutional
Language Literature

3. First description of
disability in Australia?
“Their sight is peculiarly fine, indeed their
existence very often depends upon the accuracy of
it…once at Broken Bay I saw in a canoe an old
man who was perfectly blind. He was
accompanied by a youth who paddled his canoe,
and who, to my great surprise, sat behind him in it.
This may, however, be in conformity to the idea of
respect which is always paid to old age.”
David Collins AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY IN NEW SOUTH WALES
(1798). David Collins was the deputy judge advocate, who came to the colony with the
first fleet.

4. Acts of Parliament
• Immigration Act 1901
• Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act 1908
• Migration Act 1958
• Social Services Act 1947
• Disability reform package 1991
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• UN Convention on Rights of Persons with
Disabilities ratified 2008

5. Disability Discrimination Act
• "disability" , in relation to a person, means:
• (a) total or partial loss of the person's bodily or mental functions; or
• (b) total or partial loss of a part of the body; or
• (c) the presence in the body of organisms causing disease or illness; or
• (d) the presence in the body of organisms capable of causing disease or illness; or
• (e) the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of the person's body; or
• (f) a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently from a
person without the disorder or malfunction; or
• (g) a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person's thought processes, perception
of reality, emotions or judgment or that results in disturbed behaviour;
• and includes a disability that:
• (h) presently exists; or
• (i) previously existed but no longer exists; or
• (j) may exist in the future (including because of a genetic predisposition to that
disability); or
• (k) is imputed to a person.
• To avoid doubt, a disability that is otherwise covered by this definition includes
behaviour that is a symptom or manifestation of the disability.

6. Disability Discrimination Actions
• S11: the defence of unjustifiable hardship
• King vs. Jetstar (Jan 2012). Jetstar had discriminated
against a wheelchair user by denying her a place on a
flight that had already booked two other wheelchair
users. But it was able to argue that having more than two
wheelchair users on place entailed increased costs and
increased inconvenience to other passengers (increased
delays) and meant that it could use the provisions of the
defence of unjustifiable hardship to avoid having to offer
more seats on its flights.

7. Eugenics to Genetics
• Eugenics: “well-born”
• 1900-1940
• Disability as a threat
• Genetics
– 1953 Double helix DNA
– 2003 Human genome project
• Disability as a problem
• Exercise: measuring “fit-ness”
– "Physical fitness is the basis for all other forms of
excellence” (John F Kennedy)

8. Language
• Inclusive language. Avoid words like spaz,
schizo, mong, retard, etc.
• But what about the rest of language?
– Blindness = ignorance. “She was blind to the
consequences of her actions”
– Why is this phrasing not inappropriate?
SMH 19.2.12

9. Symbolism

10. Medical Model / Social Model
Bod Environment
y
Mind Cultur
e
Sense Technology
s

11. Disabled Fiction
A Christmas carol (1843)
For the term of his natural life (1874)
Peter Pan (1904)
The secret garden (1911)
The fortunes of Richard Mahoney: Ultima Thule
(1929)
Harp in the south (1948)
Lord of the flies (1954) Tim (1974)
Cloudstreet (1991)
Slow man (2005) Little people (2011)

12. Disabled Fiction
Pitiable and pathetic
Object of violence
Sinister and evil
To enhance the mood
Super cripple
Object of ridicule
Their own worst enemy
Burden
Sexually abnormal
Incapable of participating

13. Title recommendations
DVDs:
• Murderball – a documentary about wheelchair rugby
• Unusual Travellers – a documentary about a group
of men on a trip to Egypt
Books:
• Disability in Australia: Exposing a Social Apartheid
by Gerard Coggin and Christopher Newell
• Little people by Jane Sullivan
• The black book of colours by Menena Cottin and
Rosana Faria

14. Websites
ABC Rampup
http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/
BBC Ouch!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/news.shtml
World Health Organization:
World Report on Disabilities
http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.h
tml

15. Disability information
History of disability South Australia
• http://history.dircsa.org.au/
University of Maryland
• http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/disability.html
PWC 2011 report: Disability Expectations
• http://www.pwc.com.au/industry/government/publications/disa
bility-in-australia.htm
Love rolls on! (blog)
• http://loverollson.wordpress.com/

16. Finding resources
• librarybooklists.org
• librarything.com
• Libraries Australia:
 People with disabilities – fiction (485)
 Physically handicapped– fiction (481)
(Only 35 are cross-referenced)
Blind – fiction

17. Disability and libraries?
• Lists, lists and more lists in libraries
• Readers Advisory wiki
• A Readers Advisory book.
• Adding subject headings to LA
• Recognition disability action more than
physical access:
– Cooperative committees
– Employment
– Sensory walls