Reinterpreting learning difficulty: a professional and personal challenge?

Pamela Inglis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

I want to explore in this article the ways in which people with a learning difficulty are constructed in a number of ways as disabled, as limited, as being special, and so on. Constructions can also be utilised for different purposes – to ensure that they have effective levels of support and to elevate the status of people with a learning difficulty. Positive constructs may articulate an ‘accentuation of the positive’ as Goodley and Armstrong prescribed. However, whilst I agree with this sentiment, one echoed in Swain and French’s important formulation of an affirmative model of disability, and one that I have also espoused, professionally I also feel that my experience of working with people with learning difficulties makes me suspicious of generalised statements about people, even those deemed positive. This may be especially true in a period of financial rationalisation, where such constructs may seem inevitable in the fight for effective support for people with a learning difficulty.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)423-426
JournalDisability & Society
Volume28
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Keywords

  • disability
  • learning difficulty
  • disabled constructions
  • professionals

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