THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE: DISABILITY, DIVERSITY, AND ISSUES OF POWER IN ADULT EDUCATION

Abstract

This essay explores the location of disability in adult education by critiquing the research on power, privilege, and diversity through a critical disability theory lens. The essay includes a definition of critical disability theory, a discussion of power, privilege, and diversity in adult education, followed by an examination of three issues: function, minority group status, and language, voice and visibility.

Persons with disabilities are marginalized, the intent of reasonable accommodation is misunderstood, and the existence of the minority group—people with disabilities—in adult education is barely acknowledged. Disability is often forgotten, overlooked, or dismissed by adult education as too special a category (Berube, 1998). And yet a simple car accident can make any of us a person with a disability. As we live longer, it becomes increasingly likely that we may experience disability becoming a member of this minority group. Disability rights activists refer to this phenomenon as temporarily able-bodied (TAB). The term TAB “breaks down the separateness of ‘us’ and ‘them’” (Zola, 1993, p. 171) emphasizing instead a continuum of experience. Disability is a fluid concept subject to methodological bias, the distortion of cultural bias, and a specific context. “Disability identification is a judgment on the human condition, and its statistical summary represents more than a simple enumeration of those who are disabled and those who are not” (Fujiura & Rutkowski-Kmitta, 2001, p. 69). At what point does a physical anomaly become a disability and who decides--the individual or society--when one is a person with a disability and a member of that particular minority group? Due to medical advances, there are growing numbers of the “well” disabled who are demanding access to opportunities for education and training, work, and leisure. A person with a chronic or degenerative condition may still have the capacity to perform work tasks and may wish to engage in formal learning activities.

The purpose of this paper is to critique the research on power, privilege, and diversity through a critical disability theory lens. The discussion will include first, a definition of critical disability theory, second, a discussion of power, privilege, and diversity in adult education, followed by an examination of three issues: function, minority group status, and language, voice and visibility.