Overview:
Declaration was part of my master thesis Empowerment of people of all abilities, aiming to redefine disability.
VARIABLE
We assume a particular set of
human abilities to be normal.
In this way, we construct abnormalities.
Every day, we fail to notice the whole picture.
In this way, we create walls
(mostly unintentionally).
Our environment is a range of obstacles.
All of us experience them.
We can choose to design around them.
We should challenge everything
we know and facilitate inclusiveness.
If we create the world with open eyes,
we can make it better.
By addressing the needs of the masses,
we address our needs.
If we make, build and represent
looking at those in the minority
or the most oppressed individuals,
we will be able to do it right.
The thing that makes us all the same
is that we are all different.
Unique.
We are all able and unable.
Variable.
Everyone’s identity takes shape in a different way — we are born with a particular set of “tools” — characteristics — we have our bodies and minds with all their abilities and limitations. To perform beyond our congenial abilities, we invent and use assistive technologies. When we dive, we use scuba gear, to fly we use planes or parachutes. Something that is peculiar is the way we call people who have been born without the limbs — congenital amputee. This nomenclature suggests they have had an amputation surgery, whereas in fact they have been born in the way which differs from what society perceive to be normal. Without the influence of the environment they would have never thought they were abnormal. In those cases introduction to a prostheses seems unnatural — it is the embodiment of “norm” created by people who reflect on themselves as normal. In this scenario, it is a social environment which imposes specific abilities in this way creating disability. The disability which is not a definition of a human but societies or environments.