The Myth of Self-Sufficiency

     In the above interview, Judith Butler asks Sunaura Taylor about the inaccurate notion of self-sufficiency maintained by the able-bodied population. Butler and Taylor walk the streets in San Francisco discussing how the body is such a varied and changing thing, and how we all benefit from helping each other. Their conversation distills the concept of interdependence. The notions of individualism and self-sufficiency are insufficient to get at the real predicament of humanity. We need each other, and our reciprocity defines the best parts of our humanity.

     After completing nine courses in the disability studies program, I have embraced many concepts from the disability studies canon, but none has had a greater impact on me, and how I think about my future working in the disability services field, than the concept of interdependence. I have worked with adults, teenagers and children with intellectual disabilities over the last two decades, and had never really closely examined the problematic nature of my role as disability services provider. I am paid to help, and like everyone else who is paid for work, I wanted to keep my job. How could I think of it differently? I was embedded in a non-reciprocal relationship that was driven by state and federal insurance systems. Medicaid funded my program, and I was required to fulfill the compliance demands of this fiscal remuneration system. I can’t simply throw a wrench into the works and try to overthrow the entrenched bureaucracy.
 

     I watched Butler and Taylor walk through the streets of San Francisco and thought about how it may be as simple as that. You need to start the conversation. You need to put yourself out there at the store, the cafe, the government office, and make those spaces accessible.  You need to promote ordinary exchanges between those abled-bodied individuals and citizens with intellectual disabilities. You need to share your life with others with intellectual disabilities outside the current institutional systems.  It is not about finding a volunteer work site for person so that they can simulate real employment. The use of simulations is at the heart of the current service provision model. This model serves to closely approximate what the able-bodied population takes for granted: working, shopping and living independently in a community. In this service provision model, we work on travel training, vocational skills and community inclusion. While each of these concepts has value, they also carry with them the flavor of regulatory requirements. So rethinking these organizations starts with a few things. It may be about finding meaningful work with a real salary for that person. It may mean volunteering outside of your workplace or developing relationships with people with disabilities that are not fiscally driven. Most importantly though, it is about recognizing that these spaces we think of as our workplaces mean more to the people we serve than to us. We are only the employees. For the people we serve, these places are not only for attaining meaningful services, but they are also environments that should foster symbiosis, where friendships can organically grow. They should function as places where we can all share in each other's hope, community, and kinship.

     Kotake Yellow. (2010, October 6). Examined Life- Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor [video file]. Retrieved from 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k0HZaPkF6qE