I am a disabled person, and I use that term deliberately in this context, as it refers to the social model of disability, which basically suggests that it is society that disables people through its attitudes, actions, and assumptions. In other words, how we as a society are organised, acknowledge, and thereby create disability, rather than actually valuing, leveraging, respecting, and encouraging people’s differences and diversity. This is how society is seen through the lens of disability. In light of this, I am finding the new television show, The Good Doctor, which premiered tonight, personally confronting. It is about Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and Savant syndrome, who is recruited into the surgical unit of a prestigious hospital, and the battles he faces. I know that kind of isolation. I know that kind of discrimination. I know what it is not to be taken seriously based on the ignorance or arrogance of others. I know what it is to […]
Continue reading