For our major project we constructed an image that showcases the unfair advantages abled-bodied people have over a person with disabilities. There are two players in the board game. One being an able-bodied person and the other with disabilities. Although both players are starting the game off at the same place, the path to “win” is not the same. The curvy path a person with disabilities has been much different from the straight path an able-bodied person has. At first glance you can see that it is unfair and not equal. This is the reality for people with disabilities all over the world. On each game square there are different elements that describe issues the player must go through in life. For the disabled person, their squares are more difficult. For example, one square says, “Not every place is accessible.” This connects to Good Kings Bad Kings when Yessenia “Yessie” Lopez had to get help from Pedro for her to use the bathroom. To Pedro, his apartment was accessible to him, but for someone in a wheelchair it was not accessible. Another square says, “People obsess over the disability rather than the heart.” This connects to the Weise poem when the speaker was going to have intercourse with someone else, but the other person was more interested in the prosthetic leg. This ruined the speaker’s mood and made her rather be anywhere else than in this room with this person who is obsessing over her leg. In addition, another square has the single word, “inferior” displayed in it. This label can be interpreted in multiple ways, however, in this specific case the board game relates the label back to the concept that people with disabilities are often viewed as inferior, resulting in non-disabled individuals praising small, everyday tasks completed by the individual who has the disability. This exact concept is clearly portrayed in John Lee Clark’s poem, Deaf Blind: Three Squared Cinquain. In Lee’s poem, the poetic speaker exhibits frustration at the fact that because he/she is Deaf and blind, non-disabled individuals become astonished when they see the disabled person accomplishing every day, mundane tasks such as walking from one destination to the next. Finally, the last example is the labeled box that says, “forgotten about.” Like inferior, this label can be explained in a variety of ways concerning people with disabilities, but for the purpose of this project the label is related to the capitalist workforce and how disabled persons are oftentimes cast aside. The concept of disabled individuals being forgotten about in relation to the workforce is clearly depicted in Marta Russell and Ravi Malholtra’s theory article, Capitalism and the Disability Rights Movement. A quote from the text states, “Without job accommodations to meet their [disabled] impairments, [disabled individuals] were—less “fit” to do the tasks required of factory workers and were increasingly excluded from paid employment” (3). As a result of being disabled, some individuals face discrimination regarding the workforce and employment opportunities. In conclusion, this board game highlights only a few examples of how disabled individuals face more discrimination and challenges than their able-bodied peers on the “path of life.”
Work Cited
Clark, John Lee. “Deaf Blind: Three Squared Cinquain by John Lee Clark.” A Cup of Poetry, 15 Apr. 2013, https://acupofpoetry.tumblr.com/post/48052546867/deaf-blind-three-squared-cinquain-by-john-lee.
Nussbaum, Susan. Good Kings Bad Kings : A Novel, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umw/detail.action?docID=3419359.
Ravi Malholtra, Marta Russell. “Introduction’ to Capitalism and Disability .” Dokumen.pub, 2019, https://dokumen.pub/strategic-innovative-marketing-and-tourism-7th-icsimat-athenian-riviera-greece-2018-1st-ed-978-3-030-12452-6978-3-030-12453-3.html.
Weise, Jillian. “Nondisabled Demands.” PDF on dis/lit course website. Fall 2021.
“We Pledge” – Terrencia Johnson, Miranda Colbert, and Megan Hofmann