When people think of disability don’t they also think of dependence, carers, maybe special equipment, governments help, adaptions and adjustments at work and home? It is like disability is a permanent state of illness, vulnerability and disadvantage. Much has been said about peoples attitudes to the disabled, the need for change and indeed much progress has been achieved over the years.
This dependence is a fact of life for many people with disability. Modern attitudes and technology have lightened the burden but for the profoundly disabled a life of dependency is a given. Dependence is a hard word to pick apart or measure it’s impact. Benefit Street, Life on the Dole, the lives of “abled” people living on benefits and be being dependant on the state are scrutinised and disparaged. People might look on the dependant as being passive and not fully in charge of their lives. Obviously attitudes are rapidly changing but autonomy and independence are the held in enormous esteem and many people cannot mentally apply that to people with disabilities. And people with disabilities are raised and exposed to these ideas.
The other issues of disability and dependence might be related to the psychological issue of codependency. “In its broadest definition, a codependent is someone who cannot function from their innate self and whose thinking and behavior is instead organized around another person”(Lancer, Darlene (2012). Codependency for Dummies (1st ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 30. ISBN 1118095227.). This is an issue that crops up all too often in the care of people with profound disabilities. The physical fact of their dependency leads to a psychological dependancy and this in turn leads to abuse.