"I walk, Therefore I Am..."

Abstract

The term ‘disability’ is laden with medical origins and medical meanings, which contribute to exclusion and oppression for persons labeled as ‘disabled’. Moreover, these processes are amplified by constructing disability as an individual burden or personal tragedy. Medicalizing disability keeps it a personal matter, a personal problem that needs to be treated, rather than addressing the social processes that actually restrict or constrict the disabled person’s life. Rehabilitation Science and my lived experience of disability and walking serve as contexts that assist me as I explore how my subjectivity as a disabled woman and clinician helps me understand the theoretical tensions of five key themes: independence, power, client-centred practice, ableism, and the social model of disability in relation to disability and rehabilitation. These themes offer me a way to analyze my experiences, and how I have come to access and engage with Disability Studies literature in order to deepen my understanding of the critiques on disability and rehabilitation. As an insider, my research explores three decades of personal narrative. Through critical reflexivity as part of autoethnography, I work to increase my own awareness and that of my readers on the tension and complexities with respect to disability and rehabilitation.