Disability and Evolution

Disability and Evolution

I had an amazing conversation with one of my favorite people in the world recently.  My younger cousin is a brilliant thinker and insightful artist.  Conversations with him have always uplifted me and filled me with ideas.  We spoke a lot this time about disability.  Obviously, it’s a subject of great interest to me and it has taken on new meaning to him as he was diagnosed with a progressive disorder of the nervous system a few years ago.

I had told him a while back that one theory about disability is: you aren’t disabled until the moment you encounter a barrier.  Even then, barriers are just opportunities to find a creative solution.  Disability really brings out creativity.  I’ve known people with some pretty severe mobility restrictions, but I have yet to see anything they can’t do.  They don’t do things the same way that I do, but they find a work-around, a creative solution, a way to get to the end goal.

I think that kind of creativity is extremely valuable to our society.

We spend too much time believing that people who have disabilities are a drain on society, are a problem to be dealt with, or shouldn’t exist because evolution would have wiped them out.  One political side wishes that we could just do away with people who have disabilities and the other wants us to pity and care for them. I think both sides have it wrong. Disability is not a problem to be fixed; it is an important part of being human.

What if we evolved *because* of disability?

I’m not a scientist and I’ve done no research on this subject, it was just an idea that came up as my cousin and I spoke, but I find it a very compelling and plausible idea.  Humans have become the dominant species of this planet for our ability to think and for our ability to go beyond instinct to find new solutions to problems.  Without disability, would we have had a reason to come up with new ways of doing things?  Would we still be trying to bash animals on the head with rocks to eat?  If, in our distant past, there were people who couldn’t join the hunt in traditional ways, wouldn’t they be the ones who came up with the idea of traps?

Even if that isn’t how we evolved, disability does create a fertile ground for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.  That is hugely valuable to our society.

We don’t need to hush disability up by throwing money at it and hoping that it will be happy being shut away from the rest of society, we need to better utilize the assets and skills that the people themselves have.  Disability can bring out new strengths and different ideas.  And that’s what we need.  It isn’t a problem, it’s an asset.

 

[image from http://www.adapt.org/]

Posted by on Oct 12, 2011 in Disability Rights | 4 comments

4 Comments

  1. Rebecca
    Oct 13, 2011

    Interesting discussion. I don’t think I can agree entirely with the evolutionary argument, except where you can say that some traits that cause disease or disability can have positive slants, such as the sickle-cell trait. Still, some valid points. The disabled should not be seen as “dis” abled, nor should they be pitied; they should simply be considered as human beings, something we all deserve.

    • RuthMadison
      Oct 15, 2011

      I will admit the science isn’t there, but the idea is fascinating, isn’t it? 🙂

  2. Brandi
    Oct 15, 2011

    I actually have studied evolution, and specifically human evolution, for my anthropology degree, and this argument has some merit, though not in the shaping of humanity as a biological species. As the previous commenter, Rebecca, pointed out, certain genetic mutations are actually helpful in certain circumstances, like sickle cell trait, which helps the body resist malaria, and I remember reading a couple of articles about the high rates of diabetes in African Americans being related to the specific traits that were selected for during slavery when slave owners would pair up the slaves to select for traits like strength and endurance that were also closely linked to risk factors for diabetes. However, in general, disability would not and could not have played a strong role in our biological evolution into anatomically modern humans, or Homo sapiens, for a variety of reasons, although disability at the SOCIAL level in terms of adaptation and ingenuity may have played a factor in our social and cultural development as modern humans. Even our ancient ancestors seemed to have thought of this very thing, for example with the inclusion of disabled and deformed gods in a variety of pantheons, most notably Hephaestus / Vulcan, who was the genius toolmaker of the Greek and Roman pantheons (and married to the Goddess of love), or in the myths of blind soothsayers and sybils known for their wisdom and foresight, and more. People with a variety of disabilities have a place in many ancient myths from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, sometimes as people of great power or wisdom, and inventions that improve accessibility for people with disabilities have made life much easier for all of us, not just those with disabilities. Disability has been, in fact, responsible for a variety of modern inventions, such as the telephone, which Bell devised to help him communicate with his deaf mother (and his wife was also deaf), as well as several variants of the typewriter designed to help blind people to write, most notably one invented at the beginning of the 1800s by Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri for his blind lover, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono (he also invented the carbon paper that today’s typewriter ribbons are based on), although these were invented FOR, not by, disabled individuals. Innovations and discoveries in science, technology, and medicine, as well as contributions to the arts, by and for people with disabilities have changed the world. Can you imagine the world today without the telephone? Or without a keyboard to type in text? Or wandering around in a blurry haze if glasses had never been invented to make it easier for people with vision problems to see? (I know I certainly appreciate this one!) The things we have invented to work around our limitations as a species and specifically around many of our physical limitations such as blindness, deafness, or mobility impairment, have altered the entire world whether that was the intent or not, so yes, our cultural and technological development as a species has accelerated at lightning speed over the last few centuries in our effort to work around physical limitations. Human ingenuity has enabled us to communicate more quickly and immediately with people all over the world. It has enabled us to share a wealth of information with just a click of a mouse. It has enabled us to see long after our eyes have failed us, and to move from point A to point B without working legs to take us there. It has enabled us to create artificial limbs and hearing aids, and it has enabled us to create entirely new means of communication through sign, through Braille, and more for those who cannot hear or cannot see. Human ingenuity has enabled us to extend the life expectancy of people with diseases or injuries that would otherwise be fatal, and it has enabled us to invent technology that was once considered merely science fiction, from computer programs that allow people who cannot see or with serious mobility impairments to use a computer without seeing the screen or without touching a keyboard or mouse, to robotic prosthetics and stand-alone robots that can be programmed to do certain tasks, to wheelchairs that aid people with spinal cord injuries to stand upright and to climb up curbs, and voice technology that allows people who cannot speak to have a voice, like the technology Stephen Hawking uses. So yes, perhaps human ingenuity in adapting to physical limitations has had a significant impact on the direction in which humanity is traveling in our cultural and technological evolution and on where we will be going in the future (and I, for one, am grateful!).

    • RuthMadison
      Oct 15, 2011

      I had not thought about the place of disability in myth! That’s intersting. Thank you for the examples of social evolution (is that a term? I have no idea!) and inventions. I had not thought about the ways in which people who are not themselves disabled shaped society to help and benefit their loved ones who were.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Disability and Evolution – Ruth Madison | Ruth Madison « Better Disability - [...] original post here: Disability and Evolution – Ruth Madison | Ruth Madison Comments [...]

Submit a Comment