Height, Hierarchies and Human Rights: How a normalcy of disability infringes on the rights of people with dwarfism.

Pritchard, Erin (2023) Height, Hierarchies and Human Rights: How a normalcy of disability infringes on the rights of people with dwarfism. In: Research Handbook on Disability Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, pp. 691-705. ISBN 9781800373648

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Abstract

The built environment has been purposely created to accommodate normative conceptions of the human body (average sized, able bodied), which disables people whose body deviates from the norm. However, since the 1970s disability has been recognised as a social construct as opposed to a personal limitation. This has led to the development of various policies and legislation that have aimed to provide an inclusive built environment for disabled people through the provision of accessible spaces. In the UK, Part M of the buildings and regulations act requires the inclusive provision of ease of access to and circulation within all buildings, together with requirements for facilities for disabled people. Despite this, Part M fails to accommodate a range of disabled people, including people with dwarfism, whose identity as disabled people is often contested. This can affect not just their access to public spaces, but also to educational institutions and the workplace. This chapter explores how Part M of the buildings and regulations act is inadequate in providing equal access for people with dwarfism due to a normalcy of disability, which results in a hierarchy disability and impacts upon their human rights. For example, mobility impairments are deemed the disabled norm, which results in them being the focus on access policies, whilst others are ignored. This normalcy of disability is influenced by a neoliberal agenda which aims to accommodate as few disabled people as possible for economic purposes. This chapter suggests that to remove this hierarchy the notion of disability needs to be broadened and include body sizes that exceed the norm as disabled in a one size fits all society.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Disability hierarchies, people with dwarfism, human rights, Part M of the buildings and regulations act, accessible spaces, normalcy of disability.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Erin Pritchard
Date Deposited:	21 Nov 2023 10:23
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2023 10:23
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4072

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