Disability Culture in New York City

So I’m going to preface by saying that, while I do live in New York City, I do not have a disability. Therefore, I am looking at disability culture in New York City from the outside looking in. I hope this will be a helpful perspective to all of you, my readers.

Anyway, I think that we must start by defining what disability culture is before explaining what disability culture is like in New York City. As such, for the purpose of this writing, I will go with the Encyclopedia Britannica definition of disability culture: “the sum total of behaviours, beliefs, ways of living, and material artifacts that are unique to persons affected by disability.”

One belief that exists with many disabled people I know in New York is that institutions do not come close to adequately serving people with various kinds of disabilities (physical ones too, but other kinds of disabilities as well). From the schools and how they do (or don’t) address children with educational special needs, to wheelchair accessibility issues in many places (including the subways in New York), there is a general belief among many disabled people in New York City that not nearly enough is done to address the needs of disabled people. This belief is a part of disability culture in New York City.

Since institutions fail to properly provide for people with disabilities, they need to work very hard to compensate for the fact that they’re disabled in an ableist world. One example of that would be with the subways: since the subways in New York are notorious for their lack of wheelchair accessibility, people in wheelchairs need to meticulously plan out their trips so that they can travel. An example like the subways demonstrate that in New York City, part of disability culture is encountering systems which are inadequate, and finding things for themselves which do work.

However, these negative circumstances, while they are a part of disability culture in New York City, should not be the only thing about disability culture in New York City, or even the thing which hopefully defines disability culture in New York City. No, the thing that I hope can define disability culture in New York City (at least from the outside looking in) is the deep desire to have the same opportunities that people without disabilities have. Those opportunities don’t exist, but there is a desire for those opportunities to exist.

I am sure that there is much more to disability culture in New York City, and that there is quite a bit I’m missing here. Hopefully, one day, someone (either on Joe’s blog or in another place) can fill in some of the gaps left by able-bodied me. But what I’ve written above are just a few things I’ve noticed about disability culture in New York City.

By: 

Brendan Birth