This is the Son of Kings

The dramatic irony of Oedipus is that he doesn't know who he is. The reason receives somewhat less attention than expected: Oedipus' parents tried to have him murdered as a baby:

This is the Son of Kings

"Nor is that other point to be passed over, that the Sphinx was subdued by a lame man with club feet . . ." - Sir Francis Bacon

It was night in Thebes and the cry of a newborn echoed in the halls of the king. He waited, as custom prescribed, for the midwife's announcement. But when she arrived, she stared boldly at him for awhile. Finally she said, "Somethin's wrong with 'is foot."

The king hastened to the royal bed, where he found the queen lying with her back to the naked infant. "Do what you have to do," she murmured.

"I'll have Shepherd take it to the Grove," he said.

It was not yet dawn when Shepherd arrived at the Grove of the Lost. Unseen predators coughed beyond the lamp as he laid the tiny bundle on the bloodstained rock.

 

The story would have ended there, but as Shepherd made to depart he heard the infant sobbing quietly, hopelessly to itself. He took the child forthwith to his parents' home in a mountain village.

"Take care," he told them. "This is the son of kings."

"What shall we call him?" his father asked. But just then Shepherd's mother, having unwrapped the child, exclaimed, "Oh, the poor baby, his poor foot's all swollen."

"Very well," his father decided, "we'll call him Haltfoot."

When he was become a man, Haltfoot set off for Thebes with his most trusted companions, for he would look upon the faces of his parents. As they entered a crossroads, with the towers of the city gleaming in the distance, a mounted nobleman ordered them to step aside. But Haltfoot, having recognized the king from his likeness on a coin, said "It is written, A commoner shall pass, and none shall deny him."

At this the king made to run him through with his spear. But Haltfoot, stepping aside, seized the spear as it passed and threw the king into the road.

"Take him home," he instructed his companions. "Let him know the village where a prince spent his youth."

Whereupon the king asked, "Who are you?"

"I am your son, whom you sent to the Grove."

In the cool of the evening Haltfoot passed through the gates of Thebes and found the restless queen pacing the byways of the market.

Dawn was brightening the eastern horizon when Haltfoot rose from the royal bed. But the queen detained him, asking "Why did old Shepherd start when he saw you last night?" Haltfoot instead replied, "Do you know where the king is?"

"He rides to the royal estates.

"You are very like him in form," she added. "Who are you?"

But Haltfoot commanded, "Look upon me."

Now it was full day, and an unpitying sun blazed on the cold stones.

"I too am of royal blood," said Haltfoot. "Look upon me and know who I am."

The queen stared wildly at him. "Say no more," she cried. "By the Merciless, say no more."

Unpublished Remarks from a Disabled Person on the West Coast, Part 2

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons

Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul - Walt Whitman, Preface to first edition of Leaves of Grass

To be decent, every person has to make their own ethical decisions. . . . If you are conformist, you almost certainly violate universal ethical standards of decency.

Then they would ... thrust him out of the house, spitting on him and throwing stones as he ran away. ... He let it out and they all turned against him immediately. - A "sin-eater," described in Master and Commander: (vide infra)

She is looking straight at me with a grim, angry expression, so that I almost recoil. You should be ashamed, it seems to say. Unpublished Remarks from a Disabled Person on the West Coast, Part 1 

The following were conveyed to the authors of this blog by one of the stigmatized disabled:

From the first article in this series, hopefully it is beginning to be apparent what the purposes of the series are.

One purpose is to give a report from inside on one of the fronts in the battle against prejudicial discrimination.

Another purpose is a sociological perspective. Social identity is what makes ordinary human life work. For a person to have what Erving Goffman called a "spoiled identity" may be to "reduce his life chances."
 
  A third purpose is to argue that all prejudice is the same prejudice and all discrimination is the same discrimination. The enormous harm of prejudicial discrimination throughout the ages is the history of man's inhumanity to man. Prejudice is too monstrous to be a tool for any honorable purpose.

  A fourth purpose is to argue that such middle-class values as the idea of a common humanity; the idea of a connection with the past and the future and of a responsibility to our ancestors and our descendants; the idea of civility and of respect, so far as possible, for all people regardless of what group they are thought to belong to; the belief in uplift; and the idea that political freedom comes when "we the people," all of us with one spirit work together for the public good--to argue that these were favorable to the stigmatized. The contrary values of the sixties, in particular the tendency to frame solutions in terms of group identity, have been harmful to those with a spoiled identity.
 
  A fifth purpose is to draw attention to a pervasive double standard in discrimination. For example, the term "harelip" is as ugly and defamatory as the n-word, yet even when it clearly is being used to marginalize and disenfranchise those with cleft lips and palates, as in the phrase "if it harelips the governor," progressives stand calmly silent.
 
  A sixth purpose is to argue that "harelip" is the symbolic birth defect, the one which William Shakespeare and Mark Twain cite, and that those so stigmatized have a corresponding classic symbolic role, the scapegoat, the "sin eater,"* as Patrick O'Brien says in Master and Commander: in Wikipedia, "one who is blamed for misfortunes, often as a way of distracting attention from the real causes." [Ed. Note: The current Wikipedia no longer says this. It does say:

The biblical Jesus has been interpreted as a universal archetype for sin-eaters, offering his life to purify all of humanity of their sins.

 For the Disabled Archetype in myth, see the following post, This is the Son of Kings.]

 A seventh purpose is to draw attention to widespread prejudices, some with impressive scholarly pedigrees, which could contribute to the double standard mentioned above, which serve as the unspoken and unexamined rationale for targeting the stigmatized: "In a certain state it is indecent to go on living," the influential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote. "To vegetate on in cowardly dependence on physicians and medicaments after the meaning of life, the right to life, has been lost ought to entail the profound contempt of society."
 
  An eighth purpose is to ask you to imagine the life of the stigmatized. Would a complete stranger attack you as soon as he sees you? Three such cases (out of many) are described in the first article, and as seen above no less a personage than Nietzsche argues that this is legitimate. What would be the cumulative effect, if you went through each day never knowing who would turn on you? If you came to realize that in many cases where for others the answer is "yes," for you it is "no," would you have the same hopes, the same aspirations, the same goals, the same confidence as you do now? Imagine an existence characterized by reduced life chances.
 
  A ninth purpose is to draw attention to the dual nature of identity. There is the identity we have by ascription, which Goffman describes as "spoiled." But other sociologists, such as John Murray Cuddihy, have argued that a feature of liberal modernity is that individuals have their character by achievement and not by ascription. Randall Kennedy, in "My Race Problem -- And Ours," [see Defining Liberalism: Randall Kennedy's 'My Race Problem—And Ours', My "Liberalism" Problem—And Ours] argued that "a brute fact does not dictate the proper human response to it." For the stigmatized, there are terrible consequences attendant on accepting the way many persons see them. A difficult choice is forced on them: To accept the "profound contempt" as their due; or to reject it at the possible cost of being accused of failing to know their place. As a friend once told me, when someone once asked him, "As an outsider, what do you think of the human race?" he answered, "It gives me a valuable perspective."

(*)From Master and Commander: "I have a curious case ..."

What is his name?
Cheslin: he has a hare lip. ...
Yet he has been of singular service to men and women, in his time.
In what way?
He was a sin-eater. ...
Will you tell me about him? ...
When a man died Cheslin would be sent for; there would be a piece of bread on the dead man's breast; he would eat it, taking the sins upon himself. Then they would push a silver piece into his hand and thrust him out of the house, spitting on him and throwing stones as he ran away. ... He let it out and they all turned against him immediately.

Unpublished Remarks from a Disabled Person on the West Coast, Part 1

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons

Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul - Walt Whitman, Preface to first edition of Leaves of Grass

To be decent, every person has to make their own ethical decisions. . . . If you are conformist, you almost certainly violate universal ethical standards of decency.

The following were conveyed to the authors of this blog by one of the stigmatized disabled:

Transit Route 359 from downtown past one of the city's lake parks, in the Year of Our Lord 2006, uses 60-ft New Flyer hi-floor coaches which have long seats facing each other at the front. I like these seats, and as I sit in one of them one spring afternoon, relaxed, anticipating the view of the canal and the coastal mountains when the route crosses the bridge, I commit the error of an unguarded glance at a woman directly across from me. She is looking straight at me with a grim, angry expression, so that I almost recoil. You should be ashamed, it seems to say.

 Although she has caught me by surprise, I am not actually surprised; and though in a sense I understand what is happening, in another sense I never quite do understand these incidents. She probably wouldn't look at a minority that way, or for that matter a person in a wheelchair. The era when help wanted ads contained phrases such as "No colored," or "No handicaps need apply" has passed. But as for us--for my kind--it's as if the civil rights revolution has never happened.

 It is a few months earlier. A passenger waiting on a bench at a downtown bus stop is looking fixedly at a spot a couple of inches below my eyes. A few minutes later I glance back. Her gaze is still locked. Now I face her: sometimes this will cause such people to realize what they are doing, and they will look away. But not this time.

   I sometimes think that we are the symbolic people. Sociologists have studied us, and the philosophers have mentioned us in their remarks about the human condition; Shakespeare refers to us by our familiar epithet, but with his usual charity, in "King Lear" ("This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock. He gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.") and in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" ("And the blots of Nature's hand Shall not in their issue stand; Never mole, hare lip, nor scar, Nor mark prodigious, such as are Despised in nativity, Shall upon their children be"). We are similarly mentioned, but unkindly, in the movie "Casino," in an article by the "liberal" columnist Molly Ivins at time.com, and Mark Twain makes cruel sport of us in Huckleberry Finn. ("Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and Joanna's about fourteen--that's the one that gives herself to good works and has a hare-lip.")
   It is some years back. I'm waiting by an elevator at City Hall, where I work for the City. Someone from another department points at me and says something to a waiting minority, whose eyes widen in shock as she looks at me. He repeats it, louder this time, so I can hear it. "Harelip," he says. "Harelip."

A Member of the Stigmatized Disabled Writes to His Family

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons

Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul - Walt Whitman, Preface to first edition of Leaves of Grass

To be decent, every person has to make their own ethical decisions. . . . If you are conformist, you almost certainly violate universal ethical standards of decency. [Vide infra]

"X" wrote the following to his sister, the member of his family he thought most open-minded:

Dear __:
  The following is a copy of an e-mail I just sent to my son. The incident I refer to near the end occurred at a party at [my son's] residence. It was the last time I saw him and may partially explain why this is so.
  I will give a very brief account of the incident. A guest, someone I'd never seen before, started asking intrusive questions when she discovered I wasn't a community college teacher like most of the people there. She persisted even when it was clear that I was uncomfortable with what seemed to be an insinuation that I didn't belong there. When she managed to work in a reference to someone she knew who was also--her exact words--"funny looking," the two guests to my left were visibly shocked. My son and my daughter-in-law were sitting right there at the table while this happened.
  The following e-mail may explain things my family seems not to understand. Or it may not.

__:
  The issue is the discrimination against my people. My position is that a double standard is not acceptable, and in consequence I am no more to be expected to accept discrimination than an African American would be.
  We have examples of this double standard in the press. The phrase, "I don't care if it harelips the governor" is clearly defamatory. If this is not clear, ask yourself if it would be defamatory of the n-word was substituted for the h-word. The phrase appeared in the print edition of Time a dozen years ago, it is in the blockbuster movie "Casino," and in modified form in the classic movie "Dr. Strangelove."
  Would the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, and Jesse Jackson have allowed this if the phrase was "I don't care if it [n-word's] the governor?" If the answer is no, then the phrase constitutes an unmistakable example of a case where our normal, decent, respectable society displays a double standard concerning defamation of my people, as contrasted with defamation of African Americans. Just as other discriminatory behavior does, defamation of character degrades and intimidates the people it targets. The [a government agency] anti-harassment policy prohibits any effort to "degrade and intimidate" an employee. And respectable society acts as if it does know that "I don't care if it harelips the governor" (which still appears on time.com in an article by the supposedly liberal columnist Molly Ivins) is discrimination.
  This is my first point. Respectable society--not only the conservative right, but equally the supposedly liberal left, which is silent on this issue--accepts discrimination against certain groups, including my people. Respectable society's conscience was raised concerning people of color and women, but it has never been raised concerning other people, including those with cleft palates. There is still a civil rights battle to be waged. Defamation of character is targeting, and it is, as documented above, still socially acceptable to target my people, even though such discrimination, as Sociologist Erving Goffman said in Stigma, causes my people to have reduced "life chances."
  Respectable society, that is, discriminates against my people, and because this discrimination is not recognized, it is invisible. It is socially acceptable, and because it is acceptable, there is often backlash against anyone who draws attention to it. If a person with a cleft palate objects to any aspect of the pervasive, unconscious discrimination against us, he or she is blamed, and accused of something, such as being "anti-social."
  In this sense, since discriminatory conduct is always unjust and unethical, regardless of whether it is socially acceptable, respectable society's acceptance of the above defamation of my people is unjust and unethical. It is, to put a word to it, indecent. As a consequence, to be decent, every person has to make their own ethical decisions. One can't say, "it's all right because it is socially acceptable." The history of the socially acceptable demonstrates this. It was socially acceptable, when I was in high school, to be racist in Mississippi. It was socially acceptable, when my dad was in college, to be anti-Semitic in Hitler Germany. If you are conformist, you almost certainly violate universal ethical standards of decency. If you have the habit of adulating the recognized leaders of your in-group, you will likely be emulating unrecognized discriminatory behavior.
  My second point is that decent people object to all discriminatory conduct, even if such objection results in their incurring social disapproval. They have the moral courage to resist social pressure.
  I have several examples of this, and I will give you one of them: One day, when I was a cashier at Toys R Us, a businesswoman and her ten-ish son came to my counter. When he saw me the boy, without thinking, made a sound like a raspberry, but more sloppy and mucous-y. His mother immediately realized what he had done and, while the line waited, she knelt down in her suit to his level and explained to him why decent people did not do what he had just done. It took her awhile, because she recognized that this could be an important event in her son's life as a morally autonomous, responsible person.
  In a subsequent e-mail I will describe to you an incident in which what was unmistakable discriminatory behavior against your father occurred right in front of you. It has been treated as if it was socially acceptable, that is, as if it didn't happen. This is why I wrote that I don't see you as "marching to the sound of a different drummer when social values are debased and venal."
  Your response to my last e-mail, your catalog of your virtues, doesn't address this issue, which M.L. King described as the situation where "good people stand by and do nothing."
  My people live socially isolated, embattled lives because "respectable" society defines away defamation of character and other discriminatory behavior. In the above example, a well-dressed woman who was a total stranger showed courage and decency as soon as she saw discriminatory behavior taking place. Is it too much to ask that my family do as much when it sees social wrongdoing against their own flesh and blood?

"X" relates that his sister's and his son's response was breast-beating sympathy with the plight of his people. He adds that subsequently they doubled down on the behavior he had described to them.

To cite the first post in this weblog, Social Attitudes and the Disability Cohort:

In Plessy v. Ferguson, the first Justice Harlan wrote:

Our Constitution is color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.  In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

Yet we have among us people we see every day, who are members of a targeted minority, but are not, as Prosecutor Fitzsimmons' comment reveals, in a protected class (there do not seem to be civil rights cases regarding them). That should not make a difference in how we treat the disabled. But it does: The most horrifying aspect of Molly Ivins' offhand remark is that everybody understands it. If it was possible to "harelip" the governor, it is understood that person would be outside the protections and considerations we afford those of "normal" identity.

From Around the Web

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons

Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul - Walt Whitman, Preface to first edition of Leaves of Grass

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in The Atlantic:

It is wrong to make war on people because you can not get over yourself. And though today we may say that we have advanced, through much of this country, the wrong continues unabated. (Emphasis added.)

Andrew Sullivan in The Dish:

The term “stereotype threat” is used to describe how negative stereotypes cause members of a stereotyped group to underperform. (See Reduced Life Chances)

insideakronchildrens.org:

As with most kids, all Kelsey wanted was to “fit in.” But there were times she had to endure stares and questions about her appearance – some simply inquisitive while others malicious and intended to embarrass.

Cleft Palate Girl to Toss Coin at Start of Men's Tennis Final 

["Cleft Palate Girl?" Reminds one of the scene in the movie “Goodfellas,” when Joe Pesci says to Ray Liotta, “I amuse you? I make you laugh?”]

The following are from valuable cleft palate resource websites:

http://www.cleftsmile.org/what-are-cleft-lip-and-palate/ 

Teens with cleft lip and palate may have had to cope with bullying or teasing. For many people, this can play havoc with self-esteem. ...
Your friends, family, and medical team can be a source of support. Talk to them about how you’re feeling. You might also want to talk to a counselor or therapist because these health professionals are trained to help people deal with difficult situations and improve self-esteem.
And if you’ve had cleft lip and palate, you’re not alone. Your medical team may be able to help you get in touch with other people with cleft lip or palate or support groups in your area.

http://www.patchofpuddles.co.uk/archives/9931/having-a-cleft-lip-palate-by-fran 

I didn’t really care what people thought about my looks or speech because I knew that I wouldn’t let other people’s opinions change who I was and what things were important to me. Now, in year ten I’ve got good friends who will stick up for me and have stuck up for me when people are being completely unreasonable! They like me for who I am and understand about my cleft and never let me underestimate myself, in fact I am most severely told off if I ever say a word against myself!

From English cleft lip and palate association:

cleftaware2013.wordpress.com/bullying-and-self-image/

It’s important to remember that bullying is bullying, no matter who it’s coming from, and that the best way to stop bullying is to call it what it is and ask for help.
If someone is deliberately hurtful to others over a period of time, that person is a bully, even if they aren’t aware of how much their actions hurt others. Some myths about bullying include the idea that ‘it’s harmless fun’, it ‘builds character’, it’s ‘just teasing’ or that the best way to deal with it is to fight back. If friends and relatives say these kinds of things to you, they may mean well but that doesn’t mean they’re right! Bullying is never acceptable, and hurts both the victim and the bully in the long term.

http://cleftaware2013.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/carmit-bachar-answers-your-questions/

Worth watching: Carmit Bachar (formerly of the Pussycat Dolls) was born with a cleft lip and palate. Here, she answers some questions submitted by some children and young people who have a cleft themselves, and talks a little about growing up, bullying, fame, and developing self-confidence.

An American resource:

http://cleftline.org/docs/Booklets/TEN-01.pdf

Shawna: I really wanted to know how to make the teasing stop, so this is what she told me. “Every time someone starts to make fun of your cleft lip and palate, ask them if they have a question about it.” Well, the next day, the kids made their usual comments, but this time I was ready. I turned around and confronted them, and I asked, “Do you have a question about my lip?” They didn't expect me (quiet and shy as I was) to say anything back to them at all. So, to my surprise, they started to ask questions about what happened and why I looked different. They were not expecting me to be able to answer them, but I did, and gradually the teasing stopped.

A woman with a cleft palate: http://cleftline.org/docs/Booklets/ADT-01.pdf

Like many of you, I experienced many hospitalizations due to my cleft, as well as the stares, teasing, and confused looks of others when they could not understand my speech. I grew up in an environment where those in my family and community did not openly discuss my responses to these moments, so others did not know the pain and isolation I felt throughout my youth.

Adult male:

If you have feelings which you believe interfere with your ability to get along with other people, be successful at work, or interact comfortably in romantic relationships, you are not alone. Joining a support group may provide you with the opportunity to interact with individuals who have had similar experiences. Professional counseling, often available through your local cleft/craniofacial team, may also be of benefit to you.

Reduced Life Chances

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons

Sociological studies, if they have been done, comparing the income level of the stigmatized disabled of given levels of education with comparable statistics for the general population, would probably show "underachievement," such as people with graduate degrees working as clerk-typists. It should be remembered that our society's treatment of the class of people the late Ms. Ivins' remark, above, refers to, is always a crucial element in the picture their life story presents. "Bellatricksy" writes:

Goffman [says] “The term stigma, then, will be used to refer to ... a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype” (2). [1] Observing that “the person with stigma is not quite human” (3), Goffman explains that the our unconscious assumptions lead us to “exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, if often unthinkingly, reduce his life chances.”
Goffman also echoes Rosemarie Garland-Thompson, noting that stigma reduces a person in the mind from being a “whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one” ... stigmatized people are vulnerable to invasions of privacy, with perfect strangers feeling comfortable starting personal conversations.

A familiar experience of our people is the case where our family, friends, or co-workers imply that we should have done better, considering our background; and completely ignore the crucial fact of our lives: Discriminatory social attitudes reduce our life chances. Repeating (emphasis added):

Our unconscious assumptions [about the disabled] lead us to “exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, if often unthinkingly, reduce his life chances.”

The previous post asked for "A landmark disability discrimination civil rights case." Also needed is a landmark (and widely publicized) sociological study detailing comparative education/income statistics for the targeted disabled as contrasted with the general population.

Imagine That America Had Its Consciousness Raised

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons

Needed:

• A landmark disability discrimination civil rights case. ACLU, where are you? Ada.gov, where are you?
• Anti-defamation campaign (Time.com, take note!).
• A civil rights act for the disabled, since the disabled were omitted from the Civil Rights Act.
• A disability ombudsman in each state and each school district to which any adult, and any student, respectively, can go when disability discrimination occurs.
• The addition of specific disability harassment language to the existing anti-harassment guidelines.
• For Shame! campaign.  
• Ad showing a minority being bullied beside one showing disabled being bullied, saying one is just as wrong as the other.
• Spots showing celebrities saying “I'm against disability discrimination, are you?”
• Ad showing teacher rebuking student for slighting disabled classmate. 
• A speech by a national leader citing instances of disability discrimination and calling for change. 
• National leader describing incidents such as Ivins' remark as the product of irrational animus and calling for change. 
• Counseling for the disabled, to deal with the pressure to feel shame, guilt, social inadequacy, etc.
• Proactive response training, such as how to respond if someone says, “How nice you're in the choir—it must help with your speech.”
• The addition of ethical training to the training of physicians and other medical staff, to remind them that it is unprofessional to treat disability as a social sin rather than a morally neutral medical condition.
• Institutions (meeting places, organizations, "meet people like you" events, etc.) to counteract the social isolation of many disabled people.