Mary Lee Vance, Ph.D Director of Advisement, Career Services, and Disability Support Services Chair, Academic Staff Senate Consolidated Notes from Multiple Visits to Psychology of Women 11-29-07

Women with Disabilities--Knowledge Quiz discussed at the beginning of the class.
1.	Rhoda Olkins' impairment is ...? Polio
2.	Rhoda Olkin's handicap is ...? Limited mobility.
3.	Rhoda Olkin's disability is ...? Social, physical, economic, and legal
4.	What is TAB? "Temporarily abled bodied."
5.	What is the definition for "abelism?" Discrimination in favor of the able bodied. Ableism occurs when a house is built without a ramp and when a lecture is given without a sign language interpreter.
6.	What is meant by the "moral" model?" The belief system that says that a person with disabilities has the disabilities because she has sinned. An example is the depiction in the media of the disabled persons (without an arm or eye) as evil persons.
7.	What is meant by the "medical" model? "Your body is defective." The belief system that a disabled person needs to be rehabilitated, to be fixed.
8.	What is meant by the "minority model," also known as the "social model." The discrimination faced by cultural groups. Those with disabilities believe we don't need to adjust to the world. The world needs to adjust to us. The social model says you must learn to do things for yourself.
9.	Which model is supported by the Disabilities Studies Movement? Social model.
10.	What might Marilyn Monroe and a female quadriplegic have in common? Opposite of what was expected.
11.	When you think of an otherwise beautiful woman, much revered the world over, with quadrilateral limb deficiencies--who comes to mind? Venus D'millo
12.	What is meant by "Universal Design?" Permit buildings that permit the blind to know how to get where they are going, the aged to get anywhere.
13.	Post Polio Syndrome--when getting older, some muscles that compensated for other muscles become fatigued.
Her personal story.
1.	Dr. Vance had polio when she was young. Polio destroys the muscles. She lost the muscles in her legs. Her feet are very small. Also a box fly ate an ear drum so she also has some hearing deficits. She was adopted and brought from Korea to the United States. In kindergarten she was given an IQ test before she had learned much English. Later her reading level was tested by a teacher asking her to read a newspaper. When she read it perfectly, the teacher accused her adopted mother of rehearsing her for the test. Because of her disabilities, physicians and a covey of interns poked at her body every time she was in a hospital. To this day she prefers not to be touched without permission.
2.	Dr. Vance grew up with many mixed messages. Children who are young, able bodied, and look like the adoptive parents are more likely to be adopted. The disabled are less likely to be adopted. In contrast, Mary Lee Vance was one of the first Korean children adopted after the Korean War. As a child, she had been called many names, e.g. limpy. "Where are you from?" "What happened to you?" To these type of questions, she would wonder "why are you asking?" Her adoptive parents expressed prejudicial statements about Blacks. Asians on TV were shown in stereotyped roles. Asians were depicted either as sexual or in roles as servants. The Gerry Lewis Telethon depicts the handicapped as needing help (medical model). When PE classes were scheduled, Mary Lee Vance spent time in the detention office with students who had been acting out. Fundamentalist families would want her to come to their homes for prayer groups, laying on hands, and healing--Again the medical model.
3.	In college, she was asked to start a handicapped students association and began to self-identify with disabilities for the first time. When she volunteered with the Gerry Lewis Telethon it felt inappropriate to her. Their focus was to prevent birth defects. Her disability was being shown. She initially refused to have an electric scooter because she felt that was charity. When it was explained that if the scooter makes her a tax paying citizen, then it is not charity. She also talked about conflicts in imagery. In some ways she wanted to identify with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but he signed the law interning Japanese Americans. German and Italian Americans were not interned. Dr. Vance recommended Ronald Takaki's (1993) book, A different mirror: A history of multicultural America. Back Bay Books
	References
	Vance, Mary Lee (Ed;, 2007). Disabled faculty and staff in a disabling society: Multiple identities in higher education. Huntersville, NC: Association on Higher Education and Disability.