Table Of ContentPROBLEMS
OF HANDICAP
PROBLEMS
OFHANDICAP
EDITED BY R.S. LAURA
M
© Ronald S. Laura 1980
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitteed
in any form or by any means,
without permission.
First published 1980 by
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
107 Moray Street, South Melbourne 3205
6 Clarke Street, Crows Nest 2065
Reprinted 1982
Associated companies in
London and Basingstoke, England
Auckland Dallas Delhi Hong Kong
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National Library of Australia
cataloguing in publication data
Problems of handicap.
ISBN 978-0-333-29967-8
ISBN 978-0-333-29969-2 ISBN 978-1-349-05653-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05653-8
1. Handicapped - Addresses, essays, lectures.
I. Laura, Ronald Sed.
362.4
Typesening in Hong Kong by Graphicraft Typesetters
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
Part I: On Understanding the Problem of Handicap
1 Looking Ahead in Special Education
Peter Edwards 1
2 Changes in Educational and Residential Care for the Mentally
Retarded
Adrian Ashman 8
3 Physical Handicap, Disability and Welfare
Norman Smith 17
4 Reactions to Physical Handicap
Phillip Greenway and Dave Harvey 27
5 Are Two Brains Better Than One?
N. C. Nettleton and J.L. Bradshaw 33
6 Sexuality and the Intellectually Handicapped Person
Janne Lee 47
7 Left-Handedness as an Educational Handicap
Marilyn Goodall 55
8 Deprivation, Disadvantage and Occupational Choice
Peter Musgrave 67
Part D: Philosophical Issues in Respect of the Handicapped
9 Some Thoughts Towards a Philosophy of Physical Handicap
Bill Wa"en 76
10 Handicapped Persons and the Rights They Possess
H.J. McCloskey 86
11 Preferential Treatment for the Handicapped?
D.H. Monro 105
12 Distributive Justice, Education and the Handicapped
Robert Elliot 115
13 Infanticide and the Severely Defective Infant
Robert Young 126
14 Mental Abnormality and Punishment
C.L. Ten 136
15 Privacy, Personal Identity and Handicap
John Kleinig 144
16 Do the Mentally Retarded Have a Right to Reproduce?
R.S. Laura and A. Gazzard 156
Preface
Editing a volume of essays written by thinkers of different intellectual
habits is never an easy task. Editing such a volume and discovering that
its subject matter fosters debate and controversy even before its
publication, makes a not easy task almost an impossible one. It is rather
as if one's work is subject to review before it has been written. The
experience of the editor is, I suppose, somewhat like that of an
expectant mother. Dependent upon forces outside her control, the
doctor's talk of due dates is transformed from a prediction into an
expression of attitude. The expectant mother knows she is pregnant,
she believes she will give birth, but until the child is actually born she
can only speculate about the outcome of her labour; or indeed, even
credit that it really has one.
Now that the volume has materialized, speculation and assessment
become the prerogative of the reader, but a bit of editorial guidance may
still be apposite. The essays in this volume, or at least many of them,
will be regarded by some readers as no more than the detached,
insensitive musings of ivory tower intellectuals. This would be a
mistake. It is true that the pieces included in the volume aim at an
objective appreciation of the problems confronting handicapped
individuals. The pieces also oblige the reader to reflect upon the
assumptions that shape personal and social attitudes towards the
handicapped. The obligation is persistent, and the considerations are
intended to force the reader to the boundary or limits of hislher moral
intuitions. Such a philosophical exercise can be intimidating even for
those who are not performing it for the first time. To be pushed to the
limits of the logical space of moral intuition is to be deprived of the
rhetorical sanctuary in which, concerning our discussions of the
handicapped and 'their problems, we have traditionally sought shelter.
We thus become vulnerable from the inside-out; we are forced to
confront ourselves in such a way that we may not like what we see. It is
important not to escape the pain of personal reflection by projecting
abuse on those who have forced us to reflect. To be aware of this from
the beginning may make a difference as to what readers will find in the
volume and in themselves. If an examined life is far more worth living
than an unexamined one, then this collection of essays must surely be
taken to advance the former. We serve the cause of the handicapped not
by making their problems more or less than they are, but by being able
to appreciate the handicapped and see their problems for what they are.
R.S. Laura
Newcastle, 1980
vii
Acknowledgements
The original stimulus for this Volume derived from the Monash
University Faculty of Education Research Committee. In 1978 a
substantial financial contribution was made by an anonymous
benefactor to that committee for the purpose of advancing research in
respect of the problems concerning individuals with handicap. I was at
the time a member of the Research Committee, and it was agreed both
that some of the endowment would be used to sponsor a volume on
problems of handicap and that I would be responsible for its design and
editorial management. On behalf of all of the contributors to the
volume, I should thus like to express appreciation to the Monash
University Faculty of Education for providing this excellent
opportunity to raise and pursue these important matters.
R.S. Laura
Monash University
(now Professor of Education
The Univesity of Newcastle)
viii
Introduction
In recent decades considerable research has been devoted to problems in
respect of the handicapped. A vast literature has accumulated, but its
expression has been largely esoteric and adorned with technical jargon,
or so pedestrian as to be remarkable only for its banality. The delicate
equilibrium between scholarship and 'parlour chat' is by no means easy
to preserve, but cognizance of the balance may at least assist us 'in
achieving it. There is little doubt that the time has come to discuss the
problems of the handicapped in terms which are comprehensible and
candid. The aim of this volume is to speak not only to those who
specialize in these problems, but also to those who do not. The main
consideration can perhaps be regarded as an exercise in consciousness
raising. The objective is not so much to anatomize the technical
problems as to afford the reader some sense of what they are and of why
they so deeply worry those who endeavour to effect their resolution.
In order to achieve these ends the volume assumes an inter
disciplinary posture towards the subject matter of which it treats.
Consistent with this posture the volume is divided into two parts. Part I
is concerned to provide the reader with a coherent and basic
understanding of the general problems faced by those who are
themselves handicapped, as well as by those who attend to their care
and education.
Peter Edwards introduces the discussion with his account of the
recent trend towards including intellectually handicapped children in
the mainstream of education. Tracing the implications of this new
philosophy, Or. Edwards considers legislative precedents, appropriate
facilities and the training of special education teachers. Adrian Ashman
continues the discussion with a survey of developments in the care for
the education of the intellectually handicapped, noting the social
practices and attitudes which have underpinned their implementation.
The next essay is by Dr. Norman Smith who is concerned to exhibit
the relation between those factors affecting society's perception of
handicapped individuals and the social policies through which it is
expressed. His central contention is that when society's perceptions of
handicapped persons are translated into social philosophies, the
resulting social policies often exacerbate the situation of disadvantage in
which the handicapped find themselves. Following on with an essay
concerned to explicate in psychological terms various of society'S
reactions to the handicapped, Drs. Greenway and Harvey urge that our
perceptions of the handicapped are psychological exemplifications of
our inability to deal with visible physical handicaps. In an attempt to
ix
x Problems of Handicap
dissipate our anxiety and embarrassment we embrace a view of the
physically handicapped which more accurately reflects our own state of
mind than their state of being. This psychological phenomenon has
serious implications for the parents of such children and these are
closely examined by the authors. The piece by Drs. Nettleton and
Bradshaw is concerned to explore the relationship between cerebral
asymmetry and learning disability. The authors point out that though
the relationship is not entirely clear, some educators have proceeded as
if it were, implementing remedial programmes based upon the
assumed relationship. One such programme has been enunciated by
Carl Delacato, and its influence in the world of special education has
been pervasive. In the remainder of their paper Nettleton and Bradshaw
devote themselves to a critique of Delacato's theory and conclude by
suggesting an alternative way of viewing hemispheric processing.
Janne Lee offers the next piece, and she is concerned primarily to
consider and to assess society's attitudes regarding the sexuality of the
intellectually handicapped. Ms. Lee argues that traditional attitudes
towards the intellectually handicapped rest upon a confusion. Society
has mistakenly assumed that those who are intellectually handicapped
are by definition socially handicapped and thus incapable of becoming
sexual beings. Ms. Lee traces the genesis of this confusion to the
posture which society assumes towards the intellectually handicapped,
suggesting that society's attitudes make it impossible for the
handicapped to obtain the status of adulthood to which sexuality is tied.
Society imprisons the intellectually handicapped by regarding them
as perpetual children, or indeed, as less than children. Construing
sexuality as a form of interchange far more comprehensive than genital
sex, she urges that society's limited view of the sexual relationship has
served as an impediment to the learning of socially acceptable
behaviour on the part of the handicapped. Ms. Lee concludes her
remarks by affirming the importance of appropriate sex education
programmes for the handicapped.
The subsequent two articles signal a departure from our standard
conception of what constitutes a handicap. Marilyn Goodall's essay is
directed at showing the extent to which left-handedness becomes a
handicap in a right-handed society. Ms. Goodall contends that in so far
as the special needs of left-handed children are not adequately catered
for in schools, those who are left-handed become educationally and, in
some cases, emotionally handicapped. Peter Musgrave's piece
represents a further departure from the traditional rendering of the
concept of a 'handicap'. Professor Musgrave's aim is to show how
culturally determined behavioural expectations can handicap an
individual as severely as certain mental or physical disabilities. Cultural
definitions of 'disadvantage' and 'deprivation' impose upon individuals
identities which inhibit and distort the process of occupational choice.
Professor Musgrave also suggests that a societal redefinition of what
