Importance of Intersectional Analysis in Disability Studies Essay Example

have been found to use excessive force on people of color and to the larger extent women of color.

In addition to race and gender, the intersection between disability and poverty has been recognized. It has been identified that social barriers play a critical role in the conception of disability. In addition, the perspectives of understanding poverty have shifted from an income or monetary based approach to a multidimensional approach where the aspects that are related the access to basic services and opportunities play a key role. Given these new developments, the study of disability has shifted from disability being a health shock that increases the risk of an individual being poor to a more complex interaction which is associated with social exclusion (Pinilla-Roncancio, 2015).
The relationship between poverty and disability has shown to depend on social characteristics such as age, gender, region of residence, and country. The social attitudinal barriers have shown to decrease the access of services as well as opportunities for the people with disabilities (Pinilla-Roncancio, 2015). Generally, people with disabilities always face social exclusion even in the developed countries that have developed social programs to allow for the extra cost of disability. While we may assume that all people of disability face the same level of social exclusion, this has shown not to be the case. Other factors such as race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation play a major role. For instance, in the Western countries, white people with disabilities experience less social exclusion and access to opportunities than people of color. Muslims experience more social exclusion than people of other religion. Women experience less access to opportunities than men. Expanding on that

we find out that disabled Muslim women of color experience exceptionally high level of social exclusion and lesser access to opportunities. The varying levels of social exclusion and access to opportunities result in varying levels of poverty among people with disabilities.
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his shows how it is wrong to study disability independently. This is because people with disability are not faced with identical problems. There is a tendency of society to bring in gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, and race in the issues of disability. As a result studying disability in isolation leads to a wrong conclusion and the policies put in place to protect those people with disability may be ineffective. For instance, the policies put in place to ensure that people with disabilities are treated appropriately by the police and the judicial system has been ineffective. This is because the issues of race, gender, and religion were not given enough consideration. As a result, the treatment of people with disabilities is not the same across the board with people of color experiencing harassment from the police (Nelson, 2010). In addition, the policies put in place to give people with disabilities enough economic opportunities have been equally ineffective. Most of the opportunities created go to a privileged race, ethnicity, religion and gender ignoring the minority (Pinilla-Roncancio, 2015).
This proves that it is important to include intersectional analysis when studying disability issues. This is because disability overlaps or intersects with other social identities which are related to the systems of dominion, oppression, or discrimination. Such social identities include race, gender, class, nationality, age, religion, and sexual orientation. These factors interact with disabilities to bring out different levels of

discrimination. As a result, it is wrong to generalize all individual with disabilities as this gives a wrong understanding and any policy put in place to protect people with disabilities become ineffective. Therefore, for a clear understanding of issues faced by individuals with disabilities, it is very important to include intersectional analysis in disability studies.

References

1. Nelson, C. (2010). Racializing Disability, Disabling Race: Policing Race and Mental Status. Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, 15, 1.
2. Pinilla-Roncancio, M. (2015). Disability and poverty: two related conditions. A review of the literature. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, 63, 113-123.