Inquiry 3

In this interview Sunaura Taylor discusses how she lives her life with physical disabilities and how society looks upon disabled people. She makes good points about how many people are not very accepting of disabled people in society. Sometimes the way disabled people do things make certain people uncomfortable, but to the disabled person that’s how they live life. That is how they can operate best. She mentions how she can move without her wheel chair but it might not be socially acceptable. This interview reminded me of a professional bass fisherman who is extremely handicapped. I cannot recall his name but by looking at him you would assume there is no way this man can fish. He has no knees, shins, or feet his legs end about mid thigh. He has no left arm (I think it’s his left arm) and his right arm has no elbow or hand. And this man can cast, reel, and catch fish better than most average anglers. My point in bringing him up was that Taylor was talking about using certain parts of her body for tasks that we might not be accustomed to. This bass fisherman uses his chin to steady his rod and nods his head in correlation to his right arm to reel in. It’s really remarkable, and if I was in his situation I hope that I would have the courage to still fish. However my dilemma is that our bodies are made so exact and certain body parts have certain functions. So if we use other parts of our bodies for functions that they were not intended for then there would most likely be consequences. Like Taylor using her mouth to paint, this increases her chances of getting sick by having a foreign object in her mouth unless she periodically sterilizes her paint brush. Or in the fisherman’s case he stands on his nubs (??? not sure on the terminology) all day when fishing because he does not have feet. But our feet are padded and made to withstand our weight were his legs are not. It seems like this could become very painful and begin to cause damage to his legs. So my question is what is the price disabled people are willing to pay to accomplish the things they wish to accomplish? (I assume it would be a very steep price.) Orwould someone who could move unconventionally without a wheel chair really want to if it meant causing harm to their bodies?