Saturday 10 February 2018

#440 Attributing rights

I'd spent the morning completing a bunch of training exercises for a note-taking assignment. I didn't know for sure if I'd been booked onto the assignment yet but the exercises were like a precursor to it. The current module was on disabilities.

The module began by explaining that under the Equal Rights Act (2010) disability was defined as "a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities". 

I thought about laziness and whether that could be considered a mental impairment. Then I remembered that the word laziness wasn't even recognised in the field of psychology. At best it could be seen as a symptom of an underlying condition but I didn't think any mental health professional would use the term "lazy". It was too ambiguous and had negative connotations.

What about forgetfulness? Again, it was more of an observed phenomenon than an identifiable impairment. One might forget something because they had made several conscious choices to avoid the matter at earlier points in time. Society believed in choice. It needed to because it hadn't yet worked out how to function without that belief, if that was even possible. There was also an element of luck involved. People didn't always mean to forget things but sometimes it happened. It wouldn't be practical to legislate for it.

Satisfied that laziness and forgetfulness weren't classed as disabilities under the act, I read through the rest of the module, passed the assessment and moved onto the next topic.

No comments