Diversidad funcional: Sobre lo normal y lo patológico en torno a la condición social de la dis-capacidad

Abstract

Disability people in Spain have proposed the concept of Functional Diversity to claim the right to take decisions and to leave the marginalization to which they have been submitted through the years. This concept, created to surpass negative definitions (disability, handicap), has a connection with the ideas of Vida Independiente's (Independent Life) Philosophy, as it claims the right to the full recognition of the dignity of these group of people, as they are just one possible expression of many diversities that, nowadays, are recognized in a positive way in our society. Nevertheless, this concept doesn’t manage to overcome some of the ideas linked to the concept of disability that have a connection with the modern normalization of body and health, which is a consequence of the hegemony of the medical discourse. In our essay, we propose the lines of a critical argument that, in opposition to the above mentioned ideas, will be affirmed from the Functional Diversity perspective.