The Focus Should Be on Diversity, Some Say

Rearranging the Perception of Disability

“We should not only look at folks with disabilities as our clients, but as our colleagues.”

By Lyn Stoesen, News Staff

Illustration: John Michael Yanson

Social workers frequently work with disabled clients and consumers in their practice. Disability can be physical, mental, developmental, chronic, temporary, visible or invisible and may or may not be the primary cause for receiving social work services.

And social workers themselves may be disabled. Disabled social workers may work with people with similar disabilities, different disabilities, or may be in policy work or other practice areas unrelated to disability.

Indeed, the definition of “disability” itself is difficult to determine. Recent theoretical approaches to disability and social work practice question the traditional medical diagnostic approach and suggest that new models are more appropriate and effective.

Some social workers, for example, have disabilities that are not immediately apparent. Linda Baker-Oberst is a disability program specialist with the Missouri Governor’s Council on Disability, working in St. Louis. Baker-Oberst is hard of hearing and has minor cerebral palsy as well, “but you wouldn’t know that from first looking at me — it’s not obvious. . . . My disability is invisible, and sometimes that [may be] more difficult than if you have a visible disability. If I sat in a wheelchair, that’s a known factor.”

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