Should Children Wear an Arm Prosthesis - Essay Example

"Should Children Wear an Arm Prosthesis" is an outstanding example of a paper on injuries and wounds. 
Hoogsteyns and Horst wrote the article on, ‘wearing the arm (or not)’ (58-69), revisiting and reconceptualizing some notions studied in disability studies pertaining to inclusion and exclusion. The article takes a special focus on particular assistive technology as they can give shape towards mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The paper evaluates biographies of women who used an arm prosthesis through which we can understand how notions of inclusion as well as exclusion come about or are formulated.

According to the authors, the notion of disability should be understood not in the perspective of physical impairment but rather on the perspectives of the social context where the society is responsible for creating an environment of barriers, which the impaired persons must meet daily. This understanding has a great impact on shaping how people understand and perceive the notions of disability, inclusion as well as exclusion. Technical aids such as arm prosthesis, a walker, or a hearing aid as used by persons with impairments are meant to help the persons overcome the barriers (physical as well as social) that they face in day-to-day lives. According to the ‘social barriers model’ (Hoogsteyns and Horst, 59), social organization is viewed as the main source of disability as against physical impairment as would otherwise be perceived. For instance, stigma from poor social interactions within the society especially for the use of the technical aids by the physically impaired persons forms the main basis of exclusion.

A particular focus in the article is on biographic narrations of Wendy and Maria who use or have ever used arm prosthesis as interviewed in research. Wendy, who has been using the aid, recollects the way she used to perceive the use of it as though it was the direct acceptance of her handicap and this would make her hesitate on accepting it until she succumbed to the pressure of doctors when she got back pain. In fact, she is quoted from her blog saying, “I no longer think it is funny to be stuck to my fitness apparatus when I want to step off because I cannot open my hand” (Hoogsteyns and Horst, 62) and this shows her acknowledgment of the aid. The aid was seen to bring relief to her pain, this enabled her to resume normal duties under the aid of the prosthesis and she actually perceives it as part of her. However, despite the usefulness of the aid to her, social effects from the use of the aid are evident as she would be excluded through social stigma, and in other instances, she would appreciate inclusion in workplaces by the reason she can work by the aid of the prosthesis.

Maria on the other hand is seen to have adopted wearing arm prostheses at a tender age to avoid the reality that she suffered a lack of a hand. Although the aid became effective in helping her through studies and career life, the decision to have it on and off during her life in bringing up her children resulted in the effect of stress and high blood pressure. Her purpose of wearing the arm is shown to have been advised by the desire to appear ‘normal’. Effects of inclusion and exclusion affected her in that she was forced to analyze the kind of a function to attend, what kind of people to meet as well as when to (and not to) wear the arm. 

In conclusion, this article presents a clear view of disability as pertains to human beings and the social effects of inclusion and exclusion. Through the case studies of Wendy and Maria, the article depicts disability as being much created by the social context as against the physical impairment itself from the people.