Disability as Vulnerability: Redistributing Precariousness in Democratic Ways

This article examines how political appeals to a shared human vulnerability could potentially deconstruct the able/disabled binary that continues to exist in the case of disability. The notion of vulnerability is important because it moves us beyond thinking about disability as a discrimination issue and approaches it as a shared matter of political planning and public welfare. To begin, I adjudicate between competing conceptions of vulnerability and its relationship to politics, focusing on the writings of Alasdair MacIntyre and Judith Butler. Drawing from both authors while emphasizing Butler's politicized version of vulnerability, I make the case for how disability scholars and activists should shift political efforts from a narrow focus on identity politics to a more encompassing vision of coalition politics, thereby removing the stigma of needing “special” protections for currently disabled citizens, while also making the case for the state to provide adequate social rights for all citizens.