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Humans with Disabilities Defy Darwin

  • Nov 10, 2021
  • 8 min read

This is a paper I wrote for my GS 1001 class. I loved the professor that I was randomly given to start off my college days with, that I chose her classes twice after this. I was struggling to come up with an idea that conformed to what the assignment required of me, and learning more about disabilities always is interesting to me.

What inspired this paper is really TREY the Explainer's video Disabilities in Prehistory, but I've read the same idea and thought of it myself several times before finding his video. As a disabled person, I like believing that my life has value, and that it would be wrong to euthanize me or stop me from reproducing. And thinking about disabilities in prehistory where the people were still cared for even though they were disabled, or thinking about how hard people have fought to get bare minimum accommodations.

Curb Cutouts Allow for Ease of Mobility

Many individuals have problems with physical mobility, often requiring a physical aide like a wheelchair, cane, or walker. When these people travel without a car, they use the sidewalk and other pedestrian routes. Located along these routes are curb cutouts. A curb cutout has roughly a 3 foot diameter and is a gradual slope between the elevated sidewalk and the road. In Powers (2015) and “Pedestrian Ramp” (n.d.), a person in a wheelchair is using the cutout to get to the street safely and easily. This innovation has allowed pedestrians with mobility aides to travel in the same spaces as abled pedestrians without danger or help.


In life before curb cutouts, individuals with mobility aids required attendants to lift them up to and down from the sidewalk. Without an attendant, someone in a wheelchair could get off the curb but would experience a jolt from the difference in height and would have to struggle to get back up. The difference between the sidewalk height and street high can be seen in Powers (2015). Disability rights activist Laurence Carter-Long explains that “if you’re trying to get across the street and there are no curb cuts, six inches might as well be Mount Everest” (99% Invisible, 2021, p. 1). This prompted the addition of a ramp onto the curb in several cities across America, all derived independently by people with mobility aids.


Eventually this led to curb cutouts being required by US law from the Americans with Disabilities act. Without the curb cutout, people in wheelchairs can’t safely use the sidewalk. It forces those with mobility aides to either never go anywhere by themselves or travel in the road alongside vehicles because they are unable to get onto the sidewalk. The United States Civil Rights Division (2007) asserts that, “this is a choice that people with disabilities should not be required to make” (p. 1). The combination of advocacy on the part of the disabled individuals and the capacity to care about fellow humans allowed for the curb cutout to become commonplace.


Human compassion, innovation and advocacy have allowed for disabled people to survive and thrive with physical accommodations and tools; thus undermining natural selection and social Darwinism. If humans were to follow social Darwinism, there probably wouldn’t be many people in wheelchairs. If that fact is put aside, humans still don’t follow the theory because they have created a law to accommodate those with mobility aids and ensure their safety.


In the late 20th century, the Americans with Disabilities act was passed; this being the law that requires curb cuts be in every intersection. This law also required that all public spaces including businesses, employment, and transportation must be accommodating to all persons with disabilities. Of course, the ADA had to specify that the accommodations had to be reasonable, which opens the topic up for debate. But the curb cutout stands as a symbol for all ADA accommodations. The people advocating for the implementation of curb cutouts added momentum to the growing disabled rights movement, leading to the passing of the ADA.



Glasses Help Those with Poor Eyesight

Glasses are devices that help people with poor vision see clearly. They have a frame that can be made from metal, plastic, or other hard materials and lenses which are made of glass. The lenses are curved and treated to create magnification or demagnification to combat myopia. The frames can be any color or design as seen in Rozette (2021), but typically are browns or blacks. Glasses are worn on the face and rest on the nose and ears as seen in Fizkes (n.d.) and “First Time Ever Wearing” (n.d.). Without glasses, many people all over the world would not be able to see clearly as shown in Travis (2020) and would have difficulty completing basic tasks like walking or preparing food.


Human compassion, innovation and advocacy have allowed for disabled people to survive and thrive with physical accommodations and tools; thus undermining natural selection. Natural selection is the theory that individuals of a species are more likely to survive and reproduce when better adapted to their environment, first theorized by Charles Darwin. Poor vision in other animal species is a death sentence. Not being able to see if a predator is nearby or where food is would increase the likelihood of that individual dying. Therefore, “individual organisms with disabilities would be killed off by the process of natural selection” (TREY the Explainer, 2018). This doesn’t happen to humans with poor vision. Approximately 75% of American adults wear some form of vision correction, so in a group photo like Fizkes (n.d.), it’s likely that at least one person wears glasses.


Human compassion, innovation and advocacy have allowed for disabled people to survive and thrive with physical accommodations and tools; thus undermining natural selection and social Darwinism. Individuals with poor vision being able to live long and fulfilling lives, even passing their genes down increases the likelihood of more humans being born with poor vision. Corrective lenses would be invented to help those with poor vision as shown in Travis (2020), allowing more individuals to pass on those genes, requiring more corrective lenses to be used, and so on in a continuous loop. Uncommon tools have less variations like a garlic mincer. The many different styles of glasses as seen in Rozette (2021) indicate that they are a common item from generations of passing poor vision genes down.


Over time, humans have innovated on the lens design and have been able to correct vision with varying degrees of blurriness. Along with glasses becoming more popular as more of the population would suffer from myopia, innovations would lower the cost of corrective lenses starting in the 19th century. This trend of lowering prices continues to this day and presumably toward the future (Roth and Wakely, 2016). Accessible glasses and corrective lenses put peoples mind at ease. They don’t have to worry about not being able to see clearly because glasses are easily available, and this sentiment carries on to their children. Individuals with poor vision are likely to pass on the disability to their children but the prospective parents know that if the child does have myopia, there is a remedy.



Prosthetic Limbs Allow for Independence

Prosthetic limbs are artificial devices used to restore normal functions of a missing body part. They can be made of several types of metals, resins or other durable materials and can imitate the appearance of a biological limb or designed just to perform its indented function. “The Handicap Athlete” (n.d.) shows a prosthesis used for competitive athletics designed with function over form. “3D Printed Prosthetic Arm” (2020) shows an artificial hand designed look more like an actual hand. Multiple prosthesis can be used together, as seen on the center figure in “Artificial Limb” (n.d.) who has two prosthetic legs. Prosthesis have been around since ancient times. Constant innovation has allowed disabled individuals to take care of themselves independently.


If an individual of a species was born with a missing limb, the mother would likely abandon them. If an individual had a limb amputated as some point in life and didn’t die directly from that, they would still have difficulty getting around or finding food and shelter for themselves. This does not happen to humans. People with missing limbs are supported and cared for by their loved ones and can lead long and fulfilling lives. Innovations like prosthetics can improve the quality of life of these individuals and allow them to do more things independently.


Human compassion, innovation and advocacy have allowed for disabled people to survive and thrive with physical accommodations and tools; thus undermining natural selection and social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is the theory that the biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest apply to human sociology, economics, and politics. The progenitor of social Darwinism was Herbert Spencer, who argued that society should embrace nature by letting the weak die and the strong survive, improving the life of society over time. He opposed laws that helped the low class and what he saw as genetically weak because it would delay the extinction of the unfit (Falk, 2020, p. 1). This idea caught on for a little while, but thankfully fell out of favor. People fought tooth and nail to give their disabled loved ones a long and happy life, and disabled individuals themselves advocated for their rights.


People are still born with congenital deformities or get amputated later in life. These people can lead long, fulfilling, and healthy lives and can gain some independence with the help of prosthetics, as opposed to being left to die like Spencer would have preferred. In “3D Printed Prosthetic Arm” (2020), a man is drinking from a cup which he is holding with a prosthetic arm. While it is unknown if the man has another arm, he is still able to feed himself without assistance. The prosthetic allows him to have agency over his life without having to rely on someone to do daily tasks for him. Similarly, the man in “The Handicap Athlete” (n.d.) is using a prosthetic leg to run, presumably for a competition. Without the prosthetic, the man wouldn’t be able to even walk, let alone run. But with it, the man can do something productive and fulfilling.


A place where seeing prosthetic limbs is common is at the Paralympic Games. Like the Olympic games, the Paralympic games are the leading international competitions for several sports, but the Paralympics’ focus is on disabled athletes. This grand organization that supports disabled athletes in their decision and ability to do sports certainly goes against social Darwinism. Without the innovative technology, the athletes could be seen as genetically unfit and be left to die under the theory of social Darwinism. But that doesn’t happen because humans developed advocacy and compassion, making things accommodating to those with disabilities.


References

99% Invisible. (2021, April 27). Curb cuts. Retrieved from https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/curb-cuts/

Falk, D. (2020, April 29). The complicated legacy of herbert spencer, the man who coined ‘survival of the fittest’. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/herbert-spencer-survival-of-the-fittest-180974756/

First time ever wearing glasses. (n.d.). https://ketchikaneyecare.com/first-time-ever-wearing-glasses/

Fizkes. (n.d.). Portrait of smiling diverse colleagues pose for selfie stock photo.https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/portrait-of-smiling-diverse-colleagues-pose-for-selfie-gm1300512246-392818258

Powers, B. (2015, July 1). Creating curb cuts. Retrieved from https://www.encorekalamazoo.com/creating-curb-cuts

Roth, F., & Wakeley, J. (2016, October 7). Taking exception to human eugenics. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068865/

Rozette, R. (2021, September 1). The best places to buy glasses online. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-places-to-buy-glasses-online/

TREY the Explainer. (2018, October 11). Disabilities in prehistory [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7J_oybRfuc&ab_channel=TREYtheExplainer

United States, Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. (2007, May 7). Chapter 6: Curb ramps and pedestrian crossings under title ii of the ada. Retrieved from https://www.ada.gov/pcatoolkit/chap6toolkit.htm


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