304 RüdigerKunow
narratives.^133 In keeping with this premise, the persons depicted are
shownasrepresenting,orbetterembodying,amodern-dayversionofthe
Puritan work ethic of hard work and perseverance in the face of
adversity. The statement from Tiphany Adams, quoted above, makes
thatpointinunambiguousterms.Forpeoplewhoargueorthinklikeher,
the Puritan ethic performs important cultural work by fostering an
ability which trumps disability and makes those that experience it
sterlingcharactersasAmericanasapple-pie.
ZonesofVulnerability:DisabilityandEnvironmentalExposure
Disability, corporeal or cognitive, is always an embodied condition.
This does not mean, however, that it exists independently of outside
influences, be they cultural, social, economic, or broadly contextual.
ThisiswhyIhaverepeatedlyarguedthatdisability,like"age,"isalways
a political condition. The politics of disability are, however, not
exhausted by the "rights" question, important as this field undoubtedly
is.Disabilityisalsoandinimportantwaysapoliticalconditionbecause
it is part of the political economy of a given socio-cultural formation.
Acknowledging this, I want to reflect briefly on yet another of the
"contextual influences" just mentioned, namely environmental factors
which form a crucially important but sometimes unacknowledged
contextfortheemergenceandexperienceofdisability.Sincethe1980s,
disabilityactivistsandalsothegeneralpublichaveslowlybutgradually
beenbecomingawareoftheoftenhiddenbutnonethelesspowerfullinks
between disability and environmental factors. Congenital anomalies,
commonly described as "birth defects" (among them heart defects,
neural tube defects, and Down syndrome), many of them resulting in
long-term disability, have been identified by organizations like the
WHOas"environmentalinorigin"(WorldHealthOrganizationn.pag.).
Inparallelwiththis,inthecontextofthe"environmentalracism"debate
in the U.S. (Brulle and Pellow 120-24), awareness has grown that the
human body can often be exposed to ecological dangers, many of them
(^133) Such a reading differs slightly from Thomas Couser's otherwise similar
argument about the foundational role of the slave narrative in disability
storytelling(Couser,SignifyingBodies44-49).