by, Renee Wood

The term “passing” is used by scholars to describe the phenomenon in which an obvious member of a certain minority group, tries to “pass” by aligning themselves with members of the dominant social group.  In America, the dominant social group would be that of a; white, middle-class, Christian, non-disabled, straight, usually male.  This doesn’t mean that the member of the minority group necessarily tries to “look”, or even “behave” the same as the members of the dominant social group, but rather they distance themselves from members of their own minority group, hoping to be accepted by members of the dominant social group.  The reason being is that they hope they will be less likely to experience discrimination if they associate with members of the dominant social group.

Many minority groups have strict social classes within them.  The disability community, in general, has one of the strictest class systems of any minority group.  Even within the disability classes themselves, there is still another pecking order. For example, those with Visual impairments might be in the upper half of the overall disability hierarchy.  However, how much vision one has, and if it’s the only impairment one has, ranks one within the Blind/visually impaired community itself.  A good example would be if one has an intellectual disability and is also legally Blind, this person’s overall rank in the hierarchy of disability would be with the DD population (the bottom of the hierarchy).  If he happened to go to a conference for people with visual disabilities, because of his manner of speaking, it would be apparent that they have an intellectual disability. Therefore this person would be treated similarly to how non-disabled would treat someone with an intellectual disability who attended a community conference made up of mostly non-disabled people.  This doesn’t mean every single person will be like that, but except for a few exceptional people, that’s the reality.

This strict class system is virtually undetectable to the non-disabled eye, since to many people without disabilities, people with disabilities are all the same – just with different diagnostic names for their limitations.  However, these very limitations determine you’re rank, and who you’re permitted to associate with, within the disability community.  One will rarely see an athletic, cognitively able, spinal cord paraplegic, freely associating with a person with Down Syndrome (DS).  In public, when non-disabled are around, the person with paraplegia, when face to face with a person with DS, will exchange pleasantries with them, but this is so they don’t look like an ass to non-disabled – this is part of “passing” for the person with paraplegia.  If they were only with non-disabled, pleasantries wouldn’t even be exchanged with someone who has a DS diagnosis – someone with DS at best would be ignored, at worst I don’t know.  Of course this doesn’t happen 100% of the time, but it happens often enough that if one is disabled, they definitely know where their type of disability fits within the hierarchy of disability.

Passing is not a “learned” behavior, as in, it is not passed on by word of mouth, or even by observing others with disabilities behave in this manner.  It’s picked up more as a survival instinct in response to how the American society treats anyone who is not seen as part of the dominant social milieu.  That is why I call it a “phenomenon” because it happens without communication, it’s dispersed throughout the country, and with a high rate of frequency.

With those who have awareness, I noticed passing behaviors in children as young as 5 and 6.  Strangely enough children don’t exhibit passing behavior with their peers who are the same age and with similar disabilities, but only with adults who have disabilities – even if they have the same exact disability as the child’s.  I’ve witnessed children with CP scream if I go near them.  I’ve seen some willfully turn their head away if I approach them.  Their parents are appalled by this reaction (thinking their child with CP should emulate my life).  When I try to explain to the parent that they don’t want to grow up to be like me, they want to grow up to have the life of a typical person, and since they don’t know me, I don’t embody that for them.

After one passes young adulthood, or when they hear me talk to a group about my life – especially when they find out I married a person with no (apparent) disability, this blatant attitude of distancing themselves from me lessons in intensity, and there is a certain maturity in that the upper rank of disability is at least open to allow someone in the lower tier of disability an opportunity to prove themselves worthy of moving up, and hanging with those above you in the rank.  But one still knows how fragile that relationship is – one embarrassing move can tumble you back to your appropriate place within the disability hierarchy.

People with cognitive disabilities have their own unique way of “passing”.  I noticed this when observing a group of 30 people with DD, some of which used wheelchairs with little to no cognitive limitations, and others whom were ambulatory people who have a wide range of cognition, who were asked about their disability.  Many of the ambulatory people with moderate to severe cognitive limitations, claimed they didn’t have “disabilities”, they were just “slow”.

Upon further inquiry, “disability” to ambulatory people with cognitive disabilities usually means “people who use wheelchairs”.  If one observes the behavior of an ambulatory person with a cognitive disability towards someone that they don’t really know who uses a wheelchair, one would notice that it’s pretty patronizing, with, pats on the head, a “poo’ thing” attitude.  Of course, this is all preformed in front of, or maybe even for, the eyes of those who do not have disabilities.  Those who are cognitively typical and use wheelchairs, tolerate this behavior from those that have cognitive disabilities, while at the same time, making sure those without disabilities know that they are tolerating it because, “These people can’t help it – they don’t know any better”.  Both are trying to “pass” by acting the way people without disabilities perceive themselves as behaving if they were to have a disability, and in a similar situation.  However, when out of the eyesight of people without disabilities, this class warfare gets pretty ugly!

It floors me that professionals haven’t picked up on this yet.  Professionals in the DD system naively put these competing classes together in the same home seeing that they may have similar “interests” such as “watching college football” (if the professionals even consider that.  Usually the professionals just throw people together because they need a place and someone has a vacancy in their home) and just can’t understand why it often doesn’t work!

Due to what I personally witnessed (and reported to supervisors) as sexual conveniences, I would say it’s especially dangerous to place an ambulatory person with a moderate cognitive disability, in a home, or an institution, with a non-verbal person who has severe to profound cognitive disabilities.  It’s not that the person with a moderate disability has a “predator” mindset necessarily, it’s just the way it works – they may even believe that the person is a willing participant because everyone wants sex, and neither of them are getting any (sex), so they probably surmise that the non-verbal person wants it also.  Mostly the victim is non-verbal and at the bottom of the DD pecking order, so not a lot of thought on the higher functioning person’s part – it’s just convenient.

Another 2 disability classes that shouldn’t be in a residential situation together is, people who use wheelchairs and have very high cognitive abilities, together with people having any type of cognitive disability, whether ambulatory or not.  Remember, “Passing” is usually a subconscious phenomenon.  Most people who engage in it are unaware of what they are doing, and they probably don’t have the word “passing” in their vocabulary in this respect.  People with disabilities probably (no matter how high their cognitive functioning) are totally ignorant to the real reason of their disdain at being place with those they deem “So unlike them”.

All people see themselves (ANYONE who is trying to pass) as more like the dominant class then those they’ve been placed with whether by nature, or worse, by those who have the authority to place them with others outside the world of the dominant class.  The fear that they will be seen by the dominant class as being “like those” they’ve been placed with, starts to consume their mind, body and soul.  This “separateness” from the life with the dominant class makes discrimination more likely and realization that the life they dream of, less likely, if they don’t get themselves out of that situation of separateness.  Those with little to no cognitive impairment will handle being placed with others they deem “not like them” poorly.

If not removed from that situation problems will ensue:  First, they just start by trying to reason their way out of the undesirable situation with social workers, SSAs or family, by saying things like: “I don’t want to live there, I’m not like them”!  Or, “There’s no one like me there to talk to”.  Of course, in the cognitively typical wheelchair user’s mind, they are envisioning a potential friend from the dominant class, whereas the professional’s vision is someone who uses a wheelchair like them, with good communication skills.

Second, when if reasoning with the “powers that be” doesn’t work to get what this person desires, they start to up their tactics, becoming angrier and more frustrated.  They will start to use the “R” word in reference to those they live with who have cognitive disabilities, as in, “I don’t want to live with ‘Rs’!  I’m not an R”!  I’ve seen it and had to steer them to the word ID (Intellectual Disability), but they just become more pissed and more belligerent to everyone.  I don’t have the answers on preventing this poor behavior (I mean other them to let them live where and with whom they want), I’m just explaining the phenomenon that triggers it.

Finally, these adult wheelchair users with typical cognition, due to the above behavior, are either placed in settings with no roommates, or placed on psych meds to at least calm their disruptive outburst of anger and frustration.  But since it’s a survival behavior, which is instinctual, rather than a psychosis, it’s still exist under the mask of drugs!  After years of placement where they feel that they don’t belong, I’ve witnessed cognitive decline in those who were bright, cognitively typical adults.

When I question professionals about this person’s marked cognitive decline, either they truly don’t notice it (because this person is now compliant for the most part), or have, what I know to be a bull-shit medical excuse for the decline.  People with CP just don’t suddenly have a cognitive impairment.  I’ve met others who fully admit they take prescription drugs to cope with what they call, “living in a concentration camp or jail”.  If passing fails, people find other ways to cope with oppression.  As maladaptive coping mechanisms as they may be, when kept from the life they dream (dreamt) of, one has to find a way to go on until they pass on from this world.

I am unaware of anyone with a disability that hasn’t engaged in “passing” at some point in their lives, whether intentional or not.  However, the more one has opportunities to engage with people without disabilities, as well as feel confident that they are already well on their way to actualizing the life they desire, the less likely they are to distance themselves from others in their minority group.  Why?  Because being seen with members of their minority group is no longer perceived by them as a threat, or a barrier to the life they want.

In fact, being with others with disabilities can bring an ease and a dark sense of humor not normally shared with non-disabled people.  Once a person with a disability perceives themselves as free and equal to have a life similar to the lives of the members of the dominant group, then they seek the solace of being with others with disabilities.  However, it’s usually with others with disabilities who have also shed the shell of “passing” because they have gotten beyond the need for it.  Those with disabilities who are still struggling, and whom we might be able to help, are still engaging in distancing themselves from others with disabilities.  These people with disabilities are unaware that we’ve made it and might be of some assistance to them in ways of achieving what they long for.  But not knowing us, and judging are ability by our disability alone – we are not what they want to be associated with, so our near presence cause fear.  Therefore they have to distance themselves from the fear of the image that separates them from the dominant class.  This will continue in society until equality comes with being a law abiding person, and not tied to whether one perceives themselves as being accepted by the dominant social class.