Yes. The erasure of the Elderly as members of the Disability Community is a real problem.
For one thing, the fact that they're not recognized as "Disabled," makes it hard to get the wider culture to accept the idea that disability and disabled people are a natural aspect of the Human Condition.
And for anther (and most important) thing, it interferes with the elderly getting access to services and adaptive technology that could greatly improve their quality of life -- over the span of several decades, in some cases (including, but not limited to, the internalized ableism that makes people resistant to "giving up and getting a wheelchair," for example).
But it also underlines my point that the cultural construct of "Disability" has less to do with issues of capacity vs. impairment than it does with whether or not a person's individual physical and/or mental traits triggers a glitch in our learned mind mapping system.
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Age and Disability
For one thing, the fact that they're not recognized as "Disabled," makes it hard to get the wider culture to accept the idea that disability and disabled people are a natural aspect of the Human Condition.
And for anther (and most important) thing, it interferes with the elderly getting access to services and adaptive technology that could greatly improve their quality of life -- over the span of several decades, in some cases (including, but not limited to, the internalized ableism that makes people resistant to "giving up and getting a wheelchair," for example).
But it also underlines my point that the cultural construct of "Disability" has less to do with issues of capacity vs. impairment than it does with whether or not a person's individual physical and/or mental traits triggers a glitch in our learned mind mapping system.
... ya know?