Disability microeconomics: easy to understand, hard to fix

Let's begin with the easy part, since it's easier. Equation for perceived value by a disabled person is shockingly the same as for everybody else:

benefit/cost = value

Suppose someone has 2 options about what to do on a Saturday afternoon. If the choice is rational, this person will compare her/his pool of available options, observing these two dimensions to determine the best one (higher value one).  Interesting point is this expression shows that there are endless benefit/cost combinations that result in the exact same value. These combinations are equally interesting for this particular person, which makes her/him indifferent to the choice at hand.

Another important aspect to consider in this analysis is that even if the ultimate judgement of benefit is individual, the cost is considered within a common framework: money. Surely the subjective value someone attributes to money can vary. And certainly the same amount of money can represent whole different individual costs, depending on each individual income or wealth. Still, money is the common transaction denominator that acts as a mutually agreed unit of value. In other words, if I and somebody else goes to a store to buy a TV, the same appliance model will have the same price for both of us (let's leave complex commercial terms aside for now).

The price is the same because it takes into account how much profit the store owner wants (and is able) to extract from the activities related to commercializing an item. In simple terms, it doesn't matter to this person who will provide her/him with the money in exchange for the TV set. The important is that this money is more than enough for her/him to have made all the previous efforts and investments in order to be able to sell this product.

To a certain degree, everybody in a society is doing the same all the time. Comparing the investments and efforts needed to obtain a particular amount of money, which by its turn can be converted into benefits or the investments and efforts needed for getting something good (and that can usually be priced as well). If people are rational, the equation mentioned above will be valid for almost every decision someone makes in their lives. And economically, people are valued according to their capacity of converting their efforts and time into the highest possible amount of money. Theoretically, because they can provide services, products, skills that are highly demanded compared to their relative supply.

Disability matters have been sometimes considered complicated. But reality is awfully simple. Complicated part is living reasonably well under disability conditions because of the fact able bodied folks usually don't get the problem at all (by get, I mean perceive, understand and act on it). Let's find the explanation in the simple math expression above.

Disability is not something one has. It's not a malfunctioning or missing body part. It's actually the restricted participation in social activities that results from interaction between an individual as a whole and his/her environment.  Thinking about the equation above, let's analyze the part where a disabled person exchange time, effort and investment for money. In other words, work. Environment conditions will first of all prevent the disabled person from acquiring skills to be traded by more money later on. School is a hostile environment that usually doesn't take individual needs into account for preparing someone to life.

A deficit will also happen with the purely social interaction activities, because usually the disabled person won't be able to part take in other children play. Not only this will make this child more insecure and less happy. It will also stand on the way for getting the related social skills.

If this individual is lucky and really hard working, exclusion won't be a total one. But the social benefit extracted from the interactions with others will be relatively lower, because of the partial degree of inclusion. More than that, the cost will also be higher, since it will take extra effort for this individual to achieve even a sub-optimal degree of participation and benefit.

However, western culture really loves selling hero images of disabled people. Maybe because these help to alleviate other people from the guilt of providing such awful life opportunities for the disabled ones. Perhaps they think this aura of special has any value, since real non-disabled life is not a real option. Or even that cheap pity-like emotion generated by treating disabled folks like that can also be turned into money somehow.

In any case, being an inspiration on these terms is something every disabled person should refuse. Price for being an outcast, either in the good or the bad sense, is way too high. We ought to want to be people. Let's leave the inspiration to art.