A New Post Series Begins: What is a Disability?

You may have noticed that several big questions run through the Mosaic of Minds blog. All these questions have to do with the incredible diversity of human minds, and the neuroscience behind how they develop.

Perhaps the central question is: 

What is a disability?

It’s more complicated than you might think – and some of the answers may surprise you. 

This post is the landing page for all my posts that address the question, “What is a disability?” In other words, it functions as: 

• a hub (the URL to enter if you want to find the whole set of posts),

• an introduction, and

• a table of contents. 

Each post about this question is listed on this page, and also has the hashtag #WhatIsADisability, so you can find it more easily.

While each post stands alone, they are best understood as part of a series, read in order. That way, you can see how these ideas fit together.

You may have seen glimpses of the basic concepts in previous posts I’ve written on various platforms. That’s because this entire project was inspired by rereading and recycling an old post that touched on pretty much every topic you’ll find listed below. I decided each topic needed to be fully explored in its own post. The tricky part was figuring out how to organize the ideas into posts and arrange them in a sensible order.  

Now, here we are. 

As I upload each post in the series, links for accessing them will be added here. If you'd like to watch this series take shape, you can subscribe to this blog and get emails each time I publish a new post.

1. Disabilities are Created by Culture and Technology

2. Disabilities are Remediated by Culture and Technology

3. Culture Defines What is Considered a Disability [12/6/23]

4. Disabilities Are Often “Normal” Human Traits Taken to an Extreme

5. Disabilities Can be a Matter of Degree Rather than Kind (& Make Hard Things Even Harder)…

6. …The Curb Cut Effect: Making Things Easier for People With Disabilities Helps Everyone

7. Disabilities are Not Diseases

8. Disabilities are a Mismatch Between a Person’s Abilities and Environment

Note: While neurodivergence is my focus, many of these ideas also apply to other sorts of disabilities, including physical ones such as blindness or movement impairment. 

I hope you come away with new ideas and a deeper understanding of the people with disabilities in your life.