¹ This mitzvot could be considered the proverbial 11 ^th Commandment insofar as it follows in this Levitical enumeration of the Decalogue immediately upon the prohibition against the coveting of a neighbor's goods. (All scriptural quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version.)

² Foucault, Michel, “The Subject and Power,” in idem, Power, ed. Faubion, James D., trans. Hurley, Robert et al. , (New York: The New Press, 2000), 326–48.Google Scholar

³ In the same way that organizations of many kinds publish “current preferred language usage,” the use of the word “condition” is new in the literature of disabilities studies. The preferred use of the term “condition” serves to create a distance between the disability and the person with the disabling condition. This distancing removes some of the stigma often attached to people, a stigma just as often resulting in their oppression.

⁴ This estimate is based on a community survey conducted in 2003 by the United States Census Bureau and applies only to non-institutionalized persons. See US Census Bureau, “Detailed Tables,” http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2003_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-state=dt&-format=&-mt_name=ACS_2003_EST_G2000_P058 (accessed April 5, 2009).Google Scholar

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⁶ See, e.g., The Center for an Accessible Society, “The New Paradigm of Disability,” http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/demographics-identity/newparadigm.htm (accessed April 5, 2009).Google Scholar

⁷ See, e.g., National Academy on an Aging Society, “Chronic and Disabling Conditions,” http://www.agingsociety.org/agingsociety/publications/chronic/index.html (accessed April 5, 2009)Google Scholar

⁸ E.g., partially sighted, low vision, legally blind, totally blind, hearing impaired, and deaf.

⁹ E.g., amputation, carpal tunnel syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, acquired brain injuries, multiple chemical sensitivity, and traumatic brain injuries.

¹⁰ E.g., developmental articulation disorder, developmental expressive language disorder, developmental receptive language disorder, developmental reading disorder, developmental writing disorder, developmental arithmetic disorder, dyslexia, bi-polar and depression disorders, anxiety disorders (panic, obsessive-compulsive, post-traumatic stress, and phobias), schizophrenia, Asperger Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Tourette syndrome, speech and language disabilities.

¹¹ E.g., Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig's disease”, ALS), asthma, arthritis, cancer, chemical dependency, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome/Epstein-Barr virus, epilepsy, fibromylagia, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, lyme disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, polio.

¹² The United Nations, following the “International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps” of the World Health Organization (1980), suggests a range of qualifications to its definition of disability. United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons, “World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons,” I.C.6 (1983), http://www.un-documents.net/wpacdp.htm (accessed April 8, 2009).Google Scholar

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¹⁵ Iozzio, Mary Jo, “Suffering Stigma: The Experience of People with Disabilities,” presented at the annual meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America, San Antonio, TX, (June 10, 2006).Google Scholar See Schaab, Gloria SSJ, “A Procreative Paradigm of the Creative Suffering of the Triune God: Implications of Arthur Peacocke's Evolutionary Theology,” Theological Studies 67 (2006): 542–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ For a thorough treatment of the evolutionary theology of Arthur R. Peacocke see Schaab, Gloria L., The Creative Suffering of the Triune God: An Evolutionary Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).Google Scholar

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¹⁸ Among others, see Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie, Extraordinary Bodies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).Google Scholar

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²¹ Gaebel, Zäske, and Baumann, 42.

²² Foucault, , “The Subject and Power,” 326.Google Scholar

²³ Link, Bruce G. and Phelan, Jo C., “Conceptualizing Stigma,” Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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²⁵ Wolfensberger, Wolf, “A Brief Overview of Social Role Valorization,” Mental Retardation 38 (2000): 105–24.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

²⁶ Whitaker, Richard E., compiler, The Eerdmans Analytical Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988)Google Scholar. A search of these terms in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible yields the following number of occurrences with reference to human beings: “blemished” (17); “defective” (2); “fool(ish)” (225); “lame” (27); and “possessed” (9).

²⁷ See Davis, Lennard J., Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body (New York: Verso, 1995)Google Scholar; idem, Bending Over Backwards: Essays on Disability and the Body (New York: New York University Press, 2002); Covey, Herbert C., Social Perceptions of People with Disabilities (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1998)Google Scholar; Garland-Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies.

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³⁰ See Aristotle, , Sense and Sensibilia 1 (437a16)Google Scholar; idem, Politics, Book VII, 16 (1335b20).

³¹ See Stiker, A History of Disability, chapter 4: “The Systems of Charity.”

³² French, , From Homer to Helen Keller, 49–50Google Scholar; Gowman, Alan, The War Blind in American Social Structure (New York: American Foundation for the Blind, 1957), 106, 211–15.Google Scholar See also Sharon Farmer, “The Beggar's Body: Intersections of Gender and Social Status” and Peyroux, Catherine, “The Leper's Kiss” in Monks and Nuns, Saints and Outcasts: Religion in Medieval Society: Essays in Honor of Lester K. Little, ed. Farmer, Sharon and Rosenwein, Barbara H. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), 153–88.Google Scholar

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³⁵ Bertolaso, “La Fraglia.”

³⁶ See, e.g., Disabled World, “Well Known People with Disabilities,” http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_0060.shtml (accessed April 5, 2009).Google Scholar

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⁴⁰ See the announcement of the book series “Corporealities: Discourses on Disability,” published by the University of Michigan Press, http://www.press.umich.edu/series.do?id=UM117 (accessed April 5, 2009).

⁴¹ Wendell, Susan, “Toward a Feminist Theory of Disability,” Hypatia 4 (1989): 109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁴³ Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, All People Together (London: CBCEW, 1981)Google Scholar; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities (Washington, DC: USCCB, 1995).Google Scholar

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⁴⁶ Further, “Once the affinity of Leviticus 21 is questioned, however, it is clear that the better translation … is ‘but these are approaching the purity of the Temple.’” Wynn, Kerry H., “The Invisibility of Disability at Qumram,” paper delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, November 20, 2000.Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ Cahill, Lisa Sowle, Theological Bioethics: Participation, Justice, Change (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2005), 1–3.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Ibid., 60.

⁵⁰ See, e.g., “The Ragged Edge Online,” http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/ (accessed April 5, 2009) and “The Gimp Parade,” http://thegimpparade.blogspot.com/ (accessed April 5, 2009).

⁵¹ Snow, Kathie, “People First Language,” http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/peoplefirstlanguage.htm (accessed April 5, 2009).Google Scholar

⁵² “My preferred definition of feminism is expressed by a well-known bumper sticker which, with tongue in cheek, asserts ‘feminism is the radical notion that women are people.’” Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler, “Introduction,” in The Power of Naming, ed. Fiorenza, Elisabeth Shüssler (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996), xvii.Google Scholar

⁵³ See Iozzio, Mary Jo, “Genetic Anomaly or Genetic Diversity: Thinking in the Key of Disability on the Human Genome,” Theological Studies 66 (2005): 862–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁴ Stiker, , A History of Disability, 34.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Colón, A. R., A History of Children: A Socio-Cultural Survey Across Millennia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), 44.Google Scholar

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