Don't scold the norm criticism. It is common practice in the field of disability.

Chronicle by Emil Falster, post.doc. at the Bevica Foundation's Universal Design Hub and Aalborg University

There's nothing like norm criticism to make Twitter glow and the debate columns in the newspapers to overflow. Norm criticism directed at gender and sexuality in particular can get people to the keys.

We saw this over the summer in Berlingske and Kristligt Dagblad, and it was also a debate about norms of gender and sexuality from this newspaper that initially prompted my reflections on this chronicle.

In connection with Pride Week in Copenhagen, I could in Information Under the heading “Pride parade is the only day of the year when I can safely walk on the streets” read a chronicle of Jonathan Jules Strange Kjeldsen's struggle to be allowed to live as a transgender person in Denmark. At least that's how I read the chronicle.

I found that many of Jonathan Kjeldsen's experiences are comparable to the experiences of children and young people with disabilities and with which I have become acquainted as a researcher.

Similarly to transgender people, people with disabilities are often subjected to norms that create inequalities and result in exclusion and discrimination. That's why I'm jumping into a defense of the norm critique -- with all the criticism that might come with it.

Norm criticism creates new norms

Norms are unwritten and self-evident rules and values that indicate what we associate with the expected and normal. A norm is not, by definition, something negative or undesirable. Therefore, being norm-critical does not imply a total confrontation with all norms and the transformation of society into something normless — on the contrary — since norm-criticism also implies the production of new norms.

The point, however, is that these norms should take on a more inclusive character. Norm criticism must therefore be used to challenge our unconscious bias, make us curious about each other's opportunities and limitations in life, and the unequal distribution of power and privilege, with the aim of creating a more inclusive society.

Norm criticism is in many ways an already familiar approach in the field of disability. This has more or less successfully been the dominant approach since the 1990s, but it has just never gone by the name of 'norm criticism'.

As an example, we can take our concept of disability, as formulated by the WHO or in the Convention on Disabilities. Here we agree to define disability as something socially created. As an individual, you may have a disability, but you first get a disability in the face of societal barriers and various forms of discrimination and exclusion, for example in the education system and in the labour market.

Our concept of disability requires us to be critical of the body-capable norm in society. This norm indicates that the relationship of being body capable, which implies not having or experiencing bodily limitations, is the normal and natural. This norm has been dominant throughout history and permeates a wide range of social systems and arenas and is expressed, for example, when we fully or partially arrange public spaces, public transport or digital solutions according to body capacity.

Lack of access

There are many examples of the fact that the body-capable norm creates inequalities, for example in the field of health. The National Institute of Public Health published a study this yearBased on data from just over 470,000 women aged 50-69, it concludes that 62-64 per cent of women without disabilities are fully screened for breast cancer, while this is only the case for 42-44 per cent of women with so-called mobility impairment, visual impairment and depression.

Although the study does not investigate the cause of the inequality, Other studies point tothat the unequal access may be due to practical challenges, such as lack of access to transport.

And the unequal access to public bus transport is a bigger and more pervasive problem. Institute for Human Rights published a study in 2021, which concludes “that ordinary public bus transport in Denmark ensures to a small extent accessibility for persons with mobility disabilities. Achieving accessibility to the regular buses for passengers has become so cumbersome that many people with mobility disabilities simply give up taking the bus. Wheelchair users are therefore a special sight in Danish buses”.

The institute points out that the reason can be found in the fact that five out of six traffic companies, geographically covering the entire country, do not allow their bus drivers to help passengers into the bus. The study compares access to bus transport in Copenhagen with 32 other major European cities -- Copenhagen ranks last.

Awareness of bias

The body-capable norm gives rise to a number of societal barriers as it has, over time, narrowed our concept of normality. The norm has been a condition for us as humans to have developed a variety of unconscious cognitive biases. These biases arise in connection with our ways of thinking and acting, for example when we have to make decisions. Here we tend to think and act based on our personal experiences and stereotyped categorization of other groups.

One of the points of norm-criticism is that we as humans have different positions and character traits, for example sexual orientation, gender identity, age and disability. Some positions and character traits privilege, while others may act as a medium of exclusion and discrimination.

When we design and set the framework for lived life, for example through architecture, various forms of infrastructure, and the design of technological and digital products, cognitive bias can mean that we (unconsciously) risk excluding others.

As humans, for example, we have a tendency to look for or favor the information that confirms our gut feelings and prejudices, and at the same time ignore or neglect the information that contradicts even the same. It's called confirmation bias.

In addition, we have a propensity to favor and attribute positive qualities and characteristics to those individuals belonging to the same group as ourselves, so-called in-groupbias. It also means that we have a propensity to underprioritize other groups, so-called out-group-bias.

These biases, which are just examples of a large number of existing biases, can be a concrete tool for eliminating norms criticism. It can be in the form of learning and supporting each other in reflecting on the fact that the body-capable norm cannot constitute the entire framework for, for example, all architecture and infrastructure. It is not just something that will benefit people with disabilities, but rather everyone who has a permanent or periodic ability to function, whether elderly, pregnant, sick or the relatively large number of people who have an accident and break a leg, for example, in the course of a year.

Norm criticism, as a mindset and human view, can help create reflection and awareness of unconscious bias. Therefore, norm criticism is not something that concerns only those who break with the norms of gender and sexuality, but instead something we can share and that can make us curious and wiser about each other's possibilities and limitations.

Emil Falster holds PhD, post.doc. at the Universal Design Hub/Bevica Foundation and Aalborg University

The chronicle is published in Dagbladet Information on 27 September 2022