I refer to the article ‘Enablers for the disabled’ (December 24) by Maria Cynthia deBono, oneof the recent crop of University of Malta MA graduates in disability studies.

The Times of Malta did well to highlight the sentence “I began challenging the paternalistic environment as I was learning that these people have feelings, thoughts and aspirations”, for her present day use of the expression “these people” tends to indicate that deBono may actually perceive the disabled as a breed apart.

It also suggests that her early challenging of the paternalistic environment later slowed and that she has since subconsciously adopted what she terms “the dominant ideology of normality”. This defines a disabled person in terms of their ‘otherness’, as signified by their disability, rather than as person, in terms of their personality.

The writer is commendably modest about her knowledge of the field and her need to obtain new knowledge from “disabled individuals” to “enrich her understanding” and make her “a better collaborator with disabled persons”.

I would suggest that it is even more important that she (and possibly her co-graduates) do some post-graduate work on “personal growth and... way of thinking”, if they are to sincerely and effectively challenge “the dominant discourse”.