Disability and Achievement: A Reply to Campbell, Nyholm, and Walter
Abstract
In this article, I explore the impact of disability on one of life’s goods:
achievement. Contra Campbell, Nyholm, and Walter, I argue that construing
the magnitude of achievements in terms of subjective effort trivializes what it
means to achieve. This poses a problem for the authors’ argument that
disability, in general, does not reduce access to this good. I draw on an
alternative construal of achievement that I have proposed elsewhere in order
to show that, indeed, many disabilities do not restrict access to achievement.
I defend this argument against an objection that it problematically relativizes
the achievements of persons with disability, and I close with general lessons
for future work.