1. The Admirer

• The admirer puts the disabled person on a pedestal and sees her as someone to be admired for her courage in overcoming a handicap. He is impressed by the way she copes year after year with her disability and gets on with life so well despite it. He may well seek work with the disabled community and look for ways to genuinely help physically disabled people. Indeed some people working in orthopaedics and orthotics have chosen careers because of their admiration for disabled people. He may well have an interest in things to do with the disability movement and shows an altruistic and concerned interest in the issues of physical disability. Perhaps he helps with charity events, fund raising for polio eradication in the third world, or helping in the local hospital.
  He may collect images, books and films showing people in leg-braces but he sees his motive more of an interested observer than voyeur. He may justify his interest as being almost on the level of scientific research. By studying books and images he thinks he will be better informed and more able to understand the issues and concerns of disabled people he'd like to help.
  By the norms of society the admirer is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, he himself might be admired as one who does good works in his community.