Povery as a Disability

When I came home I began thinking whether or not I believed poverty to be a disability. I looked at this website: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:oQMtoBKhUJsJ:hcdg.org/definition.htm+poverty,+a+handicap+in+education&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=12&gl=us which included the World Health Organization's definition of a disability to be: “any restriction or lack (resulting from any impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being”. Naturally, we think of an impairment as a handicap, a physical abnormality. However, after reading England's take on it I began to think differently. According to England, "to label poverty as a handicap is to bring it up against the American dream where it cannot peaceably exist" (England 36). We don't want to label poverty as a handicap because, like England says, there are too many fairytales where people have pulled themselves out of poverty. But, disabled people are considered to have a disability if they are intellecually or learning disabled, or if they have long term illnesses, mental or psychological injuries (as stated on the website). Someone without money, someone who is living in extreme poverty can not possibly be expected to be on the same page intellectually as students who are middle class. They simply do not have the resources in education. Additionally, their diets are probably not as nutritional as others, which impairs their brain activity. People who are poor also can't afford proper health care, long term illnesses are considered to be a disability. Why as a society do we place poor and disabled into two separate categories? Being poor clearly has negative effects which are put in the disability category so why don't we just combine the two factors? As England says, a child who is disabled on the outside has all of these accomodations in the classroom for them, but the child who is poor, can't eat right, doesn't have parents to help them with their work, and doesn't have proper health care because they can't afford it, that child is left behind. Just because they don't look disabled does not mean they aren't. Poor students should have an opportunity for extra help, extra attention and extra consideration. Disabilities should be labeled as set backs. The World Health Organization even says a disability is a restriction from an activity so why isn't poverty in that category?