Interesting question, and very pertinent in the world of mental health disability.
You are culpable to the extent that you and God only know.
It is a known fact that the disabled of all flavors (I have experience in children with mental illness, developmental delay and emotional disturbance, but it is also a known fact in the physically disabled) have a normal human tendency to “use” their disability as an excuse for behavior they often can control, at least to a certain degree.
An example - a gentleman with severe Tourettes syndrome in a group home situation was becoming unsafe to be around. He would go into a very predictable rage, quite physically violent, at 4 p.m. every day that extended to the ride home and into the group home activities in the evening. After many professionals and experts were brought in, the poor guy still had this going on. Finally, one brilliant (dripping irony icon inserted) professional simply took the liberty of asking the “consumer” what the deal was. Come to find out, this individual was spending his day forcing back his ticks and other behaviors and just couldn’t get past 4 p.m. It was his drive home and group home assistants that had to deal with the outcome.
Result, at 2 p.m., when everyone else was taking their afternoon coffee break, this gentleman was allowed time in a storage closet with a drink and snack, where he could tick and act out and scream for about 2-4 minutes to let off steam.
And no more bad behaviors. He made it to the 5 p.m. clock, was polite and chatty on the bus ride home, and assisted in meal prep and clean-up with his group home members.
He was not culpable for his behaviors before the intervention. If, however, he realizing this new schedule gave him the ability to act civilly to his fellow workers and roommates, and he chose, knowingly to use his alone time to scarf down a stolen sweet or two thus raising his blood sugar and NOT using the time to release some much needed tension from ticks and so forth… and then he attacked the bus driver… that would be a culpable sin. Understandable as we are all sinners and weak, but not something to just let go as “well, he has Tourettes, he can’t help himself.”
To whatever extent we are capable of, each of us must take responsibility for our actions, regardless of disability. Sometimes this takes a lot of sleuthing to discover.
