Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Attitudes in today's society towards people with disabilities
Attitudes in today's society towards people with disabilities
Attitudes in today's society towards people with disabilities
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
1. Has your attitude or philosophy toward individuals with disabilities changed? My attitude towards individuals with disabilities has changed a great amount. I myself was guilty of not using person first when talking about or even to an individual with disabilities. However, I now know that you should always think of them as a person. They are a person so why not look past the disability and appreciate them for the person they are. I also was guilty of not knowing the difference between disabilities and handicaps. I had always assumed that you could use both of these in the same place and that they had the same definition. I now know that a disability is, “[a i]nability or reduced capacity to perform a task in a specific way.” While a handicap is a, “...[i]mpact or consequence of the disability when it interacts with an unaccommodating environment.” Furthermore, if I have glasses and someone takes my glasses away I will have a handicap. It is not a handicap unless there is a barrier. 2. How and/or why did this change occur (or not occur)? My attitude toward individuals with disabilities changed simply as a result of better knowledge. I was opened to a new and better way to look at how to treat people with disabilities. I wasn’t necessarily closed minded, but as a result of this class I have a much better understanding and comfort that comes with anyone with a disability. I was never afraid or offended by someone with a disability; I had never been educated correctly about disabilities. Even if someone has a disability, like cerebral palsy, that effects the way someone looks it doesn’t mean that they aren’t smart, funny, or overall an amazing person. These few new grains of knowledge that I have gained over the course of ... ... middle of paper ... ...e if Special Education was actually for me. I had never been exposed to a large number of people with disabilities before this class, and was worried that I would hate it. However, with the help and the knowledge that I learned from this class I am truly excited to work with children who have disabilities. I also learned some of the major ways to help children learn and overcome the challenges that are faced with their disabilities. I learned to never underestimate anyone, especially a child with a disability. The stories that I heard of people overcoming challenges and hardships were amazing. Samuels story was exceptional, and so was Dan Keplinger. They both overcame serious challenges even when others felt that they couldn’t do it. Both Sam and Dan were able to achieve amazing life accomplishments. You should never doubt anyone, even if they do have a disability.
Some people become handicapped as a result of an accident. Others are born with their disabilities.
I have experienced firsthand the trials of a teenager living with a disability. Life is difficult, but I’ve learned if you stay positive and make good choices, things will invariably get better. I also plan to be a counselor each summer at the Youth Rally camp for those with bowel and/or bladder disorders, teaching them the importance of doing what they love and not letting their disability hold them
During my junior year of high school, I was transferred from the Boces Program to East Meadow High School. This was an exciting time in my life! I was finally going to attend classes with "hearing" students. So many emotions filled my head. I was happy but, on the other hand, I was scared. I thought these kids would tease me and not accept me for who I am. When I went into the classroom, every student looked at me as if I were different, but they liked me anyway. Much to my surprise, within a couple of days I had made friends. I quickly realized that they didn't think of or treat me as I were different. They saw me for who I am on the inside, not a person with hearing aids on the outside.
Most people feel relatively uncomfortable when they meet someone with an obvious physical disability. Usually, the disability seems to stand out in ones mind so much that they often forget the person is still a person. In turn, their discomfort is likely to betray their actions, making the other person uncomfortable too. People with disabilities have goals, dreams, wants and desires similar to people without disabilities. Andre Dubus points out very clearly in his article, "Why the Able-bodied Still Don't Get It," how people's attitudes toward "cripples" effect them. It's is evident that although our society has come a long way with excepting those with physical disabilities, people do not understand that those with physical disabilities are as much human as the next person
The people with disabilities are portrayed as hardworking. They have people surrounding them that are accepting and encourage them to do their best. The support helps them build up courage to overcome their disability. It can take years, but the effort will not be
Disability is a condition that billions of people deal with in their daily life. Disabilities can range from physical to mental and can be observed in an abundance of ways. Some are obvious and apparent but some are invisible to the naked eye. Knowledge on disability seems to be lacking in this day and age, including how to deal with and talk about them. People seem to be unsure of just how varied disabilities are and just how many people deal with them. There also seems to be a stigma with disabilities that frankly, there is no need for. According to The Disabled Word, approximately 10% of the WORLD’S population deals with a disability and it is crucial that more people become of aware of what they are, how to remove the stigma that follows
I was always the person to shy away from a disabled person because I didn’t know how to handle it. I always thought if I avoided them I wouldn’t have to face the truth, which is I was very uncomfortable with disabled people. However, since our discussions in class, reading the book, and going to the event my views on the disabled have changed drastically since then. I learned that people with disabilities can do the same things, if not more, that a person without disabilities can do. I realized that I need to treat people with disabilities just like any other person, like an equal. People shouldn’t be ostracized for something that they cannot control. Everyone should treat disabled individuals with respect, dignity, and concern. This is why from now on I will not shy away from a disabled person I will welcome them with open arms because they are no different than
I realize that I didn't get the real in-depth experience that was envisioned for this assignment but I did find what I saw really interesting. I know that just four short years ago they didn't have the buddy program at that school. And they still have nothing at my old Catholic high school. After learning more about the benefits of inclusion during the semester, it was encouraging to see that those benefits were being experienced by students from my hometown, if not my alma-mater. I wonder how my knowledge and perceptions of the handicapped would be different if there had been programs like that when I was in high school. At least I can rest assure that future students at SHS will not go through school as ignorant about handicapped students as I did.
One of the most important parts of accepting others is simply learning how we can positively communicate with them. A lot of misconceptions surrounding individuals with disabilities revolve around communication barriers and assumptions. There are three main points we need to recognize when communicating with individuals living with a disability: disabilities don't define an individual, be mindful and avoid assumptions or generalizations, and mind your language.
Disability: Any person who has a mental or physical deterioration that initially limits one or more major everyday life activities. Millions of people all over the world, are faced with discrimination, the con of being unprotected by the law, and are not able to participate in the human rights everyone is meant to have. For hundreds of years, humans with disabilities are constantly referred to as different, retarded, or weird. They have been stripped of their basic human rights; born free and are equal in dignity and rights, have the right to life, shall not be a victim of torture or cruelty, right to own property, free in opinion and expression, freedom of taking part in government, right in general education, and right of employment opportunities. Once the 20th century
According to Mishra, “physical disability has many meanings to society. The disabled person often does not know when he/she enters a social situation whether he will be an object of curiosity, pity, sympathized with, helped, patronized, exhibited, praised for his abilities, avoided or actively rejected”. [Social Stereotypes and Attitudes Towards Disability (n.d)]
People with disabilities are still people, they are people with hearts and they are actual physical beings; people with disabilities do their best to live every day to their fullest, yet that is still not enough for others. I feel like as a whole, humans are generally uncomfortable with people who have disabilities. Let’s think of it this way, people live their life every day in their normal lives and then they come across a person with a disability and suddenly their life is interrupted, like it is such a barrier in their flow of life to come across someone different from themselves.
Special education is an incredibly important, but often underappreciated aspect of education. There is a stigma around individuals with disabilities, that leads people to assume those in special education are less capable or smart as their peers in in a strictly traditional classroom setting. That could not be farther from the truth though, and the individuals in special education are just as capable of learning and maturing in to successful adults. As a future teacher, I was not really aware of how little I knew about special education until I enrolled in this course. This course has helped change and shape my views of special education, and helped me gain a better understanding of what exceptional children are and how I can better serve them
My experience with school was very challenging and overcoming my personal struggles was not an easy feat. I started Kindergarten with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and I’m thankful that my preschool teacher recognized my learning challenges and encouraged my parents to have me evaluated. We found out that I had ADHD and learning disabilities that would make academic achievement a challenge for me. More specifically, I had difficulty decoding words and pronouncing some letter sounds such as “R’s” and “W’s”. As a result, excelling in school was a challenge due to my disability and the reaction of other students to my disability only made it more difficult.
It was not until I saw the movie (before our class) “I Am Sam”, my thoughts about people with learning disabilities started to change. The movie changed my perception that mentally challenged individuals are strange by nature because they do not seem to understand when people talk to them and is different from myself. The movie showed me that they do comprehend information, have feelings as I do, and most importantly, that I have wrongly stereotyped their differences.