Occupational Therapists Opinions About Disabilities

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I have always tried to live my life to treat others as I would like to be treated. Unfortunately, people with disabilities are often not treated with the respect they deserve. Throughout my life, I have met some amazing people with the disabilities, so I knew I wouldn’t have many, if any, listed in the higher number categories on the first survey. Having an open mind when meeting people definitely helped me filling out this survey. The second survey, however, really irritated me. I know people have negative views on disabilities and I am hoping as an occupational therapist, I will be able to change the views of society on disabilities. On the ‘Opinions about Disabilities’ survey, I ranked the choices on the survey based on if I were to marry the person today. I tended to base my answers off of people I have known in my life who have the specific disability. There was definitely a trend in the groups for my answers. For those I would marry, it seemed to be disabilities that a person can often control themselves and would not need additional care, such as a learning disability, arthritis, or chronic back pain. For those I would accept as a close friend, were aimed more towards the disabilities that requires the additional care, that would make life much more difficult to balance, such as …show more content…

Many people view disabilities in an extremely negative way, especially physical and mental disabilities. Two years ago I spent my spring break volunteering at a camp for adults with disabilities. I always accepted those with disabilities as normal people and it was at this camp where I found a passion in working with this population of people. Seeing this survey and hearing people talk about disabilities in a demeaning way is something that I hope to change. Nobody deserves to be treated negatively and if more people could open up their minds and hearts then those with disabilities could live happier

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