Darius Goes West was a documentary about young man named Darius and his friends as they journey across the U.S. in hopes of raising awareness about Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and handicap accessibility through the MTV television show Pimp My Ride. The crew and Darius visited a beach on both the East and West coast, the Grand Canyon, the Carlsbad Cavern, the St. Louis Arch, and many other famous attractions of the United States. Right at the beginning of the trip the group stopped at a gas station for a quick pit stop and Darius planned on using the restroom. However, the gas station had no accessibility that allowed Darius to even enter the front door. This was great in terms of a prime example of the lack of handicap considerations …show more content…
I believe in the documentary one of the crew members stated that he used to think of handicap spots as perfectly good parking spaces that were always empty. I really could identify with how he felt because the view was similar to my own when I was younger, and this made me feel completely inconsiderate. During the part of the documentary when Darius was unable to reach the rest room at the gas station due to a fairly high ledge with no ramp, it made me think of a similar situation I witnessed. Once I was stopped at a large rest area on the interstate while on a family trip and a group of young women in front of me ran to the bathroom and took up the only two handicap stalls when there were multiple non-handicap stalls available. Only a few minutes later did a woman in a wheelchair enter the rest room and had to wait because the handicap stalls were full. I felt terrible for the woman and felt even worse that there was nothing I could do to help. That’s why a documentary like this is so important in showing non-handicap individuals how significant access to accessible facilities is for those with special needs. The young girls didn’t know they were doing anything wrong, but had they been more aware, they might have thought twice before choosing a handicap stall over a non-handicap
Eli Clare in Reading Against the Grain mentioned that the mainstream culture has a tendency to stereotype people into eroticizes culture such as thinking all African Americans males and Latino women are hyper-sexual, perceiving Asians as passive beings, and assuming that disabled individuals have no sexual desires. Somehow people regurgitate these stereotypes as if they’re empirical facts. Objectification usually reinforces or maintains the institutionalized power differences, which can deprive some groups such as the disabled from self-determination. The section of Pride and Exile brings to light how some members of the disabled community feels that they are denied of their personal autonomy. In Clares case, she explains how the MDA fundraisers
She told her readers that she has a muscle-wasting disease and she could only move three fingers on her right hand. She wrote that the reactions she got from most people were “Decidedly negative” (Johnson p.98) She wrote that she would hear thing such as “I admire you for being out; most people would give up.” And “You don’t let the pain hold you back do you?” (Johnson p.98) There is often talk about how popular culture teaches people to both see and not see the people with disabilities. Comments such as these are an example of such blindness. When a child sees a disabled person a parent’s first reaction would be to tell them not to stare. We teach children that it is impolite to be curious about people who live life differently than others. We carry the “its-not-polite-to-stare” idea into adult hood therefore when we come across a disabled we try not to make eye contact not as if we are being rude but because we are taught that it would offend them. All curiosity and attempts to understand are shut down at a young age for fear of offending someone. Therefore, any attempt to encourage is met with a deep misunderstanding of how the life of someone with disabilities truly works. Just because a person has a disability does not mean they are incapable of enjoying
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 experience changed her life, she learned to rethink her own attitude and self determination. I learned that people with mental retardation are not to be separated from society or even treated with less respect because of their disability. “Riding the Bus with My Sister” taught me to never neglect people with mental disabilities. Readers learned that people with mental retardation, just like everyone else, have families, desires, and determination. They cry, they laugh, they have emotions just like the rest of us. We can learn new things from those suffering from mental retardation. ‘Riding the Bus with My Sister” taught me that civil rights apply to
What comes into one’s mind when they are asked to consider physical disabilities? Pity and embarrassment, or hope and encouragement? Perhaps a mix between the two contrasting emotions? The average, able-bodied person must have a different perspective than a handicapped person, on the quality of life of a physically disabled person. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson are three authors who shared their experiences as physically handicapped adults. Although the three authors wrote different pieces, all three essays demonstrate the frustrations, struggles, contemplations, and triumphs from a disabled person’s point of view and are aimed at a reader with no physical disability.
Disability in our day in age is seen as being worse than death. People with disabilities should not feel like they don 't belong. They are just like everyone else and want to be treated like everyone else. Many without disabilities think that it can be contagious and stray to even look at people with disability. This is not the case for it 's not contagious and one should not be seen as a different person just because of their disability. They didn 't choose that life and shouldn 't be mistreated for what they are. “People with disability should be treated equally to everyone else.”
This lack of depiction is perhaps the most accurate depiction of disability possible. Most of the time, I never think about my disability. Sure, it make my life a little different, but for the most part life as a disabled person is exceedingly normal. I loved that Friday Night Lights made Street a character who was so much more than his accident and his disability.
The Special Olympics date back all the way to the year 1968. Many see these Games as a time to honor someone who is able to “overcome” a task, but author William Peace sees this as an insulting portrayal of people with disabilities. Peace is a multidisciplinary school teacher and scholar that uses a wheel chair and writes about the science behind disabilities and handicaps. As a physically handicapped individual, Peace is able to observe a negative portrayal of disabled persons. In his article titled, “Slippery Slopes: Media, Disability, and Adaptive Sports,” William Peace offers his own personal insight, utilizes several statistics regarding handicaps, as well as numerous rhetorical appeals in order to communicate to the “common man”
Stephen has helped to shape society by connecting with able bodied people in an attempt to remove ‘stereotypical’ (Havard, 2014, p.76) values concerning wheelchair users. Stephen Sweetman’s experience provided firm examples of some of the ways in which connections and disconnections ‘produce differences and inequalities’ (Havard, 2014, p.79).
These handicaps not only took away their emotions, but gave them seriously horrible headaches. They gave the people something that they described as,"visions". The people would have screeches in their handicaps. Harrison Bergeron does not deserve to be known as the crazy man who jumped on the stage and ripped off his handicaps. He should be known as the brave man who was willing to take off his handicaps. Bergeron might have seemed like a threat at the moment. But he is a hero. Other people might think of him as a threat to society, but they need to read the story more carefully, because it is unreasonable to describe someone as a threat when they are just trying to be
“Using Disability Studies Theory to Change Disability Services: A Case Study in Student Activism” outlines Syracuse University struggles with disability-related topics. Some of the university’s students formed a committee called Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee to be the voice for the disabled students. The article follows their journey in struggles with implementing handicap-accessible areas and study material for a student that was blind (Cory, White, & Stuckey, 2010). This article reminds me of a close friend from my old neighborhood. He got into a really bad car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. After the accident some friends and I helped his parent modify their home to accommodate for his wheelchair. When tragic accidents like that help it really makes you put thing into perspective.
In addition, movies are starting to add more people with disabilities as extras . This is encouraging for people with disabilities. Hopefully we start getting more lead roles about people with disabilities played by people disabilities. What does it show that when a person without a disability plays someone with a disability. Once that camera turns off they are no longer disabled. Having a disability is not something you can turn off and on. More recent movies have been good at modeling the life of an individual with a disability. It gives the audience a better feel of what people face and their experience with a disability. Although people with disabilities are not the ones playing the role, it is good that disabled roles are showing up more. Some roles are even inspired by people 's stories which gives it authenticity.
District 9 is a film that takes us into a realm of a different world from the one that we know now. It combines extraterrestrial life with immense science fiction to illustrate a story we could only imagine to ever actually occur. Although it was created for entertainment purposes, the motion picture can be compared to many different types of individuals and situations. District 9 displays many underlying concepts throughout the movie about racism, prejudice and discrimination. While studying and analyzing the plot and characters, these concepts became more translucent to me, the viewer. This paper will discuss the treatment of District 9 residents and equate their treatment to people with disabilities.
While these three authors have different reasons to write their essays, be it media unfairness, ignorance, or ethical disputes, they all share a basic principle: The disabled are not viewed by the public as “normal people,” and they are unfairly cast away from the public eye. The disabled have the same capacity to love, desire and hurt as any other human being, and deserve all of the rights and privileges that we can offer them. They should be able to enter the same buildings, have representation in the media, and certainly be allowed the right to live.
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.