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Discrimination against persons with disabilities essay
Discrimination against disabled people
The issue of discrimination against disabled people in our society
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Every day in America, a woman loses a job to a man, a homosexual high school student suffers from harassment, and someone with a physical or mental disability is looked down upon. People with disabilities make up the world’s largest and most disadvantaged minority, with about 56.7 million people living with disabilities in the United States today (Barlow). In every region of the country, people with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived from some of life’s fundamental experiences. They have little hope of inclusion within education, getting a job, or having their own home (Cox). Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed in life, but discrimination is limiting opportunities and treating people badly because of their disability. Whether born from ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, or hate, society’s attitudes limit people from experiencing and appreciating the full potential a person with a disability can achieve. This treatment is unfair, unnecessary, and against the law (Purdie). Discrimination against people with disabilities is one of the greatest social injustices in the country today. Essential changes are needed in society’s basic outlook in order for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life. To begin with, full inclusion in the education system for people with disabilities should be the first of many steps that are needed to correct the social injustices that people with disabilities currently face. Students with disabilities are far too frequently isolated and separated in the education system (Johnson). They are often provided a diluted, inferior education and denied meaningful opportunities to learn. There are many education rights for children with disabilities to p... ... middle of paper ... ...eglected social issues in recent history (Barlow). People with disabilities often face societal barriers and disability evokes negative perceptions and discrimination in society. As a result of the stigma associated with disability, persons with disabilities are generally excluded from education, employment, and community life which deprives them of opportunities essential to their social development, health and well-being (Stefan). It is such barriers and discrimination that actually set people apart from society, in many cases making them a burden to the community. The ideas and concepts of equality and full participation for persons with disabilities have been developed very far on paper, but not in reality (Wallace). The government can make numerous laws against discrimination, but this does not change the way that people with disabilities are judged in society.
Historically, we have been taught that people with disabilities are different and do not belong among us, because they are incompetent, cannot contribute to society or that they are dangerous. We’re still living with the legacy of people with disabilities being segregated, made invisible, and devalued. The messages about people with disabilities need to be changed. There needs to be more integration of people with disabilities into our culture to balance out the message. Because of our history of abandonment and initialization, fear and stigma impact our choices more than they would if acceptance, community integration, and resources were a bigger part of our history.
The treatment of individuals with disabilities has changed dramatically since the 1800’s. Reynolds 1988, describes, Progressive inclusion, the evolution of services provided to those with various disabilities. In the early 1800’s residential institutions, or asylums were seem as common place accommodations for individuals with hearing, visual, mental or emotional impairments. Institutions remained the primary educational support until a century later in the early 1900’s. The parents of students with disabilities brought upon a legislation change. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, these parents pressured courts and legislatures to introduce a change in educational services. Reynolds (1988), discussed the birth of The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. This act mandated that all children, regardless of disability, had the right to a free, appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. As a result, resource and self-contained classrooms expanded in public schools. In 1991 the Individuals with Disabilities Act was inducted. As a result professionals in the field of special education are giving more consideration to placing students in the least restrictive environment.
...discussion and as Baynton argues, the concept of disability plays a key role in justifying inequality in treatment. This has been shown throughout American history as reflected in the discriminatory practices that has denied women of suffrage, deprived African Americans of freedom and civil rights and prohibited immigrants from entry to the Land of Milk and Honey. Disabilities emanating from race and gender that had since been proven to be untrue or socially construed constitute a case of discrimination. Meanwhile, disabilities in lieu of diversity justify issues of exclusion or differences in treatment in order to accommodate the specific special needs of people with true disabilities.
Individuals with disabilities have laws in place to protect them and their rights as Americans. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act “requires public schools to make available to all eligible children with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their individual needs” (Us department of education, 2011). Schools have resources available to help educators meet the needs of any individual with a disability.
A. Employment discrimination is prohibited against "qualified individuals with disabilities." This includes applicants for employment and employees. An individual is considered to have a "disability" if s/he has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment. Persons discriminated against because they have a known association or relationship with an individual with a disability also are protected.
If everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom that is set forth in the Declaration, disabled people should not be robbed of their rights. However, they are still devalued from conducting common tasks which puts them at the bottom of the priority list as an employee and even so as a friend. In search to solve this problem, according to “The Disabled” by Bender, D. on July 26, 1990, President G...
Perhaps the strongest argument for greater inclusion, even full inclusion, comes from its philosophical/moral/ethical base. This country was founded upon the ideals of freedom and equality of opportunity. Though they have not been fully achieved, movement towards their fuller realization continues. Integration activists point to these ideals as valid for those with disabilities, too. Even opponents agree that the philosophical and moral/ethical underpinnings for full inclusion are powerful. (SEDL, 1995)
Disability is defined as a long term condition that restricts an individual’s daily activities (Government of Western Australia Department of Communities, n.d.). A disability can be identified in numerous types which are physical, sensory neurological and psychiatric. Due to the assistance with appropriate aids and services, the restrictions experienced by individuals with a disability may be overcome. However, the ways society perceives disability may have a significant impact on individuals living with it and also families around them. Therefore, the aim of this essay is to reflect on the social construction of disability through examining the social model of disability and how it may impact on the lives of people living with disability.
Disability is an topic that has produced conflict, and is viewed very differently from either side. For able-bodied people to truly understand what disabled people go through they need to see disabled people more; see their lives. If seeing disabled people more often became reality, they would be viewed as normal more, and it would make interacting easier for both sides. Disabled people have a hard life, but it does not mean it is not worth living. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson all have physical disabilities, and have written about their experiences and views. In their writings, they touch upon both similar and different points. A very present similarity between the authors is they all play to the same audience. In their messages, both Mairs and Johnson agree that able-bodied people automatically assume that disabled people have a lower quality of life or are unhappy. The strategies used by each author plays to their message, and aids them in getting across their position. Disability isn’t always easy to understand, and these authors help illustrate that.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, (1980) defines disability in the medical model as a physical or mental impairment that restricts participation in an activity that a ‘normal’ human being would partake, due to a lack of ability to perform the task . Michigan Disability Rights Coalition (n.d.) states that the medical model emphasizes that there is a problem regarding the abilities of the individual. They argue that the condition of the disabled persons is solely ‘medical’ and as a result the focus is to cure and provide treatment to disabled people (Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, 2014). In the medical model, issues of disability are dealt with according to defined government structures and policies and are seen as a separate issue from ordinary communal concerns (Emmet, 2005: 69). According to Enabling Teachers and Trainers to Improve the Accessibility of Adult Education (2008) people with disabilities largely disa...
The main obstacle faced by students with disabilities in the attempt to achieve educational equality is the continuing debate over the In...
According to the World Health Organisation (2011), there are more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world, with this number rising. Many of these people will be excluded from the regular situations we, ‘the ordinary’, experience in everyday life. One of these experiences is our right to education. Article 42 of the Irish Constitution states that the state shall provide for free primary education until the age of 18, but is this the right to the right education? Why should being born with a disability, something which is completely out of your control, automatically limit your chances of success and cut you off from the rest of society due to being deemed ‘weaker’ by people who have probably never met you? With approximately 15% of the world’s population having disabilities, how come society is unable to fully accept people with disabilities? In order to break this notion, we must begin with inclusion.
The right to have access to education is a concern for people with disabilities. They were treated poorly and often desegregated from society. The response to the concerns of parents and educators over the exclusion of children with disabilities created the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The public law “guaranteed a free, appropriate public education to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country”. In the 1970's children with disabilities entered schools and over the years, the number of students in special education has grown dramatically, from 4.3 million students in 1990 to 6.9 million students in 2003 (The Council of Chief State School Officers , 2007).
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
Dating back to the 1800s and earlier, society’s perspectives of people with disabilities were misunderstood. This “lack of understanding” consequently led to ridicule, rejection, labelling and stigmatisation of not only people with disabilities but people who were different to the ‘norm’ of society (Duke, 2009, p. 3). Over the years there has been a significant shift in social attitude, particularly in how students with disabilities should be educated. These social attitudes of the past and the contemporary attitudes of society today have ultimately steered the development of a more inclusive society. According to Konza (2008) ‘nominalisation’ is a significant factor to the changing attitudes of society. Nominalisation encompasses the notion that people with disabilities are entitled to “...