Essay On Disability Studies

What is Disability Studies?
All universities have liberal art requirements. The propose disability studies is an in-depth look at the history, culture, and social standing of people with disabilities. “Disability Studies: Expanding the Parameters of Diversity” encourages people to view people with disabilities as a group that should be represented when studying liberal arts and other cultures. According to“Disability Studies: Expanding the Parameters of Diversity”, “The social, political, and cultural analyses embodied in disability studies form a prism through which one can gain a broader understanding of society and human experience, and the significance of human variation” (Linton et al. 8). People that have disabilities exist on this world,

therefore we should talk about their social standing, history, and culture. Disability studies will make students more knowledgeable about others around them, which will help make our society more understanding.
The authors of the article want universities to understand that disability studies will benefit student knowledge.

Liberal arts studies are supposed to represent society as a whole, but somehow the study of disabled people is not a course. If disability studies is incorporated into liberal arts, than “disability studies has the potential to organize and critique representations of disability, expose ways that disability has been constructed as label and category, and reveal the consequences of those actions for the lived experiences of people with disabilities” (Linton et al 5). Disable people have certain social standing in the world and should be discussed and taught through an academic class. This social standing has influence on history and political movements. One influence most of us aware of is the American Disability Act of 1990 which is a law that change many things from transportation to employment opportunities.
Disabilities are commonly used in many metaphors. Metaphors can help greatly with understanding a new concept, and many professors use metaphors in lecture. Metaphors make it vividly clear what is occurring. However, disability metaphors can represent a stereotype or prejudice about disable people that is not true. These metaphors at time can make disable people seem flawed or unable to function like others, which in most cases is

untrue.
Before reading the text, I didn’t look at disable people as social issue. I view disability as a personal issue. By the article made me see the importance and impact disable people had on the outlook of society, and influence on culture, history, and society. Disable people had to overcome stereotypes and unfair treatment like other ethnic and gender. Disability studies should not be seen out of place in a liberal arts curriculum.