Disability Oppression Research Paper

What comes into one’s mind when they think of a disabled person? Most people feel pity and embarrassment, and feel these disabled people are nothing but useless. In “Disability,” writer Nancy Mairs discusses the experience of being a disabled person in a world focused on strong and healthy people. The danger in this single story is that people with disabilities are discriminated against and put away with forgotten care. Mairs states, how debilitated individuals are continually barred, particularly from the media. People with disabilities are the same as the average American person, but because they are disabled, they are seen as meaningless human beings and

Society’s ideological constructs and attitudes towards minority groups are created and reinforced through media imagery. Although negative associations that maintain inequities with regard to race, gender and homophobia (Conner & Bejoian, 2006) have been somewhat relieved, disability is still immersed in harmful connotations that restrict and inhibit the life of people with disabilities in our society.

Disability in a socio-cultural context can be defined as "a barrier to participation of people with impairments or chronic illnesses arising from an interaction of the impairment or illness with discriminatory attitudes, cultures, policies or institutional practices" (Booth, 2000). The traditional view of disability often focuses on the individual, highlighting incapacities or failings, a defect, or impairment. This focus creates obstacles to participation on equal terms since an individual who seems to lack certain capacities may not be able to attain autonomy.

What do you think of when you hear the word “disability”? Do you think of individuals who need extra resources? Or do you think of individuals who are limited by society? The topic of people with disabilities is often controversially. Some individuals take the firm stance that labeling a person as “disabled” can be helpful as it ensures that individual that they will get the extra resources they need to have the best quality of life. On the other hand, people take the stance that the term “disability” should be eliminated because it leads to social stigma and individual who do suffer from health, whether it is physical or mental, complications are often given less opportunities because they have been labeled as “disabled.” Especially because some individuals are targeted as being “sick” when they are healthy, which

More than fifty-six million Americans have one or more physical disabilities. Many of these individuals are physically able to partake in everyday activities, yet they are excluded from these opportunities (Crockett). People with disabilities are intentionally isolated by society due to a stereotypical assumption of their lack of abilities to participate and contribute (Harris 368). They are viewed as objects of pity, who are unable to work, go to school, or live on their own”(Crockett). Ed Roberts, an individual with a disability, clearly states, [we] “are considered the weakest, the most helpless people in our society, [but] are the strongest, and will not tolerate segregation, [and] will not tolerate a society which sees us as less than whole people” (Laney 21). He wants to “reshape the image that society” has on them and prove that people with disabilities are just as capable as everyone else. George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act into law on July 26, 1990. (The Americans with Disabilities Act: A Brief overview). Bush knew that the act was “powerful in its simplicity” and that it would “ensure that people with disabilities [were] given the basic guarantees for which they have worked so long and hard” (Americans with Disabilities Act, Medicine 3). The goal was to help people with disabilities live the “American Dream” and be identified by their potential and not their inadequacies (Rodgers 2). Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into

In today’s world, over a billion people – about one-fifth of the world’s population, experience disability. Every day, people with disabilities are suffered and challenged, not only because of their disabilities but because of people who discriminate against them. Throughout history, disability discrimination had long been deeply implanted in every aspect of life. As a result, disabled people frequently live on the margins of society and dispossess of numerous lives’ fundamental experiences. Obviously, the tremendous negative effects of discrimination against special needs on people as well as on wider society are shooting the wake-up call for both governments and individuals who should have a responsibility for seeking solutions to overcome these social problems.

Americans with disabilities make up the largest minority group in the United States. Approximately fifty million people in the United States live with physical or mental handicaps. This minority group is unique in that it is made up of people from all socioeconomic classes, genders and races. Mental and physical impairments do not discriminate. As with other minorities, Americans with disabilities face unique challenges and discriminatory behaviors. For centuries, disabled people had to battle irrational fears and stereotypes due to the lack of medical understanding. The first demand for equal treatment for disabled people came in the 1960s. The struggle for disability rights has followed a similar pattern to many other civil rights movements – first negative stereotypes must be challenged, followed rallying for political and institutional change and lobbying for the self-determination of a minority community. As a result the examples of the African American civil rights and women’s rights movements encouraged the disability rights movement, and after decades of campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990.

When people hear the term oppression, they immediately associate this word with the struggles minorities have endured throughout history. This term does not only apply to the tribulations of various ethnic groups but also to persons with disabilities. Oppression means the use of authority or power in a way that is cruel and unjust. Even though the times have changed, both minorities and persons with disabilities still fight this battle daily to be treated equally.

People with disabilities are part of the society; Are present in any area of ​​human endeavor. The worst maltreatment suffered by individuals with disabilities is that they are not seen, with exceptions, like any other person. Disability is not a characteristic of the subject, but the result of their individuality in relation to the demands that the environment poses. The type and degree of disability that the person suffers from prevents them from using their resources autonomously, being forced to look for other alternatives to meet his essential needs. People with disabilities, in fact, in everyday life, are not like other people: they have limitations and problems that do not affect ordinary people in the same way. The aspect that matters is that these people, with their limitations, have the right as all to the maximum development of all their potentialities.

There was an attempt to Christianize the world. Christianity were finally established in the Americas, Australasia, the South Pacific and southern Africa. In my opinion as much as I understand their intention to spread God’s word globally they obviously tried really hard to assimilate indigenous cultures; to make these people believe that Christ is the only way. Many had died when they felt oppressed by the European and the Spanish. During the Middle ages Church of England ruled and pay little attention to the people. According to the Chapter, “…secular rulers regularly attempted to encroach on it claims to political influence.” (McGrath, 142).

Disability has functioned historically to justify inequality for disabled people themselves, but it has also done so for women and minority groups. That is, not only has it been considered justifiable to treat disabled people unequally, but the concept of

When discussed what, it means to be a discriminated or oppressed as an individual, especially a person with an intellectual disability, we must first look at the terminology and how it will be relatable for their circumstances. For discrimination, it is described as people or groups of people, which include race, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, who are and continued to be defined as “other,” when they are perceived through “dominant” group values. These groups are treated in exclusionary ways, and subjected to all kinds of social injustice and economic inequality, (Anderson & Collins, 2013). In other words, persons with intellectual disabilities tend to be treated less favorable, or not given

In this essay I will attempt to explain people’s attitudes towards the person with disability, also about the causes due to which our society discriminates against them. Few of these reasons are stereotyping, psychological discomfort, lack of accommodation, paternalization & pity.

Over the years, perceptions towards disability have been significantly changing as result of the long pathway the disable community has taken fighting for Civil Rights, inclusion and against discrimination. Unfortunately, this last one has not been totally accomplished yet. Barriers to social integration still exist in the society. Perhaps the greatest barrier is not the disability itself; is the attitude of people.

Prior to the course, Perspectives on disability, my understanding of disability was a fundamental, concept of disability, in which I knew it existed, and also have seen and interacted with people considered to have a disability. I never took a deep look at all the social and political factors that exist within the spectrum of disability. This course has allowed me to examine all aspects of disability, which has changed my view and approach of what a disability is and how it is viewed. "Historically, disability has been viewed fundamentally as a persoal tragedy, which has resulted in diasbled people being seen as objects of pity or in need of charity. They have been subject to descriminatory policies and practices in which the predominant images of passivity and helplesness reinforced their inferior status"(Barton 4). Uncovering the framework of disability, by studying the historical, soicial political and educational standpoint, I see the intricacies in which gives me a greater understanding and awareness of the topic.