Ableism And Disability Oppression: An Analysis

“There's nothing more debilitating about a disability than the way people treat you over it.”( Solange Nicole) In today's God abandoning society there are many people voicing about equality. There are feminists, those against racism, those against homophobia, and those opposed to everything. Each group seems to have people standing up for them. Although when it comes to a group of cripples there's not many that can do the standing. Ableism: Discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. While many people don't know that word, or do not believe such a thing exists, there are many things proving that it does. It is easy to get caught up in life and not realize the difficulties people have, especially ones that could be easily fixed, just by

Individuals with disability have had a long history of maltreatment in America. From being thought of as possessed individuals in need of exorcism, targeted for heinous experiments, unknowingly sterilized, being labeled imbecile, feeble minded, and retarded, to being shipped off to state schools or mental asylums, those with disabilities were given no consideration as a valuable and able to contribute member of society. In a speech to congress, Frank Bowe, a highly educated deaf-man highlighted this claim by stating, “we are not even second-class citizens, we are third-class citizens” (Bowe, F. 1977--need citation), and Jim Cherry (2001) furthered the ideal in his words, that prior to “1970 we [disabled citizens] had no right to education, to employment, to transportation, to housing, or to voting. There were no civil rights laws for us, no federal advocacy grants. Few people looked beyond our medical needs” (Cherry, J.L, 2001 http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/0701/0701cov.htm). Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 attempted to fundamentally change how disabled people were reguarded.

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.

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.

Ableism was first identified as an issue in 1973 when, “the passage of the Rehabilitation Act was perhaps the first public acknowledgement that people with disabilities could be considered a minority group in need of civil rights protections. Section 504 of that act prohibited discrimination against people with a disability who had appropriate qualifications for jobs in federally funded programs.” (Koppelman, p. 289) Cultural ableism is the “societal promotion of negative beliefs and images concerning people with disabilities that tend to portray the less able as deviant or incompetent; an assumption of superiority by people or groups based upon physical, mental, and emotional attributes.” (Koppelman, p. 309)

The United States as a whole suffers from numerous social controversies in the form of discrimination, most taking the form of “isms”. Americans exhibit prejudice “isms” such as sexism, ageism, racism, as well as classism; additionally, one discriminatory ism less known to the public but still affecting countless Americans each day is ableism. Ableism can be interpreted loosely as “the practices and dominant attitudes in society that devalue and limit the potential of persons with disabilities” (“What Is Ableism?”).

Ableism is defined as the “discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities,” (Merriam-Webster). Isms, such as ableism, are generated to make those that do not coincide with society’s views of normality feel as if their existence is unwanted. Those who discriminate against disabled people are only furthering the unequal individual representation in the world; therefore, they are pushing society away from a positive and productive setting. Discriminating individuals for a disability they cannot control shows how social equality has diminished. This ism promotes pessimistic views of able-bodied individuals and should be abolished in order to revoke the oppressive demeanor those without disabilities emit.

Ableism is discrimination and social injustice against people with disabilities. Here, “injustice” is essentially the same thing we mean as when we talk about racism or sexism, except that it’s leveled against people with disabilities.

Disability inequality occurs if you are treated less well for a reason that relates to your disability than a person without disability in same situation. This attitude towards physically/mentally disabled is also called “Ableism”. Even unintentional ableism is illegal.

A large part of the oppression of people with disabilities is based on the systematic categorization of people, usually separated into normal and abnormal. While what is normal cannot exist without first establishing what is abnormal, the process of this decision can be decided by visual judgment, personal interaction, or medical diagnosis. Whether a person has a facial disfigurement, a wheelchair, or a seeing-eye dog, many people would consider those visual cues as apart from the norm, while epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or a hearing impairment would be distinguished as abnormal by personal interaction or medical diagnosis. All these factors separate people with disabilities from those who are able and are provided with opportunities that disability can take away. To declare someone of having an abnormality is to cut them off from the mainstream society, create them to be a bit of a pariah or a sideshow (as was the case with the infamous Elephant Man), and to question their existence and worthiness in and to the general American public and government. Jobs, public access, independence, freedom, and self-respect become personal and social casualties when a person acquires a disability, such as blindness or losing a limb. In an essay

Throughout history, our society has overlooked and discriminated against people with mental and physical disabilities. Prior to World War 1, many individuals with disabilities were denied education and institutionalized, which often times resulted in those patients being mentally, physically, and sexually abused. Around the world, people with disabilities were put in institutions and labeled “feeble-minded.” For example, in 1913, the passing of the Mental Incapacity Act in Britain led to approximately 40,000 men and women being institutionalized. Often times patients at these facilities were neglected, isolated, and received no education. Many parents were ashamed of their disabled child and had no idea of what

In the olden day, children born with disabilities were hidden or even killed. Shame and guilt often followed the birth of a child with disabilities. Most people believed that the disability was the result of a family member’s sins. Although society began accepting people with disabilities as time passed, a disability was still viewed as a personal tragedy. Many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. In 1967, 200,000 persons with disabilities resided in state institutions. Many of these restrictive settings provided only minimal food, clothing, and shelter. These institutions did not have the individuals with a disability assessed, educated, or rehabilitated. In 1970, U.S. public schools educated only one in five children with disabilities. Many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, or mentally retarded. (Archived: 25 Year History of the IDEA)

Discrimination can affect anyone anywhere. Major focus points of discrimination are based off race, gender, or sexuality. However, there is a form of discrimination that is often invisible to the public eye and did not even have a proper name until 1981 (FWD Forward). This form of discrimination affects many Americans everyday. This type of discrimination is known as ableism. Ableism is defined as the discrimination of disabled people in favor of able-bodied people. Ableism is not as noticed or as mainstream as other forms of discrimination. Fifty-four million Americans currently have some form of disability, yet the discrimination towards the disabled community is still out of focus in many aspects (HRFnd). While the United States of America has come a long with shaping civil rights for the disabled people, the country still has a long way to go. Issues that disabled people struggle with today include, unemployment, social isolation, and stereotypes that demean the disabled population. These are all issues that should have been addressed and resolved back when laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in the United States back in 1990 by the George H. Bush Administration. However, these issues have not been resolved and ableism is still a huge issue in the United States that needs to be solved. The disabled community is still fighting battles that should have ended a long time ago. With more consideration though, society could put an end to

There are many isms that exist in today’s American culture. Because of these discriminations put on others, there are plenty of ways to stop such hatred. Ableism has been around for a long time and continues to be an issue today. Because of discrimination against the disabled, there have been negative impacts on society; for example, society has turned disabilities into inabilities. In fact, it is society that has stopped the disabled from reaching success.

This stigma also includes notions that physical disabilities should be “hidden or presented as something to be avoided, corrected and pitied”, according to scholars George Taleporos and Marita McCabe. These stigmas are incredibly damaging to women with physical disabilities and works in the favor of women who are able-bodied, thus granting them more acceptance, praise and representation of their bodies in most aspects of everyday life.