Design With The Blind: Oppression Of People With Disabilities

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

“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

Disability is a definition of a physical or mental condition which impacts on a person’s movements, activities and senses. People with disabilities were informed of bias and disadvantages compared to an ordinary person. There are many biases and prejudices contributed to the discrimination of individuals with a disability. Partly because of social connotations the disabled people are useless, cannot work. In fact, these extraordinary people always bring and do incredible things. They not only overcome their grim fate, but also bring good things to life, especially those who are perfectly considering better than an ordinary person, they are not aware of the capacity of individuals disabilities with them characteristics such as loyalty, dedication, and hard work.

The article “introducing disability Studies” by Ronald J. Berger was an eye opener in uncovering the past history of negative stigma associated with having a disability. Through history people have felt the need to stare at people with disabilities or to turn away in fear of maybe contracting the “disease”. This negative attitude was positively reinforced by ordinances such as the Chicago “ugly law” in which a person with physical deformities would have to pay a fine for simply being too “disgusting” looking to other citizens. This law was in place from 1880 to 1973, which is pretty recent in history. However there are positive glimpse in history when it came to uncovering and defining disabilities. Men like Leo Kanner and Asperger have dedicated

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

Everyone wants to live a normal life, without others looking at them differently for a disability that they can not control. Many disabled people are living completely normal lives, when others are physically or mentally struggling to the point that they can not function normally. People in this world, including our media, does not seem to focus on the disabled people who are living life and properly functioning. They would rather keep attention on the ones who are stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of their life, and believe that their life is over. Whether you are disabled or not, we all have the same potential in life as the other. Mairs, Anaya, and my cousin’s story all proved that people view disabled people differently, however that is soon to change.

The issue of belonging in society for humans with disabilities has been a complication for as long as our human nature has known because of the titles such as "special." People would suggest by now our knowledge on treatment of humans with special needs and the resilience it takes to care for them would make life easier for their families and loved ones. This happens to be the opposite. Across America the word "special" is being misused and sarcastically to speak of ones with disabilities in a rude manor. Although is it a word meant for building up and encouragement, in cases today it is a word built on isolation and dehumanization. In our modern society, the word "special" comes with a negative connotation because of the dehumanizing and bigotry

Universal Design (UD) builds on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal civil rights law that mandates accessibility for people with disabilities. But Universal design is actually a broader concept that defines the design of products and environments to be usable by all people.

Stigmatization and “otherness” carry negative meanings of social oppression, whereas conceiving disability as “difference” carries a neutral meaning. It is unusual to see disabilities as valuable differences. However, in certain contexts, values and advantages of disabilities take place, enabling non-disabled people to see the meanings of the symptoms for the people who experience them. Unusually, sometimes disability is wellness and being normal is illness. There are two examples that supports this claim. One of them is a man who suffered from multiple tics of violence, which resulted in having problems in his career and martial difficulties. Yet, he had an extraordinary ability at ping pong and drumming, which were, sadly, eliminated after

Disabilities, are the reasons why sometimes it is hard for some people to do normal daily activities because of either having a mental or physical problem. Though it does not necessarily mean that a person with a disability cannot do everything any other person can do it just might be a little harder for them. As statistics have shown one in every fifth person in the United States has a disability. With this being said us as members of a growing society should be more open minded to disabilities and become more knowledgeable about them, and what better way than being threw movies. A great example being Soul Surfer.

When disabled people do appear, they are often reduced to objects of concern, trouble or pity. In his research, the disabled writer and activist Paul Hunt identified 10 stereotypes that the media uses to portray disabled people. They are as follows: 1)The disabled person as pitiable or pathetic 2)An object of curiosity or violence 3)Sinister or evil 4)The super cripple 5)As atmosphere (such as people in hospital beds located near major characters) 6)Laughable 7)His/her own worst enemy 8)As a burden 9)As non-sexual 10) As being unable to participate in daily life. A commonality among these stereotypes is the idea that people with disabilities are unable to act, or if they do, their actions bring harm to society. These messages contribute to generalized fear of 20% of the population, and they affect the way in which we frame policy discussions about how to best create a society that works for this huge segment of the

I’d like to tell you a little history about people with disabilities. I know that you were never exposed or able to interact with those people whom had differences from yourself. Well there is a reason for that. As a society, we created the segregation, which is why when you grew up, you probably never saw people with disabilities in your everyday life. Physicians and medical personnel saw people with disabilities as defective. The medical personnel just wanted to “fix” those with disabilities. What they told parents of a child with a disability was to put them in an institution because it will be the best environment for them, and themselves. Since they were the professionals, the families listened to

When I heard the word disability, many things come to mind. I think of an innocent person, who knows nothing about their surroundings. I can see in my head of other people laughing at them, making fun of them, beating, bullying, discriminating them, etc. I think the disability suffer more than what people know. I feel like what people know is the disabled are abnormal, but they don’t realized there are other things that the disabled suffer from. I believed the disabled have to overcome many things in their daily life. Like the way people stare and judge them wherever they go. In the video “ Examined Life’ of Taylor and Judith, Taylor mentioned how people stared at her when she carried the coffee with her mouth. People stare because she uses her body part differently. She also said that when people stare at her like that, it makes the task even more difficult. This example shows me that the disabled are being judged everywhere they go, and for everything they does. Many people don’t realize that the little things they do, make the disabled life even harder. Not only they are being judge and stared at, they were also discriminatory and treated negatively. I’m working with a guy, who is a little bit slow, and his face expression makes people feel uncomfortable because he don’t smile, he always seems unhappy. The way his work is very slow. I think because of his slowness, many people doesn’t like him. There was one customer came in the other day, and he was taking care of her.

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.

This week’s discussion dealt with Individuals and Disabilities. Over the years, people who have a “disability" have been subjected to prejudice and more. And the first way to diminish someone is through language, by using words or labels to identify a person as "less-than," as "the others—not like us," and so forth. Once a person has been identified this way, it makes