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Disability and Culture Essay

Decent Essays

In my essay you will learn about Jamaican and Haitian culture and their outlooks on disability. Laster on you will see the comparisons between those two cultures and the American culture. I selected the Jamaican culture because it has always been a dream of mine to visit Jamaica. I selected Haiti because I am not well educated on their culture.
In that Jamaican cultural concepts that influence disability originate from their religious beliefs that are related to Christianity and Afro- Christian sects. The beliefs that Jamaicans have majorly influence that way they look at disability. They believe that disability is a punishment for wrong doing. Even professionals and the educated middle class tend that a disability is a result of sin. …show more content…

If a service provider remains open to the Jamaican cultures about people with disabilities, the can give helpful and correct service to someone with a disability. Since there is a lack of familiarity in the disability culture, a service provider may find it difficult to help someone deal with their disability. (Stone, 107)
In the Haitian culture it is very rare for someone to openly talk about disabilities. It does not matter if the person was born with the disability or gained the disability over time. They believe that a disability happens from the origin in the interaction of the natural and supernatural worlds. ( Stone, 147) As an example, a person with a disability has the disability because of a curse from Iwa, a spirit, who is upset. (Stone, 147) They believe that disability is a punishment. A Christian in Haiti believes that going against God is the equivalent as going against Iwa. They also believe that disability is caused by a spell that was cast by an enemy. A person with a disability in Haiti wants to live an independent life. They have the same values as the other people in Haiti who does not have a disability. Parents in Haiti are overprotective of their children, whether they have a disability or not. However, if their child has a disability, they love their child, consider them “worthless”. If their child has a mental disability, when they turn 18 they become they chose to be their legal guardians so they can continue to make

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