Does Stereotypes Shape Society's View On Individuals With Disabilities

Ultimately, as Shapiro emphasized throughout the reading, the stereotypes that exist around the disabled population is that main perpetrator to inequity. The infantilization leads to “the paternalistic assumption that disabled people are not entitled to make their own decisions and lead the lives they chose.” Destroying the stereotypes that disabled people are incapable of living a successful, meaningful life without being the means of pity of inspiration will lead to the destruction of the systematic oppression disabled

All people who have brown hair are not alike. All people who have disabilities are not

Personal variables are those that relate to an individual's perceptions of disabilities and disabled persons. These perceptions create global attitudes impacting a person's beliefs, values, and attitudes towards both physical and mental disabilities. Attitudinal variables are generally personal in nature, but are often reinforced by cultural variables. These are in turn legitimized by structural variables. For example, believing that persons with disabilities are incapable of working might be reinforced by a lack of images in the media depicting persons with disabilities in places of employment. Actual workplace environments are not designed to support persons with disabilities, and employers fail to find ways of changing their human resources policies to embrace candidates with disabilities. As a result, structural variables prevent disabled persons from working. The absence of disabled persons in the workplace reinforces the individual-level beliefs and attitudes that persons with disabilities are unable to work alongside their

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.

People with disabilities suffer discrimination such as the refuse of companies to hire those peoples. An estimated 386 million of the world’s working-age persons have some kind of disability, according to ILO. In a recent research, they found that two-third of the unemployed and disable persons said that they would like to work but they could not find jobs.

Individuals with developmental disabilities face many problem in our society due to our low expectations that we have for them. Yes they do have problems, but just like everyone else they have their strengths and weaknesses. There may be things that I’m not good at, but I still have the ability to find a good paying job that involves my strengths. By looking at the two essays, For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome and An Inside View of Autism I was able to see how much our society discriminates against their unique features. We should focus on each person’s strengths rather then generalizing about all individuals with developmental disabilities.

Still to this day, there is a negative stigma and sense of rejection projected towards individuals with intellectual disabilities. If an individual is seen as unresponsive to help, in the past they were considered to be a burden upon society (Reynolds, & Dombeck, 2016). Until recently, the typical form of “treatment” that most individuals received consisted of seclusion from mainstream society, thus labeling them as a “patient” which leads to a sense of disempowerment (2016). Furthermore, this label resulted in implications that individuals with an intellectual disability were limited, helpless, and sick- thus imposing thoughts of pity (2016). Until medical causes became known, mental retardation, the original name for intellectual disability,

The next two stories follow a man in Alberta and his job search. The first story is called Lethbridge man living with disability: “I want to work with customers” (Komadina, 2016a) while the next story was a follow-up response titled Alberta man with Down Syndrome scores 2 jobs after handing out 32 resumes (Komadina, 2016b). The former article paints a picture Dutch looking for his summer job. His mother advocates on his behalf by supporting his eagerness to learn new skills. However, she also mentions that she had hoped that the process of Dutch becoming more independent and moving out would have been faster. The article does a good job at addressing and acknowledging that employers are hesitant about hiring people who are differently-abled because they are afraid of how it might affect their company or store. There is also a great emphasis placed on educating the general public to make sure that they are aware of the benefits that people with disabilities bring to their job. The latter article was written as a response to the original. Of the 32 resumes that Dutch handed out, he only received two job offers. This response focuses on Dutch’s own sense-of-belonging and his mother’s belief in him. He is happy and proud about his two new positions.

Jennifer you discussed the importance of recognizing stereotypes and being aware of our own heritage and experiences. Hay’s Addressing Model is an effective way of recognizing stereotypes and those associated with our culture. It is true that we think about race majority of the time when it comes to stereotypes however, disabilities are also stereotypes. As I read your post it made me reflect on my previous work experience. I was working at a mental health agency and a new employee was hired. Prior to the employee being hired I overhead a phone conversation between the employee and the director of the center. The director spoke highly about the employee’s work history and experience. She also expressed that his different cultural background

Negative labeling can cause a person with disabilities less potential to be successful in life.

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)

It is widely accepted that people believe attractiveness to be associated with goodness, and this is often demonstrated in the recruitment process. In a study by Stevenage and McKay (2009), people with facial disfigurements received worse ratings in personal qualities and job skills, resulting in a significantly diminished likelihood of a job offer. Further, employers frequently express concerns regarding hiring and retaining employees with disabilities (Unger, 2002). According to Unger (2002), these concerns reflect deeply-rooted discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities and the misperception of accommodations being costly and ineffective. Even after securing employment, it appears people with disabilities still face challenges related to negative perceptions of their disabilities. Approximately 60-70% of charges filed under Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Age

There are many stereotypes regarding those with intellectual disabilities. This may be because these individuals range in cognitive ability, receptive and expressive language, and physical need. While it may be assumed that those with disabilities are not able to process the world around them, they are not immune to mental health disorders and the, sometimes tragic, events that take place throughout a lifetime. Someone without an intellectual disability may find solace in a friend, partner, or family member. If the event is impactful enough, they may even turn to a mental health professional that is trained to help those going through a tough time. Unfortunately, individuals with disabilities do not always have that same network of support.

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It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but our society today lacks to understand that. In today’s time different is not accepted, people that are different are discriminated, looked down upon and usually picked on. People with disabilities are seen as different creatures by most people, the disabled don’t choose to be the way they are, but still our society alienates them. There are different types of disabilities, some type of disabilities are; mental disability, physical disability, learning disability and socializing disability. These disabilities are seen as weakness in our society that hence contribute to the stereotype that leads to the discrimination against the disabled.