During My Busy Afternoon Shift At J.C Penny, I Observed

I have worked with many people with disabilities. I volunteered at a preschool and I worked with two fifth graders at a local school for a cadet teaching class. I have also helped with social hour here at school on Wednesdays last semester. Social hour is a time for individuals with disabilities to come and hang out with us for an hour every Wednesday. Some of the Special Olympic athletes go to social hour. I typically feel comfortable around people with disabilities because I have learned that they are just like you and me no matter what their disability may be. But, when I was volunteering at the preschool I was playing with some kids on the floor and a boy with Down Syndrome came behind me and wrapped his arms around my neck and started

In order to share my personal philosophy of special education, the first priority is to explain the definition of disability that I am working from. In their book, Exceptional Learners, authors Hallahan, Kaufman, and Pullen define disability as an inability to do something, a diminished capacity to perform in a specific way; an impairment (2015, p.4). This definition is important because of the objective nature it presents for those with disabilities. Nowhere in the definition does it say how to treat people with disabilities, whether it is rude to stare, or to what degree a person should be pitied. The definition explains how a disability simply is an inability to do something. People with disabilities are people. They are normal. They simply have challenges

If you saw a person in the mall in a wheelchair, would you judge them? Or would you look at them like they are a normal human-being? People who have a disability whether they are physically disabled, mentally disabled, or learning disabled, are still themselves. Nancy Mairs was forty-three year old woman with multiple sclerosis. She wrote an essay, “Disability”, that explained her views of her physical disability.

On the surface, this may seem like a progressive step of destigmatizing the disabled, but it is crucial to pay attention to the intentions. Are the use of disabled people really progressive, if the companies and corporations including these people are not entirely universally accessible for both customers and employees? For every dollar that advertisement brings into the company, how much of it will be going to disabled employees? Or are these people only a means of bringing in sales?

I was taken back by how often I had to give verbal cues as to the condition of the road or sidewalk. In a place like old town, which is considered a historical landmark, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations are not usually employed, so for a person with a disability this can be challenging to navigate as the sidewalks are narrow, unbalanced and obstructed. Every bump and crack in the road is a tripping hazard to someone whose vision is impaired. Keeping my patient from running into people or telephone poles and when to step up and down curbs was a task. Several times I had to walk behind her because the two of us could not fit side by side on the walking paths. In addition to the extremely slow walking pace we had to maintain to avoid falling, I would forget she could not see what I could see and kept telling her to look at this store or sculpture, she then would remind me she could not see it so I would then describe it to her or take her to the item so she could feel it for herself. Another thing I noticed is the amount of attention you suddenly get as strangers watch you with curiosity, whereas they would normally probably never have given us a second glance if we were not portraying a person with impairments. One concerned onlooker did approach us as we were going down uneven

When you see a disabled person, what goes through your mind? I tend to not pay too much attention or put too much thought into it, but I really should. Being disabled is hard and changes people's lives dramatically. We can see how Nancy Mairs life has changed in her essay “On Being a Cripple”, and in Matthew Soyster’s essay “Living Under Circe’s Spell”. Both authors are victims of a disease called multiple sclerosis, which damages nerve fibers and interrupts the nerves’ signals.

Every person in the organization with a disability has a different need. Organizations work around the clock in many occasions to comply with the accommodations of each individual in the organization. Educating staff in how to comply with the requirements of ADA can be quite challenging. Organizations are afraid to hire, retain or accommodate workers with disabilities because of lack of awareness of disability and accommodations issues, concern over costs, and legal liability (Kaye et al., 2011). It is therefore the responsibility of the organization to educate management about the law and train on disabilities and accommodations. The guidelines, regulations, and building codes should be implemented to make the facility more welcoming and inviting to workers with disabilities (Stryker, R. (2013).

In Nancy Mairs' essay, “Disability” she emphasizes that able-bodied advertisers do not want disabled people to advertise their product. The advertisers claim they do not want to cause confusion as to whom the product is for. But Nancy Mairs believes that it is to protect able-bodied people from the thought of being

This was an eye-opener for us to advocate for public transportation especially the bus to be modified to accommodate persons with physical disability using a wheelchair. A lift or a ramp could be provided for easy boarding of the bus. Additional space

This report serves to review the research completed by Eric Lipp and the Open Doors Organization (ODO). Through familiarity with the issue, analysis, and sound recommendations, we conclude that the research was sound and beneficial to a very large demographic of people with disabilities.

    A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.

I was never an advocate for this topic until two years ago. I was just like anyone else who has never been around people with a disability, unsure, scared, and kind of just avoided confrontation with them in general but during my sophomore year I joined Best Buddies, an international non profit organization whose mission is to eliminate the isolation of people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). I have been apart of this club for three years and have served as the President of the club for the past two years. It wasn’t till the first year being president that I had my life changing realization at the Best Buddies Leadership Conference.They’re just like you and me. Since they don’t react or

When people with disabilities are included in the making of media content, they are able to “debate the societal issues related to them that rarely make the mainstream press” (Haller, 2010, p.117). This means that they can bring up problems that they have personally experienced and help educate society on how those problems can be resolved. News about disabilities should be included in the media more often in order to help able-bodied people become aware of disabilities and avoid the stereotypes that have been created. If a person with a disability helps make a story about someone with a disability, they can make sure the story explains the necessary issue and disregards any stigmas. Beth Haller describes in her book Representing Disabilities in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media that “historically, articles about people with disabilities rarely made it into the news, and, when the articles were written, that they were misrepresentative and stigmatizing” (2010, p. 119). In addition, an individual with disability can

Approximately 15% of the world’s population is, in a way, disabled. Whether it is a physical disability or a serious chronic disease, we have about one billion people in the world that live with a disability every day of their lives. It often occurs that these people are seen as an outcast of society; people that cannot live normal lives. It is important to realize that this is not true at all. People with disabilities are completely able to be part of the world. It is just the world’s duty to accept them.

When it comes to people with special need, such as older or handicapped, they might suffer while driving, parking, and walking to the targeted store, or they will ask for assistance during shopping.