Abelism In The Workplace Essay

Disability is one of the most important issues in society because of the many fallacies that have been conjured up by people who have not been exposed to individuals with certain disabilities. This stigma has been incorporated into the notion that people with disabilities are “useless”. People with disabilities do not need to have a physical problem, many have a certain mental state that is not parallel to a fully cognitive person. These disabilities range from extreme physical handicaps to mental issues to a depressive state of mind. All of these fall under the umbrella of the term “disability”. Such biases and prejudices contributed to the discrimination of people with disabilities, but that has been eradicated by the many laws or acts that

The presence of medical conditions, classified as disabilities by the Americans with Disabilities Act as, “…a physical or mental impairment that

Many groups of people experience disenfranchisement. This paper will seek to review people experiencing disenfranchisement related to ableism in its various forms. The oppression of the disabled and the social injustices they bear will be considered, as well as the myths and stereotypes associated to the disabled. The author will seek to gain knowledge and understanding of this group of people and their functioning within our society.

Disabilities have been used to discriminate on people who have them and people who do not.

Expansion of the disability programs and the poor employment rates of adults with disabilities have become major concerns for Social Security and disability policy makers across the country. Disability law, culture, and policy, as reflected most directly by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), has undergone a dramatic shift toward the equal employment of persons with disabilities. The ADA prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, governmental, and local services, public accommodations, insurance, telecommunications, and public transportation. Dramatic, positive changes affecting the lives of persons with disabilities are occurring in public attitudes and behavior toward individuals

Throughout history both in the past and present many individuals who are living or who lived with a disability have been viewed as a burden to society. According to The Dimensions of a Disability Oppression (2010) by L.J Charlton several aspects are intertwined with disability oppression which is beliefs, politics and economics. Policy and the world system have a lot to do with how people see another person especially an individual with a disability because thanks to poverty and powerlessness are viewed as daily experiences in the life of someone living with a disability. In our society when it comes to differences we either ignore it and if we feel that it’s not dominant enough we start to think its subordinate compared to us. We are taught

Disability is an impairment is a life changing condition that limits one’s physical or mental abilities. Disabilities comes in many forms such as blindness, hearing, speech disorder, loss of vision. and memory. As well as, chronic illness such as diabetes, HIV, obesity. Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) employers, cannot discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities when hiring, firing, job promotion, distribution of benefits and privileges. In addition, by law, employers must make reasonable effort to modify work equipment and job settings for people with disabilities. Such as job schedules, employee training and communication devices; without causing an undue hardship, significant difficulty

Ableism and Disability oppression is a concept that is often ignored and underrepresented in social justice issues. The concept of ableism is the idea that society is disadvantageous towards people with disabilities and mental illnesses. When analyzing institutional, societal, and cultural structures through the view of ableism and disability oppression, one can concur that exclusionary practices allow for the despotism of people with disabilities and mental issues. Furthermore, the underlying issues of the institutional ableism allow for the perpetuation of mental illness and disability stigmas. For instance, in the reading Ableism it states, “The medicalization of disability fostered the belief that people with disabilities needed to be monitored

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.

All Americans deserve the right to receive the best medical treatment available, that includes those with disabilities. So what is ADA? What makes it so essential? ADA may seem like just a couple letters from the alphabet, although to a person that has a disability it means a whole lot more. ADA stands for Americans with Disabilities Act.

Mental and physical disabilities are often not well understood. With lack of understanding comes discrimination against people with disabilities. However a growing trend of awareness from the media, advocate groups and development of legal mechanisms have helped provide justice to these people and continues to improve the situation. 18.5% of Australia’s population (4.2million Australians) has a disability. This is a surprisingly large number, however only about 6% of the population has a severe disability. According to the World Health Organization “Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions.” In the past we have had trouble understanding disabilities, particularly mental ones, causing a lot of discrimination and stigma against people. Education and the workplace are areas in which legal mechanisms have proven to be effective when providing justice for people with disabilities. Although an area which is still improving is law enforcement surrounding people with mental illness.

Prejudice and Stereotyping is one of the main causes in disability discrimination. Some people tend to believe disabled people have limitations and less potential beyond the disability itself.

Over the years, the workplace has experienced several instances of discrimination. In attempt to stop the discrimination, Title VII was passed. Although Title VII helped employers in terms of race, color, gender, religion and national origin, those who had disabilities continued to face the frustration of disability barriers in the workplace, given disability was not one of the listed protected classes. Employers abstained from hiring the disabled in fear of them not being able to perform at the same level as the other employees or the attitudes of such employees towards the disabled workers. Of course, there was some legal protection against discrimination: The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, but this law only applied to employees

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.

Disability is ‘any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being’.