Topic: Disability Inequality Disability Inequality is an issue which society often ignores but is an alarming topic. People tend to assume they are ill-equipped mentally since they are disabled physically. It has immense effect on people with disabilities. Disability inequality occurs if you are treated less well for a reason that relates to your disability than a person without disability in same situation. This attitude towards physically/mentally disabled is also called “Ableism”. Even unintentional ableism is illegal. In this essay I will attempt to explain people’s attitudes towards the person with disability, also about the causes due to which our society discriminates against them. Few of these reasons are stereotyping, psychological discomfort, lack of accommodation, paternalization & pity. 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. 1. Merely from knowing that a person is disabled they form wrong opinions about other unrelated characteristics of that person. Like people treat one who is mute as in they are deaf by talking in a high-pitch tone. 2. Sometimes, people with drug addictions and certain types of mental illness often experience particularly negative attitudes from others based on beliefs that they are dangerous and have anti-social behavior. Because of these stereotyping, people don’t seek support for drug addiction, mental issues in fear of experiencing bad treatment, judgement from others 3. Even in jobs, few recruiters think that they cannot perform duties like rest of the employees believing them to be less productive. 4. In a study, when recruiters were asked to choose a suitability applicant for employment in a hypothetical administrative assistant position. They ended up giving less employability rating to applicants with a disability compared to the one without disability. This clearly shows stereotyping in few work places. (Bricout, John C., and Kia J. Bentley.). Furthermore, in these work places employees maintain distance when talking to a disabled person since they are not comfortable. Psychological Discomfort is another cause
Society is driven by norms and obligations that leads us to having negative perspectives and attitudes toward disabled individuals. We have internalized the physical appearance has a social standard. When the physical differences are not conformed by members of society, individuals with those differences tend to be rejected. For example, in the movie “The Butterfly Circus”, Will was being treated almost like he was not human because he had no arms nor legs. In addition, members of society tend to associate disables as non-productive. According to professor Nanoch Liveh, “The level of societal development, the rate of unemployment, beliefs concerning the origins of poverty, and the importance attached to the nation’s welfare economy and security are all contributing factors affecting attitudes toward people with disabilities.” Not only, social norms
I think that it really depends on where you live in the world. Some cultures, like New Zealand try and treat people with disabilities as equals. In Canada, they have been discriminated against in the past. However, now they are taking
There are several issues that create obstacles for disabled workers, negative perceptions, lack of external hiring support, and lack of internal hiring support (Wharton University of Pennsylvania, 2013). There can be the perception on the part of the employer that disabled workers create additional work for the colleagues, regardless of whether or not the fear is founded. There is frequently a lack of external hiring support as in no program by the corporation
As stated by the founding fathers of America “All men are created equal.” Black, white, brown, short, tall, smart, and dumb, all are created equally. Therefore every person deserves fair judgement. Unfortunately, it is a profound fact that not everyone is born normal and capable of task typical for a common person, who is free from disability. In my opinion, the quote “All men are created equal” serves to promote a friendly environment that helps encourage equality among people and aids to recognize the similarities rather than the differences that separates men. Even so, with this hope, the disabled community still struggles for equality. According to Legal Rights by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), “Almost 10 percent of all
Disability Discrimination is a behaviour that is unlawful and unacceptable toward people that have a disability. Besides that, there is over four million Australians that have disability living in Australia (1). Therefore, Disability Discrimination Act 1992 was launched in order to protect people with disabilities so that they can have normal life as others.
According to the Office of Disability Employment Office, “The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a landmark federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities by eliminating barriers to their participation in many aspects of living and working in America. In particular, the ADA prohibits covered employers from discriminating against people with disabilities in the full range of employment-related activities, from recruitment to advancement, to pay and benefits”(“ODEP”, para. 1). With this being said, it is important to remember the main focus for this Act is that it to allow protection for
People with physical limitations and diseases are judged based on the way they look. Just because someone looks different does not mean they are different. Everyone is equal. Just because someone is crippled does not mean they cannot do anything: “ People – crippled or not – wince at the word ‘cripple,’ as they do not at ‘handicapped’ or ‘disabled’” (Mairs 525). People flinch when they hear the word cripple. People with physical limitations can do normal things just like normal people can
The laws are very beneficial and protective when considering the situations, such as Disability Discrimination & Work Situations, such as hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training; Disability Discrimination & Harassment that it means harassing an employee that is disabled is illegal; Disability Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation that a disabled employee and a disabled applicant must get a reasonable accommodation from the their employers of prospective employers; and Disability Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation & Undue Hardship that it means “an employer doesn't have to provide an accommodation if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer” (EEOC). Today, whenever there is a job ad, most of employers mention to ease for application and interview for disabled applicants, and employers would like to provide a reasonable accommodation for them. Of course, there have been a number of discrimination cases so far, although the disability act and civil rights protect the disabled people’s rights. On the contrary, a court case’s verdict might be in the favor of the employer, for example, Gelfo was working for Lockheed Martin in Martin, and he got laid off, and then he had the same job in the same company, and this time he got an injury. Due to his injury, the doctors examined him, and both doctors decided differently about
However, the second choice is challenging to follow, since people demonstrate prejudice when they meet a person with disabilities. As shown in the videos, they often are treated as inferior, incapable, dependent,
People who disabled are just like everyone else who know their boundaries and are capable of maintaining a job and provided that the support and laws put in place, discrimination in the workplace for people with disabilities will decrease in the facts of that in the workforce, all jobs must makes accommodations and with the laws enforced more and more, employers will make accommodations for these people; unenforced will leave citizens’ life more hard than it already is and due to lack of money being earned, one may end up in poor living conditions and even
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 makes it unlawful to discriminate against a qualified disabled individual (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2005). Employers are required by law to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees or applicants with disabilities unless the employer can prove that the accommodation would be an undue hardship that requires significant difficulty or costs. Job discrimination against people with disabilities is illegal is practiced by employment agencies, labor organizations, private employers, etc.
Research by Barton (1996) indicates that there are many explanations for the discrimination of disabled people which begins with the recognition and awareness of stigma, which is seen as the background for explaining discrimination (2011). This point is supported and expanded by Wolfe and Copeland (1991) who suggest a connection between
Disabled people are often stereotyped. A stereotype is an over simplified mental picture of a group or person. Disabled people face more barriers in life than most people. Society tends to look down on these individuals. Stop Making Degrading Assumptions About People With Disabilities discuss how people make a quick judgment. Some people with disabilities do have a wheelchair, a dog, hearing aids, or anything to help us. They are trying to be independent. As McLaughlin mentioned, one of the scenarios that make people stop and stare when they saw a student in a wheelchair rolls up a ramp through an automatic door and into a class. All of sudden he stands and walks to a seat. This reminds me of how people assumed my ability of lip reading.
There are different forms for all discrimination in today’s society. Discrimination is a concept that society has been portrayed as an acceptable act. Ableism is the discrimination against people with physical and mental disabilities. Even though discrimination in society is very impactful and persuasive there have been many steps taken to help improve the discrimination and equality in the work place for the disabled. Ableism is the act of discrimination against disabled people, there is also many aspects that have improved ableism through the history, court cases that have changed the laws and regulations within the ADA, as well as the improvements our society could still perform to make ableism become a scarce discrimination within our society.
It is human nature to despise those that are different than normal. Everyone has a different perception of normal and when someone cuts that boundary it results in discrimination. Some people also tend to dislike the disabled due to their own weaknesses, to hide their own failures they will look down upon the handicap to make themselves feel better. Some people's self-esteem is so tiny that they have to find someone "lower than them" to feel superior. Also society perceives the disabled as useless, powerless and inefficient human beings, which also contributes to the ideology that leads to the discrimination against the disabled. Psychological and cultural influences also result in discrimination against the disabled. Hence, we can conclude that the fact that the disabled are “different” is what leads to the discrimination against them.