Disability refers to the body's impairment that might be cognitive, physical, mental, sensory, development and emotional which may bar or restrict an individuals' ability to participate in the normal activities in their daily lives. The disability can be natural, and this refers to the disability where an individual was born with. Disability can also occur during an individual's lifetime. It can be seen as an umbrella that covers the activity limitations, impairments or even the participation restrictions of an individual's daily life (Crow, 2010). Therefore, disability is a complex phenomenon which reflects the person's body features as a limitation or impairment to the person's daily life and how the society views the condition.
Disability has been a contested issue which is given different meanings by different societies. Some communities might refer the disability as a physical or mental attributes that require fixation from the institutions such as the medical institutions. On the other hand, some communities view it as a limitation on the social life imposed by constraints of an ableist on an individual (Titchkosky, 2003). Ideally, majority of the societies view disability as a curse that a person receives from the society due to the particular ill activities that the person in question or the parents of such an individual have been engaging in. Such a community thus views the disability as a consequence of illegal activities which the person has been engaging themselves in. If the person had a disability that was born with, the society might attribute it to the illegal activities that the parents of such an individual were engaging. If the person gets disable during his or lifetime, the society might view the disability as a curse due to the activities that a person has been engaging in. Thus, such societies normally discriminate the individual based on the disability. However, in the political community, the disability is used to mean the social identity claimed by several people to mark the shared goals.
The disability issue dates back to the year 1970s when there was a disability activism in the country. Before that period, many people view the disability from the medical view and the medics normally used the words handicapped or cripple to refer to a disabled person. As the activism on disability set in the year 1970s, an appropriate terminology, and models of the situation was sort. An academic field of the disability also arose as a result of the activism campaign. Furthermore, it was agreed that it was wrong for the people with disabilities to be referred to as handicapped or cripple as the terms were considered to lack respect to such individuals. The medics were advised after the agreement in the year 1972, to refer to people with such situations as disable (Crow, 2010). According to the activists, this was a more polite term and referred to many situations which an individual has and not only the medical view. Additionally, after that period, laws ensued to protect people with disabilities, and they require people with disabilities of any kind to be categorized as citizens with special needs. As a result of the laws protecting them, any disable person qualifies for disability benefits.
Contemporary concepts of disability trace its roots to the developments of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. During that period, there was the development of the clinical medicine. The discourse was important as it made the human body visible and thus could be studied, transformed or manipulated in one way or another. The methods of normalization also came into being, and it became clear that people could be categorized based on the status of their bodies (Titchkosky, 2003). Furthermore, the clinical medicine emerged as an important course where physical problems affecting an individual could easily be rectified. According to Quetelet theory of the year 1970s, the physical characteristics such as age, height and weight of different individuals can be taken and through that activity, disability regarding such individuals can be found (Schalock et.al, 2010). During that period the eighteenth and nineteenth century, disability issue became widespread.
Discrimination is a real issue in the society to many various groups. However, people with disabilities have received much discrimination from the society which is perpetrated by normal people. Such people have received mistreatments, being misunderstood due to their physical, emotional, mental or other forms of disabilities. Discrimination against people with disabilities manifests itself in different places. They can manifest themselves in the place of work. This is seen when the employers see such people as unable to execute some tasks in the organization. They are given less attention whenever they are looking for jobs. In most, cases such people do not access the job opportunities even if they apply for the jobs and have the merit qualifications, they might be disqualified based on the status of their bodies (Schalock et.al, 2010). Furthermore, it has also been reported that people with disabilities receive discrimination from their fellow employees. The majority of the employees undermine people with disabilities, and they look down upon them. They rarely provide assistance where deems necessary. Research shows that people with disabilities cannot climb the stairs, and it is good if the normal employees should provide assistance to such individuals.
Another situation where discrimination of the disable people manifests itself is in the schools. Many disable students have been undergoing a lot of challenges when they are in school. In most cases, other students look down upon and mistreat them. It has been reported that some tutors or teachers discriminate the students with disabilities. Those who are to be assisted in studying well do not receive the assistance they should receive to study successfully. Thus, they undergo a lot of struggles in the learning institutions and eventually cannot do well in their studies. The individuals with disabilities can receive direct discrimination from their fellow students. In such cases, they are treated less favorably due to the disability than some other students without disability problems. In some cases, the people with disabilities can also receive indirect discrimination when they are in school. This is seen in the situations where a policy or rule that should protect everyone can be used to disadvantage the disabled students (Crow, 2010). For example, institutions can come up with a policy that requires all the students to perform daily exercises. Even though the policy is good for physical fitness of the students, it discriminates the students who are suffering from the disability in their legs or harms as they might not be able to participate in exercises.
Society is also another place where discrimination manifests itself. The discrimination in the society referred to as the discrimination arising from disability. In such situations, someone with a disability can be treated unfavorably due to something that is connected to their disability and the treatment does not have any basis. Some societies also do not provide disable people access to necessary services. Harassments on the disable people have also been witnessed in many societies. For example, some people might harass people with disabilities by making jokes regarding their disability situations. Some disable people might also receive victimization from the society after taking the legal actions. What is more, some societies do not provide necessary steps to ensure that people with disabilities have access to important things like the goods, services, and other facilities that are necessary to ensure that such people lead successful lives. However, many governments have come up with laws that ensure discrimination on the basis of disability is addressed once and for all. If the behavior of individuals is geared towards discriminating others, then the person who is being discriminated is advised to take legal action towards the individual perpetrating them (Schalock et.al, 2010). Some of the discrimination behavior from the public might include the offensive utterances, frightening actions, degrading utterances, humiliating and distressing behavior towards the persons with disabilities. Other examples of harassments include the nicknames, teasing, calling names, pranks and pulling. The behavior might not be deliberate, but the way the individual engages in that behavior indicates the discrimination. Through the institutions set by the country to address the discrimination of the persons with disabilities, then the person who feels discriminated can take action legal action on such individuals and the state and bodies advocating of persons with disabilities. It is also indicated by the laws that when people with disabilities report the discrimination cases, then they should not be victimized for voicing the discrimination but instead should be supported by the state and other bodies such as human rights bodies. Such individuals are normally given legal protection by the state and the bodies dealing with the discrimination cases.
There are other struggles that the persons with disabilities go through. These challenges are witnessed by the persons with disabilities in areas such as the stores, theaters halls, and other public places. Many cases have been reported by the disabled people concerning the situations they undergo when they go to the theater, supermarkets or even the grocery stores. The majority of the employees in such places might automatically assume that the persons with disabilities are ill-equipped mentally due to the obvious physical disability. As a result of that, the employees might provide the required services to such people. The employees in such public places as restaurants might attend the able-bodied people leaving alone the persons with disabilities. When people with disabilities are left unattended, then they will feel down treated, humiliated and depressed. It has also been witnessed in the society, situations where the taxis, public vehicles passing people with disabilities intentionally (Titchkosky, 2003). People with disabilities constantly complain of the taxis and other public vehicles passing them even after showing the need for assistance from the taxi operators. Such people complain that the taxis pass them as they do not want to deal with their extra needs. The majority of the taxi operators see them as a headache to them and do not look at them as equal customers like the normal passengers.
Furthermore, persons with disabilities have also been facing the challenge of climbing the stairs. If there is a meeting that is planned to take place upstairs, such people have the problem climbing them and might be in a position to attend the meeting. According to the human rights activists, this kind of discrimination is known as the architectural discrimination. Persons with disabilities normally encounter the problem in their daily activities. Additionally, they cannot live upstairs because are unable to climb it. They have been requesting the government to come up with ways of ensuring that the architectural discrimination is dealt with to enjoy what the normal people enjoy in the society (Crow, 2010). The owners of the hotels, restaurants and the grocery stores cannot employ persons with disabilities citing that such individuals cannot execute the tasks like the normal employees. What is more, when the persons with disabilities have been given parking spaces, the persons with normal people take the places, leaving the disable people stranded.
It has however been observed that many countries have come up with policies and su...
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