Government believe that by demolishing large institutions that once housed people with disabilities and integrating them into communities will solve the social “gap” that exists between the two. However, is this really the solution? In the article “No longer shut away, people with a disability are still shut out”, Rhonda Galbally, 2009, reports that this action taken for segregation is a ‘national disgrace’ and where people with disabilities did once feel excluded from society, now feel more pushed away than ever. According to National People with Disabilities and Carer Council 2009, In 2008, The Australian Government conducted surveys asking community members to discuss their thoughts and experiences on people with disabilities. Results concluded that whilst people with disabilities are present in the community, many do not enjoy participating in it. Every day facilities we take for granted, people in wheel chairs are not able to access such as public transport, playgrounds, swimming pools, cinemas, restaurants and hotels. Young children are excluded from kindergarten and schools, and employment opportunities are discarded because of their disability. Many of these people are not able to receive the care and support they need, this includes just needing help to be able to get out of bed in the morning. Therefore due to these results the government made a rational decision to respond to this lack of social inclusion and resolve it by bringing the disabled to face life in the community on their own. They believed that all the problems above would have to fix themselves in order for the disabled to survive in a community. In response to this, National Disability Strategy- Community consultations and submissions report 2009 states... ... middle of paper ... ...roughout 2009-10 on the strategy with the advice of the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council and other stakeholders. Experts will be brought together to develop innovative strategies to tackle each area along with appropriate outcomes and targets. And most importantly, an evaluation, monitoring and reporting process will be developed to track the progress of the strategy to ensure real and meaningful changes are made. Works Cited Galbally, R. (2009, August 10). No longer shut away, people with a disability still shut out [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/no-longer-shut-away-people-with-a-disability-are-still-shut-out-20090809-ee6i.html National People with Disabilities and Carer Council. (2009). National Disability Strategy- Community consultations and submissions report. (DEST no.4430.0, ABS). Canberra: Author.
Changes in the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 emphasised that people with learning difficulties should be helped and supported to become ‘integrated in to the community’ rather than being institutionalised. This aim has been partially successful with the help of care assessments. This gives the service user the opportunity to speak out with confidence stating what they feel is the right type of support for them, at the end of this process the service user will ‘have their own individual care plan’ documenting all that has been discussed and the support they will be receiving. (http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/24/10/368.full).
After our discussion Rick formed a meeting to begin organizing a lobby group. They created an agenda which included an invite of social service agencies to the meeting to discuss suggestions from them on how to develop a lobby group. They prepared a mission statement believing it will unite the group, as well as provide focus and draw attention to the lobby group. In this meeting the five set up an outline that involved organizing the group to address the needs of people with disabilities and how the inequality and stigma they face creates social barriers. They chose to focus on the challenges that Rick and the initial six members were experiencing which are lack funding by the government in the way of inadequate assistance for housing, personal finances and jobs. In this meeting they decided to recruit members through the local paper, the recreation center and door to door canvassing. One of the members suggested using social media and the United Way offered to help by placing a thread on their web page. The six members share their personal stories via a video on the website. The website would be filled with current information about the effects on society when there is lack of adequate resources in a city and have a discussion forum and sign up tab. They decided to take advantage of the fact an election was imminent in the next 12 months by preparing to lobby the elected representatives in their district.
Systematic discrimination against women and girls with disabilities continues to result in the denial of the rights to experience their sexuality, to have sexual relationships and to found and maintain families. While the right to integrity and the right of a woman to make her own reproductive choices are contained in a number of international human rights treaties, women with disabilities continue to be denied these rights through practices such as forced sterilization, sexual violence and the removal of their legal capacity in many parts of the world. I have always been interested in those with disabilities. My parents used to run a home dedicated to taking proper care of those with intellectual and physical disabilities and I grew up being surrounded them. Many of them I am still friends with to this day and I find it interesting to see the stigma that surrounds those who are disabled, those who I call my friends.
‘“Now it’s my turn to make it better for generations that come after, which is why I’ve become, involved in disabilities issues”’ (Open University, 2016a).
"Disability the facts." New Internationalist Nov. 2013: 20+. Advanced Placement Government and Social Studies Collection. Web. 27 May 2014.
Historically, we have been taught that people with disabilities are different and do not belong among us, because they are incompetent, cannot contribute to society or that they are dangerous. We’re still living with the legacy of people with disabilities being segregated, made invisible, and devalued. The messages about people with disabilities need to be changed. There needs to be more integration of people with disabilities into our culture to balance out the message. Because of our history of abandonment and initialization, fear and stigma impact our choices more than they would if acceptance, community integration, and resources were a bigger part of our history.
Radley, M. (2009). Understanding the social exclusion and stalled welfare of citizens with learning disabilities. Disability and Society, 23(4): 489-501.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, (1980) defines disability in the medical model as a physical or mental impairment that restricts participation in an activity that a ‘normal’ human being would partake, due to a lack of ability to perform the task . Michigan Disability Rights Coalition (n.d.) states that the medical model emphasizes that there is a problem regarding the abilities of the individual. They argue that the condition of the disabled persons is solely ‘medical’ and as a result the focus is to cure and provide treatment to disabled people (Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, 2014). In the medical model, issues of disability are dealt with according to defined government structures and policies and are seen as a separate issue from ordinary communal concerns (Emmet, 2005: 69). According to Enabling Teachers and Trainers to Improve the Accessibility of Adult Education (2008) people with disabilities largely disa...
Perhaps the strongest argument for greater inclusion, even full inclusion, comes from its philosophical/moral/ethical base. This country was founded upon the ideals of freedom and equality of opportunity. Though they have not been fully achieved, movement towards their fuller realization continues. Integration activists point to these ideals as valid for those with disabilities, too. Even opponents agree that the philosophical and moral/ethical underpinnings for full inclusion are powerful. (SEDL, 1995)
This act established old age benefits and funding for assistance to blind individuals and disabled children and the extension of existing vocational rehabilitation programmes. In present day society, since the passage of the ADA (American with Disabilities Act of 1990) endless efforts of the disability rights movement have continued on the focus of the rigorous enforcement of the ADA, as well as accessibility for people with disabilities in employment, technology, education, housing, transportation, healthcare, and independent living for the people who are born with a disability and for the people who develop it at some point in their lives. Although rights of the disabled have significantly gotten better globally throughout the years, many of the people who have disabilities and are living in extremely undeveloped countries or supreme poverty do not have access nor rights to any benefits. For example, people who are in wheelchairs as a transportation device have extremely limited access to common places such as grocery stores, schools, employment offices,
According to the World Health Organisation (2011), there are more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world, with this number rising. Many of these people will be excluded from the regular situations we, ‘the ordinary’, experience in everyday life. One of these experiences is our right to education. Article 42 of the Irish Constitution states that the state shall provide for free primary education until the age of 18, but is this the right to the right education? Why should being born with a disability, something which is completely out of your control, automatically limit your chances of success and cut you off from the rest of society due to being deemed ‘weaker’ by people who have probably never met you? With approximately 15% of the world’s population having disabilities, how come society is unable to fully accept people with disabilities? In order to break this notion, we must begin with inclusion.
You must be familiar with human development, how culture and society impact behaviour and the influence of economic structures on human behaviour. When working within the disability field, a human service worker should be able to have a holistic understanding of disability and should see their impairment as only one aspect of what makes them who they are. Therefore a human service worker should focus on maintaining and enhancing quality of life. Contributing knowledge and skills to assist people with disability, their families and communities through program design, counselling, case management and advocacy. Now there is a number of roles human services workers to expertise due to expansion of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Human service workers also work alongside people with disability to advocate for their rights, and facilitate their empowerment so as to achieve their needs and aspirations (Australian Association of Social Worker, 2016). I as an individual, I think I might be able to make a great contribution to the sector through applying the knowledge I would have gained from this program to help clients reach their goals and be happier, healthier individuals and build more effective
Being disabled is just a single facet of their life, and they have the same capacity to be happy as anyone else. While these three authors have different reasons to write their essays, be it media unfairness, ignorance, or ethical disputes, they all share a basic principle: The disabled are not viewed by the public as “normal people,” and they are unfairly cast away from the public eye. The disabled have the same capacity to love, desire and hurt as any other human being, and deserve all of the rights and privileges that we can offer them. They should be able to enter the same buildings, have representation in the media, and certainly be allowed the right to live.
...eglected social issues in recent history (Barlow). People with disabilities often face societal barriers and disability evokes negative perceptions and discrimination in society. As a result of the stigma associated with disability, persons with disabilities are generally excluded from education, employment, and community life which deprives them of opportunities essential to their social development, health and well-being (Stefan). It is such barriers and discrimination that actually set people apart from society, in many cases making them a burden to the community. The ideas and concepts of equality and full participation for persons with disabilities have been developed very far on paper, but not in reality (Wallace). The government can make numerous laws against discrimination, but this does not change the way that people with disabilities are judged in society.
People with disabilities are still people, they are people with hearts and they are actual physical beings; people with disabilities do their best to live every day to their fullest, yet that is still not enough for others. I feel like as a whole, humans are generally uncomfortable with people who have disabilities. Let’s think of it this way, people live their life every day in their normal lives and then they come across a person with a disability and suddenly their life is interrupted, like it is such a barrier in their flow of life to come across someone different from themselves.