Response To Disability

When you find out that a loved one has passed away, you initially respond by being hurt and confused. After your initial response, you realize that you have to find a way to move on in your life without your loved one. People with disabilities have to do the same thing when they find out that they have a disability. There are three categories of response to disability: cognitive, behavioral, and affective.

The cognitive category of response to disability involves interpreting the feelings and viewpoint of the person with disability. This response to disability is solely based on how the person with disability feels about their condition. For example, a paraplegic would recognize that their functional abilities are more limited than what they are previously used to, but with the proper adjustments, they can still enjoy living life and doing what they love. Positive cognitive responses do not ignore the fact that a disability exists, but rather redefine reality to include the disability into everyday life and functions (Smart 2009).

For example, a severely burned victim might loathe being in public because they have low self-image, which then causes them to slip in to a depression. This response is the most difficult to measure, in my opinion, because you never truly know how people are feeling and what they are going through unless they are open about it. A person with disability could smile in your face, but behind closed doors that are thinking negative thoughts. In extreme affective responses, people with disabilities are abusing drugs and alcohol, full of anger and self-hate, isolating themselves from their loved ones, and denying their disability (Smart 2009). The extreme affective responses can be observable and, therefore, easy to measure; however, affective responses are commonly less extreme, making them harder to measure (Smart