Why Are We Still Limiting Those With Down Syndrome? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see someone who is different than you? Some people become un-comfortable or scared, but anything new is scary. Everyone is different from one another in some way, but let’s say this person was different due to their disability. Truthfully, who doesn’t have a disability? Believe it or not, having bad eye sight, or chronic back pain, or being double jointed are all disabilities. Of course there are some more severe than others and the one I am going to be focusing on is Down syndrome. I know most people look at someone with Down syndrome and automatically discriminate; I know this, because I used to be one of them. Society unquestionably …show more content…
They don’t have enough mental nor physical skill to do what we do.” He also brought up a few concerning questions such as “How would you react driving down the road, looking over to the car next to you, and seeing one with Down syndrome driving that car?” During our conversation, I started to put myself in his shoes. I can understand why most people would have disagreeing thoughts on this but, my view has me seeing that they can do whatever their mind sets them to do. There are plenty of adults with Down syndrome that do have the mentality to drive a car, become a college student, or even an Olympian. If they are not taking special classes to get there, then why not let them? Let’s say they grew up loving to swim, they loved it so much they wanted to do something with it like go to the Olympics. Most would say “that’s great, but we have a “special Olympics” for you”. Just give them a shot at what they really want to do! We should all stop limiting those with Down syndrome. A person with Down syndrome can walk, talk, play sports, go to college, attend high school prom, get married and follow their dreams just like we do. Just like us, they know what they want in life, and when their mind is set to it, they WILL do
Having Down Syndrome is a Horizontal identity. Most Americans view people with Down’s to be disabled and do not thing much past that. But, many people with Down’s see this simply as a part of who they are, just as much as the color of their eyes. To them, it is not a disability, but just a fact of life. Many outsiders do not understand this, which is why the Down’s community is so important. The Down’s community provides those with Down’s acceptance to their identity. While the rest of society rejects and pities them, within their community they can relate with others and be treated equally. Unlike with vertical identities where the parents are automatically insiders, parents must choose to whether or not to support their children’s horizontal identities. Some parents choose not to accept Down’s before the child is born and terminate the pregnancy while others do their best to make sure their child is comfortable in the world. Again, in more recent years, there are movements for society to be more educated and inclusive for those with Down Syndrome, but there is still a long way to go.
Disability in our day in age is seen as being worse than death. People with disabilities should not feel like they don 't belong. They are just like everyone else and want to be treated like everyone else. Many without disabilities think that it can be contagious and stray to even look at people with disability. This is not the case for it 's not contagious and one should not be seen as a different person just because of their disability. They didn 't choose that life and shouldn 't be mistreated for what they are. “People with disability should be treated equally to everyone else.”
...ility, they are weak and are not as vigorous/ active as kids that don’t have down syndrome. Many kids with translocation down syndrome function differently than others because they have to deal with mental and physical problems unlike others and often need physical therapy. Not only that, kids with this disorder take intervention classes to try to improve the disorder as well as try to improve their physical, mental and intellectual abilities. Also, kids with down syndrome are slow in motor development(the ability to control one’s body movement’s). They also have verbal short-term memory loss.At school, kids with down syndrome should interact with others to build a foundation of social abilities allowing the child to be more sociable and participate in discussions in class. This will improve the level of functioning of a child with translocation down syndrome.
Most people feel relatively uncomfortable when they meet someone with an obvious physical disability. Usually, the disability seems to stand out in ones mind so much that they often forget the person is still a person. In turn, their discomfort is likely to betray their actions, making the other person uncomfortable too. People with disabilities have goals, dreams, wants and desires similar to people without disabilities. Andre Dubus points out very clearly in his article, "Why the Able-bodied Still Don't Get It," how people's attitudes toward "cripples" effect them. It's is evident that although our society has come a long way with excepting those with physical disabilities, people do not understand that those with physical disabilities are as much human as the next person
Down Syndrome: Critically analyze the effects of Down syndrome on people and the support that is available
Have you ever been in a situation where you were confronted by a child who has Down Syndrome and were unsure of how to act around that child? I'm sure many of us have experienced the awkwardness that accompanies such a situation. Many people feel guilt or pity for these children, I believe these reactions result from a lack of knowledge about the condition. Which is why I have chosen this topic.
Having Down syndrome is like being born normal. I am just like you, and you are just like me. We are all born in different ways, that is the way I can describe it. I have a normal life"(Burke, C., n.d.). Where special education is concerned, one must always remember that exceptional learners are different, not less.
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.
In non-inclusive classrooms, Down Syndrome students often miss out on opportunities to access and learn the same curriculum as their same aged peers which are available to them when placed in inclusive
I had a classmate that had cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair. I did not feel any way about her because I did not know that she had cerebral palsy until she told me. I treated her like she was a normal person, but other people in my class feelings towards her were not so nice. She was would always ask questions in the class because she had struggles and people in the classroom would yell at her. They say come on you ask so many questions, but she never bothered me. The feelings that come up when I am around people who are disabilities like blind, deaf, cerebral palsy, are obese, and etc. is I do not feel any different when I am around someone who does not have a disability. I think that people with disabilities are normal. People who disabilities should feel like they are not different from me or another person in this world. They might have severe struggles; we should not judge someone on the struggles they have. People who disabilities describe themselves as “invisible” because people just pretend that they are not there. People tend to ignore them when they see people disabilities in public with disabilities. The words my family and community use to refer to the above groups of people is disabled because we had a family friend who was disabled. My parents hated when we or people we knew used the word “mental retardation” or just
Disability: Any person who has a mental or physical deterioration that initially limits one or more major everyday life activities. Millions of people all over the world, are faced with discrimination, the con of being unprotected by the law, and are not able to participate in the human rights everyone is meant to have. For hundreds of years, humans with disabilities are constantly referred to as different, retarded, or weird. They have been stripped of their basic human rights; born free and are equal in dignity and rights, have the right to life, shall not be a victim of torture or cruelty, right to own property, free in opinion and expression, freedom of taking part in government, right in general education, and right of employment opportunities. Once the 20th century
The first thought that crosses the mind of an able-bodied individual upon seeing a disabled person will undoubtedly pertain to their disability. This is for the most part because that is the first thing that a person would notice, as it could be perceived from a distance. However, due to the way that disability is portrayed in the media, and in our minds, your analysis of a disabled person rarely proceeds beyond that initial observation. This is the underlying problem behind why disabled people feel so under appreciated and discriminated against. Society compartmentalizes, and in doing so places the disabled in an entirely different category than fully able human beings. This is the underlying theme in the essays “Disability” by Nancy Mairs, “Why the Able-Bodied Just Don’t Get it” by Andre Dubus, and “Should I Have Been Killed at Birth?” by Harriet Johnson.
Many people view disabilities in an extremely negative way, especially physical and mental disabilities. Two years ago I spent my spring break volunteering at a camp for adults with disabilities. I always accepted those with disabilities as normal people and it was at this camp where I found a passion in working with this population of people. Seeing this survey and hearing people talk about disabilities in a demeaning way is something that I hope to change. Nobody deserves to be treated negatively and if more people could open up their minds and hearts then those with disabilities could live happier
Every day in America, a woman loses a job to a man, a homosexual high school student suffers from harassment, and someone with a physical or mental disability is looked down upon. People with disabilities make up the world’s largest and most disadvantaged minority, with about 56.7 million people living with disabilities in the United States today (Barlow). In every region of the country, people with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived from some of life’s fundamental experiences. They have little hope of inclusion within education, getting a job, or having their own home (Cox). Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed in life, but discrimination is limiting opportunities and treating people badly because of their disability. Whether born from ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, or hate, society’s attitudes limit people from experiencing and appreciating the full potential a person with a disability can achieve. This treatment is unfair, unnecessary, and against the law (Purdie). Discrimination against people with disabilities is one of the greatest social injustices in the country today. Essential changes are needed in society’s basic outlook in order for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life.
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.