Individuality is something we all strive for, so how is it that sometimes being different is regarded as a bad thing? Nowadays the society goes through a great deal of trouble to make sure that they do not resemble, dress or even speak alike someone else. Most of mankind accept and respect people who try so hard to be different. What about the people who don’t try to act different but who are merely born different, why does society regard them as abnormal? People suffering from mental and/or physical handicaps are always looked upon as being different in an awful way. Individuals should all be treated the same and have the right to human dignity. We are all the same and we all have our flaws and imperfections. Just because some people are not like us does not mean we should exclude them from our world.
Mankind gets caught up on some little unimportant imperfections that they have. What we do not realize is that in the end, we are all the same. The fact that someone has a lisp, a limp or even a mental defect should not matter because it is just a mask that harbours our true selves. As a responsible society we have to accept that there are certain people who are less fortunate then others and who have to deal with their disability. Inabilities are what make people unique, therefore we have to stop judging and discriminating against people who are involuntarily different. A handicap does not change how nice a person can be. As the book Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, demonstrates Thelma, an aged woman, is described as a large-boned, handsome woman with a large wine-colored birthmark that covers the left side of her face. Thelma is obviously embarrassed about her birthmark but she does not let it take over her life. “I notic...
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...lities. She was tired of always being laughed at and not being included in regular activities. Sometimes our words and actions are more powerful then we think.
Clearly, not giving everyone a chance to human dignity will lead to further and more severe social problems. We all expect to be treated with respect and dignity so why not show the example and start a movement towards global acceptance. Being born different is not a horrible thing, it is simply part of nature. Yet, by all trying to differentiate ourselves from one another, we all end up being the same thing… not ourselves. We can save so many lives by merely accepting and understanding our differences. Including disabled people in our everyday life, would ultimately alter our perspective on them. Nobody was intended to be perfect, so why do we expect a person to be something that is impossible to attain?
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.”
The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional
Take a second and imagine yourself as an elderly 72-year-old person, struggling with a dreadful disease, multiple sclerosis. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, multiple sclerosis is a defined as a disabled disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body (insert citation). With this picture in your head, think about how society may view you. Think about the struggles you would undergo daily. Most importantly, think about how other people would label you. Personally, would you prefer to be characterized as handicapped, disabled, differently abled, or crippled? While these names may sound a bit harsh, Nancy Mairs, the author of an article called “On Being a Cripple, easily chose her preference. Among the several possibilities, she chooses the word and uses it comfortably throughout the passage; however, she refuses to let it define the type of person she is. Diagnosed at the age of 28, Nancy Mairs sorted through the other politically correct synonyms and found something that is meticulously suitable. Mairs hates the world “disabled” considering that it conveys that she is physically or mentally incapacitated. She also refuses to
...ge them to be more visible, which would lead to a positive attitude towards their disability, and a positive attitude felt by those around them. (Christiaan Kier, Chapter 7 powerpoint). For example, there is the Americans with Disabilities act that was passed in 1990, and that was made to change how society and employers thought of towards people with disabilities. (Jason Andrew, Rehabilitation Services). Since then, many acts and laws have been added to give power and recognition to people with disabilities, so they could integrate with society as part of that society and feel positive about their disability rather than just an outcast. Portrayal of people with disabilities is needed to inform everyone that these people have the same rights as anyone else and that they instead of thinking of them as having limitations, they should focus on what they can accomplish.
As human beings, we like to make sure never to offend or judge anyone. We even have sayings like “never judge a book by its cover”. A metaphor that is often said whenever trying not to judge someone based on their outward appearance; however, it is not often that people practice what they preach. We judge people based on external factors within seconds. Even though we know what people see on the outside is not a defining factor or who we are as people. Nancy Mairs, author of On Being a Cripple, has to live through this every day. She knows this truth very well, and lives proudly with the fact that as she is disabled. Mairs is admirable for choosing to call herself a “cripple” and not be ashamed of it. Though the word is derogatory and a word that is avoided by society, Mairs identifies herself as a cripple because that is what she is. In explaining her disability, she says, “I haven’t always been crippled, ... to be whole of limb is ... infinitely more pleasant and useful. and if that knowledge leaves me open to bitterness … the physical soundness I once enjoyed is well worth the occasional stab of regret” (Mairs 186). What really
In fact, most of the handicapped people in society do not appreciate being treated in a way different from anyone else. They just want to be accepted as human beings.
This quote is exactly what I am going to describe to you. Everyone deserves to be treated the same way Just as we have had to accept people around the world that are different race. We also have to accept people who are suffering with mental disabilities. In this paper I’ll go over a few things that happened in the 20th century. These things made it, so people with disabilities can be able to work, get an education, and live on their own.
Kathie Snow believed that other people’s attitude towards others is the greatest obstacle facing people with disabilities. According to Kathie Snow (2010), “The real problem is never a person’s disability, but the attitudes of others! A change in our attitudes leads to changes in our actions. Attitudes drive actions” (P. 2). I completely agree with Kathie Snow in this regard because this is more than just language; it is the attitudes we have towards
...e must treat people like an individual. All nondisabled people must recognize that people with disabilities are not a separate category of humans.
It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but our society today lacks to understand that. In today’s time different is not accepted, people that are different are discriminated, looked down upon and usually picked on. People with disabilities are seen as different creatures by most people, the disabled don’t choose to be the way they are, but still our society alienates them. There are different types of disabilities, some type of disabilities are; mental disability, physical disability, learning disability and socializing disability. These disabilities are seen as weakness in our society that hence contribute to the stereotype that leads to the discrimination against the disabled.
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.
Children with disabilities are more in the public eye than years ago, although they are still treated differently. Our society treats them differently from lack of education on special needs. The society labels them and make their lives more difficult than it has to be becau...
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.
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.