The Stigma of Mental Disabilities

759 Words2 Pages

The concept of desirability has divided society in two groups. One group has been categorized as the higher- achiever and the other group as the low-achievers. This comparison has been embedded into society for so many years. During the 50’s it was used to protect white middle-class students. Today is mostly used to described people who have mental or physical impairments. Sleeter and Longmore researched how the concept of disability has had a negative development through the US society. Sleeter tries to answer the question of why LD category was created? It was way to protect those white children who had low learning achievement during the 50’s and 60’s. Parents did not what their children to be classified as mental retarded, as many minority groups were considerate in the mental retarded category at the time, to separated their children from them, parents pushed for a new category and named it LD. This permitted the schools to separated high-achievers from the low-achievers, and It allowed white children to keep their white privileges over minority groups. In this case, disability was manipulated to serve a group of students who had difficulties in subject-matter: reading and writing. It is indeed a perfect example of how the concept of disability can be interpreted depending on the circumstance. In this case, it was used for the purpose of protecting white children. It is unbelievable for the purpose that LD was created. The social construction that this category created in the 50’s and 60’s has damaged our society today, because it portrays people who have disability as a low-achievers. People with disability should not be compared to nondisabled individuals this creates a rivalry of comparison between these two groups. ... ... middle of paper ... ... It seems that society is treating this group as an inferior class. I think disabilities study will help to understand the disability culture better and give a collective identity that can help them to be accepted by others. I think it will be good if a course on disabilities study is offered as a college credits through out all the Universities of this country. We have to educate ourselves better about this community and begin to considerate them as part of our society not as a separate group. The social construction that has been developed towards this concept has been always negative. It classified groups of people as high and low achiever that’s why the disability community is look with pity. They want to change the negative connotation that disability has in this society. Longmore could have a solution to this problem by considerate disable people as culture.

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