“Our waitress was fussing over me. After setting down my soup, she moved the placemat closer to me, unwrapped my silverware from the napkin, and handed me the spoon. She turned to my boyfriend, Nick, who sat across from me and asked if I was his sister. He informed her that I was his girlfriend. "Oh, how nice," she cooed, perhaps assuming I had an intellectual disability and he was indulging my heartwarming fantasy. Still talking to Nick, she said, "She's a sweet little girl."
Then she walked away. It was the summer of 2010." - Ashley Wiseman, physically handicapped
Then she walked away. It was the summer of 2010." - Ashley Wiseman, physically handicapped
Social Reactions
Businesses who hire the disabled are enormously successful.
However, the handicapped are still largely unemployed today.
However, the handicapped are still largely unemployed today.
- Kessler Foundation and National Organization on Disability Survey of Americans with Disabilities
"In spite of relatively strong civil rights and legal protections, people with disabilities still experience a significant disadvantage in key areas compared to the general population. This helps reveal the limits of the ADA: popular attitudes do not change overnight, and for people with disabilities, stigma is still an obstacle". - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled
|
Types of Prejudice
"For thousands of years the sick and disabled were... seen as a threat to one’s own health, whether through contact, through magic, through possession, or though evil... Society and culture are very slow to change... There are still vague fears of harm from illness and disability present in even these “modern” times." - Robert J. Mittan, Ph.D., clinical neuropsychologist
1. Originating from the ancient Greeks, ideal body is the "belief that a perfect body is the norm". - Maggie Shreve, consultant to Community Resources for Independence "People with disabilities are [therefore] different from fully human people; they are partial or limited people, in an 'other' and lesser category". - PBS program "Beyond Affliction"
|
2. This assumption correlates with prejudice for beauty.
"Those who do not meet society's standards of beautiful face more stigma because it is assumed that they are not making the proper effort to conform... Often when people who use wheelchairs are portrayed in the media, they are attractive, symmetrical individuals who use manual wheelchairs which they are strong enough to push by themselves." - Ashley Wiseman, physically handicapped |
"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance".
- Socrates
- Socrates
4. The "safely threat" is the belief that "people with disabilities are a menace to others, to themselves, to society... consumed by an incessant, inevitable rage and anger at their loss and at those who are not disabled. Those with mental disabilities lack the moral sense that would restrain them from hurting others or themselves."
- PBS program "Beyond Affliction" |
"Studies suggest that people with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities are actually less violent than the general population." - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled
|
5. Wiseman's stigmatization come from spread, the "assumption that one disability includes others", and generalization, the "assumption that the achievements and/or failures of one person should apply to others with the same or similar disability." (Maggie Shreve, consultant to Community Resources for Independence)
6. The concept of atonement follows the early Christian belief that "disability represented impurity of some kind [that] could be purged through workshop and forgiveness of sins, including... that with enough prayer and rituals, the [disabled] could be eliminated." - Maggie Shreve, consultant to Community Resources for Independence (a branch of the Independent Living Movement) |
Modern Assumptions
"The typical solution [to avoid being stigmatized] is to... avoid social situations where... new social contacts might react with stigma and withdrawal - even if the reaction is mostly an “uncomfortable awkwardness” in the situation." - Robert J. Mittan, Ph.D, clinical neuropsychologist
"The most troubling aspect about stereotyping is that it doesn't just include negative images, but sometimes also what the outside world thinks of as positive..."
"For people with disabilities, it's sometimes been the adjective of 'brave and courageous' in the face of such adversity, but what we've experienced it as meaning [is that] you think that it's a fantastic thing, that I'm able to climb a flight of stairs... just like anyone else." - Irving Zola, 1995 interview
9. "People with disabilities are [also] expected to follow certain rules...[They] should be cheerful and ignore prejudice and discrimination." - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled "Until only a year or two ago, I would become embarrassed when other people with disabilities complained openly about disability-related issues in the company of people without disabilities because subconsciously I knew they were breaking the rules." - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled |
Stigma Effects the Disabled Themselves
"Holding false and unrealistic beliefs about disabilities limits any individual's view of the world, but if the person should acquire disability, then he or she literally becomes the object of his or her own prejudice and narrow views." - Julie Smart
"The problem most people have is when they have a stigma, they begin seeing themselves as that stigma. They become obsessed by it. Their actions and their social contacts are all defined by the stigma. The stigma gets magnified in the person’s mind until that is the only part of one’s self that she sees... It affects [their] social relationships, it affects [their] opportunities, it affects [their] identity".
- Robert J. Mittan, Ph.D, clinical neuropsychologist |
But hope remains!
Julie Smart, professor of disability rehabilitation and anti-discrimination, on social stigma
|
Social Situations Today
Mainstreaming in Education
"The movement towards 'inclusion' is dividing advocates for disabled children. Some hail it as an ethical and educational breakthrough; others believe children's individual needs are being sacrificed in a crusade". - New York Times, May 19, 1993
Advantages"To a child, being invited to birthday parties is a major event. Our children with special needs get invited and invite other people to theirs. And it's not about special needs. They're just friends."
- Nigel Utton, teacher and chair of Heading for Inclusion "Many students with special needs need to improve their social skills, so placing them into classes with them helps to increase these skills. It also helps their self-esteem as well" - Elizabeth Winstrom, educational expert
"Full inclusion can show children and adults the value of accepting people a they are and can demonstrate that children with disabilities are important individuals who can contribute to society". - Children Today (Journal), 1993
|
Disadvantages
"Experience shows that [disabled] children are more isolated in the regular class, which imposes greater psychological pressure on them, resulting in behavioral problems". - National Review, September 12, 1994 "Inappropriate inclusion... places children who cannot function into an environment which doesn't help them and often detracts from the education process for all students". - The American Federation of Teachers, 1993
|
Assistive Technology
"The extraordinary technological advances in devices to assist students with disabilities have vastly improved their ability to communicate and interact with and manipulate their environment". - Children Today (Journal) 2003
Speaking Disability
Table on Disability Wording by the National Service Inclusion Project
"Language used to describe people with disabilities also has an impact on society's perceptions... Monitoring the language we use to describe disabilities and people with disabilities may seem cumbersome, but it is important. The words we use subtly reflect our understanding of and attitudes toward that which we are describing." - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled