I was thinking about a previous post I made on here about pitying disabled people and I was thinking about possible solutions, ways to change peoples attitudes. And then I started thinking how can we expect people to treat disabled people as equals if every effort is made to keep them segregated.
First we have special schools and preschools. I know a few disabled people who went to their local comprehensives but they had to fight for their places and modifications had to be made in the schools in order to accomodate their wheelchairs. Surely all places, particularly those funded by the tax payer such as schools should have disabled access. And if the only disability a person has is physical why should they be discouraged from mixing with other non disabled people?
I never noticed it until I started volunteering with disabled people but so many places don't have access for wheel chairs. Restaurants, cafe's, clubs, pubs, shops. If there was something preventing a black person or a gay person from entering one of these places there would be public outrage, and rightly so. Yet it seems perfectly acceptable to not have disabled access. This again segregates disabled people.
And then there's work. Some work places are great, full disabled access. Others have token gestures, a disabled toilet but lifts that are too small to fit some wheelchairs in. Other places don't even have lifts. I know there are some jobs that people with disabilities can't do because they can't physically carry out the tasks that are necessary but everything else should be available to them.
I think it's time this segregation ended.
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Comments: 11
Why, if the only disability a person has is NOT physical (i.e. mental/social, learning issues) should they be excluded? I have a heck of a time trying to keep my autistic son integrated in a regular classroom with the special modifications he needs. It's a constant fight with school staff who refuse to try to understand his needs. I don't think you were meaning to sound biased at all, but it sort of came across that way. Friendly FYI.
Awareness and inclusion, we need more of both.
Am I a scanner or ADD sufferer ?
I have never even thought about parks not being inclusive but now that you mention it I think they should definately be modified.
Mary, I am a bit surprised that your son's school does not have special education classes or the necessary accomodations to help facilitate with your son's needs. Maybe you should consider changing schools if the staff refuses to understand your son's needs and not making the necessary accomodations to benefit your son.
In my opinion, people notice a physical disabilty (wheelchair, down syndrome, etc.) more than something that is mental or in the case of autism neurological. It is extremely difficult for people to comprehend something unless they have some expertise in that particular field. Also, it has only been recently that the subject of autism has been a topic of debate as to its causes, possible cures, and research.
I work with children with disabilities and in graduate school, I took a course on law governing those with special needs. In the U.S., all federally funded buildings are required to have accessibility to those in wheelchairs, unless it is a historic building and adding a ramp or what have you would cause unncessary financial hardship. Our schools have moved toward inclusion of disabled children in general education classrooms when at all possible. Only the most extreme cases of disability are in pull out classes, and even then many are with typical peers for art, gym, and whatever they can do with reasonable accommodation.
Also, in the workplace, the law requires employers to hire regardless of disability if they can do the major job functions with reasonable accommodation.
Also, you should know if you volunteer with people with disabilities that "people first" language is very important... i.e. they are a person with a disability and not a disabled person as you have said in your article.
I am not sure of the status of these concerns in England, but I just wanted to say that here in the U.S., there is much legislature in place to protect those people who have disabilities from the "segregation" you mention.
I know that when my friend returned to the UK she found it very difficult to adapt because suddenly she had to start getting taxi's everywhere and she couldn't go out without someone with her because we don't have many automatic doors. Half of the campus where she attends university is not accesible to her (she was even telling me that she couldn't go to a lecture because there was no lift and it was up five flights of stairs.)
Over here disabled people is the politically correct term. I'm sorry if people in America are offended by that but even Scope uses the term disabled people, as you can see in this link. http://www.scope.org.uk/disablism/index.shtml
I think that different terms are considered offensive in different countries.
I suspect that in your country it is difficult to adapt many of the buildings because so many of them are historic. It's still problematic as you pointed out because your friend needs to be able to access her college campus!
That is a good point, I think a lot of places are having trouble adapting, so I guess there really isn't an easy solution.