3.3.12

Disability Matters

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Disability Matters

Many people are born with disabilities, or become disabled as a result of illness or accident.

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Disability matters

  • There are questions surrounding how society should respond to disabilities, and how society should ensure that people with disabilities have equal rights and opportunities.
  • Many organisations working for equality for disabled people say that disability limits opportunity.
    • This is mainly because of the way the community responds to people with disabilities.
  • There are three main categories of problems faced by people with disabilities.
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Attitudinal problems

  • Disabled people are often stereotyped - people make general assumptions about what they can, or cannot, do.
    • People fail to see that each person, and each disability, is individual.
  • Some people think that disabled people cannot play sport, or have a professional career.
  • It is often assumed that, when spoken to, disabled people will not respond 'normally', and that conversation will be difficult.
  • Consequently, some people ignore disabled people, and sometimes make fun of them.
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Institutional problems

  • The government funds support for disabled people, and has passed laws to guarantee disabled features such as toilets are present.
  • They could do more by outlawing discrimination against disabled people in the workplace.
  • Some employers do not hire disabled people.
    • Many presume they cannot do the same job as the able-bodied, or do not want to pay to make the workplace disabled-friendly.
  • Many other barriers prevent disabled people from living their personal and working life to the full.

Disability Matters

Many people are born with disabilities, or become disabled as a result of illness or accident.

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Environmental problems

  • This refers to the physical environment in which disabled people find themselves.
    • For example, people in wheelchairs often cannot go into shops or places of entertainment because they do not have ramps or widened entrances.
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Environmental problems (cont.)

  • Blind people find it difficult to cross busy roads if there are no designated crossing points.
  • Travelling from one place to another is hard, and sometimes impossible for disabled people.
    • Buses, taxis, and train stations are not always adapted to accommodate those with disabilities.
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Disability and scripture

  • There are stories of people with disabilities in the Bible.
    • Often they reinforce the negative attitudes that disabled people sometimes face.
  • There is the idea that disability and illness is a punishment for sin.
    • Consequently, disabled people were often social outcasts, looked down upon as sinners.
  • When Jesus heals a blind man (John 9:1-12), even his own disciples wonder whether the blind man, or one of his parents, was a sinner.

Jump to other topics

1Year 7

1.1Origins of Abrahamic Faith

1.2Judaism

1.3Christianity

1.4Buddhism

2Year 8

3Year 9

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