What are the important things that you need to be aware of about disability? If you do not happen to be disabled yourself and you do not have a parent, sibling, or child with disabilities, then there is a good chance that you are not up to date and knowledgeable about important disability issues.
There are a number of different types of disability, and there is no disability that is any “worse” or “better” than another one.
There are several broad kinds of disability and numerous specific conditions. Each condition is unique and needs its own custom responses. Clarke mobility. All of them produce a combination of mental hardships, medical issues, and practical barriers from within, along with stigma and social hurdles that are imposed on the outside, from social system and practices as well as other people.
Any person who has a disability should always be treated with the utmost respect.
Disabilities are all different and require different responses.
People who have mobility and physical impairments need to have barrier-free neighourhoods and homes, wheelchairs, walkers, and decent canes. Some may also need to have personal help on a daily basis in order to perform daily self-care chores. Non-speaking, deaf, hearing impaired, blind, and visually impaired individuals need to have adaptive devices as well as patience and understanding from other people to give them the necessary time and space to navigate the world and to be heard and communicate.
Disabilities can be difficult, but they are not always awful.
A majority of disabled people experience both indirect and direct hardship that relate to their disabilities. However, many disabled people discover that a majority of the hardships come from the environment they are living in and from other people, and not their actual disabilities.
It can be useful to visualise a pie chart. For every individual at various times, there are different ratios between their direct suffering from their disabilities, and from indirect hardships that are imposed by lack of accessibility, systemic failures, and other people’s ableism. On some days, loss of mobility, sudden muscle spasms, and chronic back pain is a lot worse than interpersonal ableism or physical barriers. At other times, people are able to cope well with their impairments but they may struggle to obtain access to places they need to go and have to emotionally deal with an onslaught of ableist, insensitive comments that can seem to come from nowhere.
Although some disabled people might benefit from privilege, most do not.
Like Tyrion Lannister, the disabled character from the “Game Of Thrones” said, “If you are a cripple, it is best to be a rich one.” He also acknowledged earlier in the story that his social status gave him benefits, and noted that if he had not been born into a noble family but an ordinary one instead that he would probably have been killed when he was born. Disabled people from all different types of backgrounds share numerous experiences. However, intersecting inequalities also break through and significantly impact how people live with their disabilities.
What most disabled people want the most is to be taken seriously, and to be believed, heard, and seen.
For disabled people, visibility is a complex issue. A great irony of living with a disability is that although it is often impossible to miss disabilities, people often feel invisible and want to be acknowledged and noticed. At the same time, many people work hard to not be noticed or attempt to sideline or hide their disabilities hoping to be accepted and seen for other qualities that they have. However, what everyone shares are the need to be acknowledged as a human being just like everyone else is and as individuals with very distinct and real disabilities.
