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Book Reviews

In 2 essay collections, writers with disabilities tell their own stories.

Ilana Masad

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More than 1 in 5 people living in the U.S. has a disability, making it the largest minority group in the country.

Despite the civil rights law that makes it illegal to discriminate against a person based on disability status — Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990 — only 40 percent of disabled adults in what the Brookings Institute calls "prime working age," that is 25-54, are employed. That percentage is almost doubled for non-disabled adults of the same age. But even beyond the workforce — which tends to be the prime category according to which we define useful citizenship in the U.S. — the fact is that people with disabilities (or who are disabled — the language is, for some, interchangeable, while others have strong rhetorical and political preferences), experience a whole host of societal stigmas that range from pity to disbelief to mockery to infantilization to fetishization to forced sterilization and more.

But disabled people have always existed, and in two recent essay anthologies, writers with disabilities prove that it is the reactions, attitudes, and systems of our society which are harmful, far more than anything their own bodies throw at them.

About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, edited by Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, collects around 60 essays from the column, which began in 2016, and divides them into eight self-explanatory sections: Justice, Belonging, Working, Navigating, Coping, Love, Family, and Joy. The title, which comes from the 1990s disability rights activist slogan "Nothing about us without us," explains the book's purpose: to give those with disabilities the platform and space to write about their own experiences rather than be written about.

While uniformly brief, the essays vary widely in terms of tone and topic. Some pieces examine particular historical horrors in which disability was equated with inhumanity, like the "The Nazis' First Victims Were the Disabled" by Kenny Fries (the title says it all) or "Where All Bodies Are Exquisite" by Riva Lehrer, in which Lehrer, who was born with spina bifida in 1958, "just as surgeons found a way to close the spina bifida lesion," visits the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. There, she writes:

"I am confronted with a large case full of specimen jars. Each jar contains a late-term fetus, and all of the fetuses have the same disability: Their spinal column failed to fuse all the way around their spinal cord, leaving holes (called lesions) in their spine. [...] I stand in front of these tiny humans and try not to pass out. I have never seen what I looked like on the day I was born."

Later, she adds, "I could easily have ended up as a teaching specimen in a jar. But luck gave me a surgeon."

Other essays express the joys to be found in experiences unfamiliar to non-disabled people, such as the pair of essays by Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison in which the two writers and friends describe the comfort and intimacy between them because of shared — if different — experiences; Brown writes at the end of her piece:

"We're talking about our bodies, and then not about our bodies, about her dog, and my classes, and the zip line we'd like to string between us [... a]nd then we're talking about our bodies again, that sense of being both separate and not separate from the skin we're in. And it hits me all at once that none of this is in translation, none of this is explaining. "

From the cover of Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong Disability Visibility Project hide caption

From the cover of Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong

While there's something of value in each of these essays, partially because they don't toe to a single party line but rather explore the nuances of various disabilities, there's an unfortunate dearth of writers with intellectual disabilities in this collection. I also noticed that certain sections focused more on people who've acquired a disability during their lifetime and thus went through a process of mourning, coming to terms with, or overcoming their new conditions. While it's true — and emphasized more than once — that many of us, as we age, will become disabled, the process of normalization must begin far earlier if we're to become a society that doesn't discriminate against or segregate people with disabilities.

One of the contributors to About Us, disability activist and writer Alice Wong, edited and published another anthology just last year, Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People , through the Disability Visibility Project which publishes and supports disability media and is partnered with StoryCorps. The e-book, which is available in various accessible formats, features 17 physically and/or intellectually disabled writers considering the ways in which resistance and hope intersect. And they do — and must, many of these writers argue — intersect, for without a hope for a better future, there would be no point to such resistance. Attorney and disability justice activist Shain M. Neumeir writes:

"Those us who've chosen a life of advocacy and activism aren't hiding from the world in a bubble as the alt-right and many others accuse us of doing. Anything but. Instead, we've chosen to go back into the fires that forged us, again and again, to pull the rest of us out, and to eventually put the fires out altogether."

You don't go back into a burning building unless you hope to find someone inside that is still alive.

The anthology covers a range of topics: There are clear and necessary explainers — like disability justice advocate and organizer Lydia X. Z. Brown's "Rebel — Don't Be Palatable: Resisting Co-optation and Fighting for the World We Want" — about what disability justice means, how we work towards it, and where such movements must resist both the pressures of systemic attacks (such as the threatened cuts to coverage expanded by the Affordable Care Act) and internal gatekeeping and horizontal oppression (such as a community member being silenced due to an unpopular or uninformed opinion). There are essays that involve the work of teaching towards a better future, such as community lawyer Talila A. Lewis's "the birth of resistance: courageous dreams, powerful nobodies & revolutionary madness" which opens with a creative classroom writing prompt: "The year is 2050. There are no prisons. What does justice look like?" And there are, too, personal meditations on what resistance looks like for people who don't always have the mobility or ability to march in the streets or confront their lawmakers in person, as Ojibwe writer Mari Kurisato explains:

"My resistance comes from who I am as a Native and as an LGBTQIA woman. Instinctively, the first step is reaching out and making connections across social media and MMO [massively multiplayer online] games, the only places where my social anxiety lets me interact with people on any meaningful level."

The authors of these essays mostly have a clear activist bent, and are working, lauded, active people; they are gracious, vivid parts of society. Editor Alice Wong demonstrates her own commitments in the diversity of these writers' lived experiences: they are people of color and Native folk, they encompass the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, they come from different class backgrounds, and their disabilities range widely. They are also incredibly hopeful: Their commitment to disability justice comes despite many being multiply marginalized. Artist and poet Noemi Martinez, who is queer, chronically ill, and a first generation American, writes that "Not all communities are behind me and my varied identities, but I defend, fight, and work for the rights of the members of all my communities." It cannot be easy to fight for those who oppress parts of you, and yet this is part of Martinez's commitment.

While people with disabilities have long been subjected to serve as "inspirations" for the non-disabled, this anthology's purpose is not to succumb to this gaze, even though its authors' drive, creativity, and true commitment to justice and reform is apparent. Instead, these essays are meant to spur disabled and non-disabled people alike into action, to remind us that even if we can't see the end result, it is the fight for equality and better conditions for us all that is worth it. As activist and MFA student Aleksei Valentin writes:

"Inspiration doesn't come first. Even hope doesn't come first. Action comes first. As we act, as we speak, as we resist, we find our inspiration, our hope, that which helps us inspire others and keep moving forward, no matter the setbacks and no matter the defeats."

Ilana Masad is an Israeli American fiction writer, critic and founder/host of the podcast The Other Stories . Her debut novel, All My Mother's Lovers, is forthcoming from Dutton in 2020.

CREATING A BETTER SOCIETY: The importance of empowering people with disabilities

If you have no disabilities, you may not have given much thought to the financial, psychological and emotional ramifications of not being able to do things that perfectly healthy people do automatically. If you look physically healthy, you may not have any awareness of the painful discrimination in all areas of life that people with disabilities live with on a daily basis.

Imagine yourself in a wheelchair trying to negotiate a steep curb, trying to enter a building or some form of transportation, or attempting to enter a bathroom that fails to accommodate you. Aside from these and countless similar situations being inconvenient, they are very disempowering. They send the message that you’re not a worthy human being.

People with intellectual disabilities also suffer similar types of discrimination on a daily basis. Their challenges are different, but they too are treated in ways that are very shaming and disempowering .

I’m one of many people living with hidden disabilities. Because I look perfectly healthy, people sometimes make shaming remarks when I tell them I won’t have the energy to attend their event or party, that I can’t eat in many restaurants, that I need someone else to move a chair or lift an object, or that none of their chairs support my back.

Thanks to the many non-profit organizations around the United States that are dedicated to serving people with all types of disabilities, people who in past times were left behind to waste away are now given the type of support that can help them live full and productive lives.

Whether their disability is the result of a traumatic accident, a stroke, a neurodegenerative disease, a genetic condition present since birth, a debilitating medical condition that has developed, or some other cause, there are non-profit community organizations available to help.

Volunteers from these organizations drive people to appointments or shopping when they can no longer drive, and in some cases, can’t take public transportation. They also deliver meals, make home repairs or modifications, advise those in their care on various matters and provide several types of advocacy. They offer various types of independent living skills training, counselling, and group support, besides arranging employment opportunities that are appropriate for various levels of disability, and providing many additional services.

The mission statements of these non-profit community organizations have some similarities. I’ve chosen the mission statement of the Marin Center for Independent Living (MCIL) to give you an example of why these organizations are so important. The MCIL mission statement reads as follows:

To assist persons with all types of disabilities to achieve their maximum level of sustainable independence as contributing, responsible and equal participants in society.

Below is an explication of the MCIL mission statement, which is congruent with the mission of hundreds of other non-profit community organizations that exist to make life better for people living with any type of disability.

To assist doesn’t necessarily mean to take care of. What we refer to as government assistance, most commonly known as public assistance, refers to providing money, food, shelter and other basic needs. This form of assistance, although it’s most efficacious when used to help people get back on their feet in acute situations, and is essential in order to prevent people from dying in the streets, isn’t the type of assistance that catalyzes self-efficacy.

In the long term, people don’t thrive when they’re dependent on assistance. Public assistance is anathema to people living with disabilities. Disabilities are chronic conditions that don’t have to prevent people from living full, productive lives. People with disabilities don’t want to be dependent on others to do things for them—they want what we all want—to be self-sufficient and to be able to live with a sense of mastery and dignity.

The best form of assistance engenders self-efficacy—the confidence that we can set and accomplish goals and master everyday tasks. The type of assistance offered by the independent living centres (nationwide) and many other non-profit community organizations such as California-based Lifehouse, Opportunity for Independence , LaChris Connection , Designing Accessible Communities , and others throughout the country serves to catalyze self-efficacy and mastery by removing barriers and providing the type of support to people with all types of disabilities that can help them live full and productive lives.

The need to work towards achieving our goals is universal, as setting goals and then working towards accomplishing them helps make life worthwhile. Goals can be related to work, athletic endeavours, gardening , learning a new skill, resolving a contentious relationship, or finding a way to more effectively manage activities of everyday living.

Research psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow has now been proven, within many studies, to contribute to a meaningful life. Flow is a very healthy state, wherein we feel challenged at our ability level. If we set goals that we can achieve without feeling challenged, there’s no state of flow and little satisfaction. Conversely, if we set goals that are so challenging that we are simply not able to achieve them, again, there is no state of flow and only frustration.

Unfortunately, you can’t achieve goals when barriers prevent you from getting in the door. Worse than that, certain barriers prevent people with disabilities from even setting goals in the first place. In order to set goals, we need to have hope that we can accomplish those goals.

A common experience for most of us is that of being unable to achieve a certain goal and then having to reassess our capabilities and set different goals. This is part of life. But when we can’t see any hope of achieving a goal due to a barrier to our success, which could easily be removed with the support of others, it’s to everyone’s benefit to do everything possible to remove that barrier, because barriers destroy lives and prevent otherwise productive people from being able to be responsible, contributing participants in society.

Examples of barriers include steps that prevent anyone in a wheelchair, walker, or scooter, or even someone using a cane, from gaining access to a building or a method of transportation.

Another type of barrier involves employment discrimination. When employers see a physically disabled person, they often assume that person is unlikely to be a productive worker, or they may conclude that it wouldn’t be worth it for them to make the necessary accommodations to meet that potential employee’s needs. However, there are many people who, despite blindness, deafness, and other serious physical disabilities, are very productive workers. Similarly, employees with intellectual disabilities can be very loyal workers, yet, again, employers typically don’t want to take the risk.

Their maximum level

It’s not important for people with disabilities to be able to compete with other people as much as it’s important that they live life to the fullest with their disability. What matters most is that each individual, regardless of disability, is able to reach their maximum level of achievement and independence, given their specific circumstances.

Part of being human is the need to test ourselves to see what we can do. This is why some people become star athletes, and many world-class athletes are paraplegic. Paraplegics ski; play lacrosse, rugby and basketball; compete in Ironman events; and participate in countless other sports. Even those living with quadriplegia can live a full life. Although they can’t participate in athletics, new technology does allow them to communicate effectively, be creative, compete within the job market and earn a living. They do need the assistance of others in order to reach their maximum level of independence and achievement, given their physical limitations.

Those who live with an intellectual disability can also be assisted to reach their maximum level of achievement and independence. Therefore, they too can find meaning and purpose in life and develop loving relationships.

Of sustainable independence

Sustainable independence provides a sense of life mastery, regardless of the nature of the disability. When people are assisted in ways that lead to the acquisition of new skills and the removal of barriers, they tend to develop a sense of hope, optimism, and self-efficacy, and a desire to set and work towards goals. This is a healthy path that allows them to sustain their independence, because they are able to see open doors and opportunities, rather than barriers.

There’s an expression that states, “It’s better to teach people to fish than to just give them a fish.”   When we assist people with disabilities in such a way as to help them sustain their independence, we create a happier, more connected and productive society.

As contributing

Public assistance is essential to help people get back on their feet, but that type of assistance, by itself, does not always lead to optimism, hope and a sense of well-being. In a number of epidemiological studies in which the researchers controlled for all possible confounding variables, those individuals who actively contributed to the improvement of other people’s lives, in some way, had lower rates of morbidity and mortality.

Those who helped others were happier and healthier than those who avoided formal volunteer work, or who tended to never extend a helping hand to anyone. Think about a time you failed to help someone in need; how did you feel? Now, think of a time you went out of your way to help someone; how did you feel then?

The reason that people who do volunteer work are happier and healthier than those who avoid helping others is easily understood when you consider how different you feel (physically and emotionally) when you reach out to help, vs. when you reject an opportunity to help.

People with disabilities have fewer opportunities to help others, but with support, almost all of them can find some way to serve others in need, and thereby experience the same benefits that are available to the rest of us. The very best way to help others is to help them find a way to serve others. Reaching out to help others may be the most effective way to build self-efficacy, self-esteem and mastery.

Responsible

When people are responsible for a child, an elderly or sick parent or spouse, or anyone else, they tend to feel better about themselves. Nurses and doctors thrive on being responsible for their patients. Psychotherapists and most people in the helping professions thrive on being responsible for their clients.

Military leaders often go through personal growth experiences while they are responsible for all those under their command. When people with disabilities don’t get to have responsible jobs or positions in society, they miss out on many opportunities to develop self-efficacy. It’s extremely difficult to feel good about yourself when all decisions are made for you and everything is done for you.

There was a wonderful study by Dr. Ellen Langer in which her team divided nursing home residents into two groups. Half the residents were given a plant and told that they were not responsible for it, as someone else would come in to their room each day to water it. The other half of the residents were told that they were fully responsible for the care of their own plants. After six months, the residents who were told they were responsible had lower rates of morbidity and mortality.

In the corporate world, it’s commonly known that attractive, tall people tend to get promoted more often than short or homely people. People in wheelchairs usually find themselves having conversations with people who tower over them, and many people actually ignore them. This is extremely disempowering. Part of being human involves a need to be treated fairly, and as an equal, by others.

Participants in society

There have been some indigenous cultures in which the punishment for a crime was that everyone in the community would stop speaking to that individual, and that individual would no longer be allowed to participate in any community activities. Consistently, the person accused of the crime died within roughly 30 days.

We all need to participate in society in order to live full, productive and happy lives. People who retire from a long career and isolate themselves, no longer participating in productive activities of some sort with others, tend to die within a couple of years of their retirement.

The path to a better society

When we assist others so that they may pursue their goals, people who may otherwise be a drain on society are able to contribute to it instead. By providing social services, we ensure that more people can enter the workforce and achieve their maximum level of sustainable independence as contributing, responsible and equal societal participants.

According to the United Nations, people living with disabilities make up the largest minority group in the world and account for roughly 10 percent of the world’s population. If we add in those living with hidden disabilities, the figure is considerably higher.

Just for economic reasons alone, doesn’t it make sense to help disabled people become contributing, responsible and equal participants in the society in which we all live? If you want to pay lower taxes, support the programs that empower people and provide them with the skills and opportunities to work and to contribute to society.

Think back to how you felt the last time you thought that you had nothing of value to contribute. Next, recall how you felt the last time you were appreciated, or simply felt proud of some contribution you made that helped make life better for others. In the first instance, you most likely experienced some sort of somatic distress, such as fatigue or sadness. In the second instance, you probably felt a great sense of satisfaction and may have felt more connected to others. Any time you feel good about yourself, your physiological functioning improves—sometimes enough to contribute to improved health.

My dream is to live in a global village where people recognize that when we help those with disabilities develop the confidence and skills they need to contribute to society, we create a society that we all want to live in.

[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]A mind-body medicine researcher with personal experience living with chronic medical conditions, Dr. Larry Berkelhammer teaches about the connections between the mind and health, with an emphasis on growth practices most strongly associated with better health outcomes. He is the author of In Your Own Hands: New Hope for People with Chronic Medical Conditions .

image 1: Disabled athlete  via Shutterstock; image 2: Man with spastic infantile cerebral palsy via Shutterstock; image 3: Senior adults via Shutterstock

Great Article. I loved it.

i am an author, i write books on disability and development in ZAMBIA- Africa

Great article, thank you!

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The Dignity of Disabled Lives

The burden of being perceived as different persists. The solution to this problem is community.

By Andrew Solomon

Mr. Solomon is a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and the author of “ Far From the Tree ,” which has been made into a documentary film .

This essay is adapted from the author’s foreword to the new book “ About Us: Essays From The New York Times Disability Series .”

The eugenic movement spearheaded by Francis Galton in England in the late Victorian period reached a culmination in the view that if you got rid of the misfits, you could breed a pure, advantaged race. The reach of the movement was reflected in the American campaigns to sterilize disabled people, supported in a 1927 Supreme Court decision in which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Drawing on these sources, Hitler began his campaigns of genocide by gassing the disabled, presuming not only that they were polluting the larger population, but also that they were a group no one would miss. Genetic determinism presumed that the weak and disadvantaged passed along their weakness and disadvantage, and that a systematic campaign of eliminating all but the best and strongest could improve the lot of humanity.

There are two entwined arguments here, one about who makes disabled children, and the other about the worth of the lives of those disabled children. What sort of parents have children with disabilities? Every sort of parent. Nondisabled parents produce disabled children with startling regularity — and disabled people produce nondisabled children time and again. So that part of the argument is specious, at least when applied so specifically as Galton, Holmes and Hitler contemplated. More relevant to us today is the modern argument that whether disability is passed along generationally or not, it has inherent worth, and the loss of it from our society would be a troubling depletion of human diversity. That is a more radical, philosophical challenge.

Disabled lives are lives, and are charged with inherent dignity. Most people with disabilities don’t wish they had never been born; most people with disabilities contribute to the world they inhabit; most people with disabilities both give more to and get more from life than their nondisabled peers may be inclined to guess. Some have rich lives despite their disability, but others would say they have rich lives at least in part because of their disability.

In 1968, the ethicist Joseph Fletcher wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, that esteemed journal of liberal thought, that there was “no reason to feel guilty about putting a Down’s syndrome baby away, whether it’s ‘put away’ in the sense of hidden in a sanatorium or in a more responsible lethal sense. It is sad, yes. Dreadful. But it carries no guilt. True guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down’s is not a person.”

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I’ve Been Paralyzed Since I Was 3. Here’s Why Kindness Toward Disabled People Is More Complicated Than You Think

I am a magnet for kindness . Like the center of a black hole, my body attracts every good deed from across the universe to the foot of my wheelchair. I move through parking lots and malls, farmers’ markets and airports, bookstores and buffets, and people scramble to my aid.

O.K., so there are plenty of people who don’t seem to notice me, and some people who are actually repelled. They look down, pull their bag or their child closer to them, draw their legs up to their chest as I roll by. (Yeah, it doesn’t feel great.) But it’s the abundance of kindness that gets me all tangled. It’s the fly that won’t stop buzzing, won’t hold still long enough for me to swat it, won’t die.

It’s harmless, really. What damage can a tiny fly do? But then why do I feel like tearing down the house every time I hear its familiar buzz?

I’ve been paralyzed since receiving cancer treatments as a toddler, and I started using a wheelchair in first grade, so I’ve had 30 years to learn just how capable I am and just how often people assume I’m helpless.

As a culture, Americans are convinced that disability is something they’ve figured out. How could ableism exist when we’ve memorized the rules? Don’t say the R word; don’t make fun; disability doesn’t define anyone; try to be helpful; and the rule that guides them all: be kind. I’ve seen so many people perform these creeds in one form or another.

Like the folks who try to do me a favor by keeping me separate from this disabled body of mine: All I see when I look at you is a beautiful woman. I don’t even notice your wheelchair! It’s meant as a kindness, but it feels like erasure.

I think I understand how it happens: if you live in a community where disability is framed as tragic and inferior, then claiming not to see that so-called defect feels like a favor. We try to extract the disability from the person, because we think disability is ugly, and the rules tell us this separation is nice. But do we attempt to extract thinness, Ivy League education or wealth from a person? Of course not. We see these characteristics as inherently positive. Maybe individuals hold on to these features as part of their identity, maybe they don’t, but as a culture, we don’t take it upon ourselves to graciously inform people that we see past their fit bodies, fancy diplomas and piles of cash. There is no urgency to ignore thinness, no discomfort in recognizing education, no kneejerk desire to erase wealth. But deep within our cultural understanding of what it means to be a human with a body, we position disability below ability and at odds with health, beauty, wholeness, success and happiness.

Time and time again, people have become uncomfortable with or hostile to the stories I share about sitting on the receiving end of “kindness.” Maybe it’s because so many of us claim “kindness” as one of the most important qualities a human can possess. Disrupting our understanding of kindness is a direct threat to our sense of self and understanding of the world around us. But as a veteran Kindness Magnet, I’ve found people’s attempts to Be Kind can be anything from healing to humiliating, helpful to traumatic.

At least eight times a day, I yank and throw, pull and twist my wheelchair in and out of my beat-up 2007 Toyota Corolla, an ordeal that takes about 30 seconds. On this particular day, I’m assembling my chair when I hear a man yelling at me from across the parking lot. It’s safe to assume he wants to help me, and I have decades of data to attest that he will not be able to make this routine even the slightest bit easier for me.

I’ve got the body of the chair on the pavement by the driver’s seat, and I’m reaching into the back seat for the first wheel. I’m swift and strong. I’m sure it must look difficult for someone who’s never seen it, but I don’t falter. The wheel is firmly in my grip when I catch a glimpse of the man running toward me.

“Don’t fall, don’t fall!” he shouts.

“Oh, I’m fine!” I say. “See?” I begin to slip the first wheel into position.

The man sways on his feet, seemingly torn. I might look fine, but surely I’m not. I assemble the second wheel, flip the chair to face me and stand up to transfer. “Don’t fall!” he cries again. I hop into my seat and grab my bags.

I’m no longer trying to be pleasant. I’ve used my words and demonstrated through action: I’m fine. Why doesn’t he see that? He rushes to open the door for me. I roll my eyes.

The main messaging surrounding disabled people is that we’re supposed to Be Nice to them (or maybe its close cousin, Don’t Be Mean). Regardless of our age, socioeconomic background or education, we learn that disabled people need protection and assistance. If a disabled person is being made fun of, the Kind Person intervenes to say, “Stop that!” Or better yet, punches the Bully in the face and yells “Scram!” while the Bully scuttles away.

This is the power of the one-dimensional, deeply embedded ableist script in our culture. Some bodies are Victims, others are Heroes. Like royal weddings or animals of different species cuddling, we cannot get enough of stories that involve kindness and disability. There is even a whole genre of “news stories” on the Internet about cheerleaders and football stars asking disabled kids to the prom: “High School Football Star Becomes Internet Sensation After Taking His Disabled Best Friend to Prom and Leading Her in a Slow Dance” ( Daily Mail ), “This Student With a Disability Got Asked to the Prom in the Sweetest Way” (BuzzFeed) and “‘When Pigs Fly’: Girl Asks Boy With Special Needs to Prom” (NBC4 Columbus).

In 2018, 15-year-old Clara Daly was on a flight when she heard the call, “Does anyone know American Sign Language?” She learned that the flight included a deaf and blind passenger, Tim Cook, and the airline staff had no way to communicate with him. Daly had started learning sign language about a year before, and as she signed words into his palm, she became the conduit between Cook and the rest of his surroundings. There were at least four photos from their encounter posted on Facebook. In three of them, the camera focuses on Daly. Her blond hair and glowing cheeks look almost otherworldly under the light pouring in from the windows. Cook’s face is obscured. We see the back of his head, the side of his beard.

In an interview with his local news station, Cook said he was used to isolation and thanked Daly for reaching out to him. This detail added a sprinkling of heartbreak to the story and remained unexamined. The title of the article wasn’t “Deaf and Blind Man Sheds Light on Social Exclusion for Disabled Communities.” The article didn’t include a whiff of interest in solving the problem of disability stigma or social ostracism or even how to make airplanes more accessible for disabled folks. Instead, the events were transformed into a gooey celebration of the 45 minutes when one pretty girl talked with one disabled man so that its readers could get the feeling of being wrapped in a hug.

I get it. The world is dark and scary, and we need more feel-good stories. These articles didn’t try to fix the problem of ableism, but are they really so bad? Isn’t any form of being there for another person worth celebrating?

Well, here’s the problem: we have ignored the perspectives, stories and voices of disabled people for so long that their actual needs, feelings and experiences are hardly acknowledged. We look through the eyes of nondisabled people so regularly that we forget to ask even one of the many questions hovering around the disabled recipients of “help.” Did you want anyone’s help? Was it even helpful? What needs did you have that remained ignored or misunderstood? What could be put into place so that you aren’t forced to be dependent on the kindness of a stranger who may or may not be there next time? Did you know you were being photographed? Did you want those images shared? How did this experience feel to you? How many times have you been put in this position before?

I’m about 17, and my boyfriend Sam and I are “leaders” for a weekend youth-group trip. We’re scheduled to walk through some touristy caves that are clearly inaccessible, and as the group lines up, I mention that I’ll meet them by the exit.

“Bek! I’ll carry you!” Sam says. Sam carries me a lot, and usually it’s welcome and easy. But this time, I’m tired. Also, I don’t care about these caves.

“Sam, it’s like a mile long in there,” I say. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Aww, that’s nothing!” he says, flexing his biceps like a superhero.

“No, really. I’m tapping out of this one,” I say.

“Would you please just let me carry you?” Sam asks loudly. Other people are listening now.

“I really don’t want to,” I mumble.

Sam kneels in front of me. “Please let me carry you,” he says, quietly now.

“Aww,” say a few girls close behind us.

Why do I say yes? Who am I trying to please? What good do I think this will do?

One hundred feet in, I know I’ve made a mistake. My chest and cheek rest against Sam’s dampening back, and my arms and neck start to ache. As we reach a tight corner, Sam bends down, and I see a flash behind us. I turn to see a girl winding her disposable camera. She continues to take pictures of Sam carrying me through the cave throughout the tour, more interested in the performance of hero and damsel than the caves themselves. If this had taken place today, would we have become another viral Internet story? I can see it now: “Brave Boy Carries Disabled Girl Through Cave: There’s Hope for Humankind After All!”

With each step, I wonder whether my shoulders will pop out of their sockets. I feel like a deformity growing off Sam’s back. When we finally make it to the other side of the cave, we have to wait for my chair to arrive. Sam helps me prop myself against a wall, as person after person congratulates him.

“Dude, that was incredible,” they say. “I can’t believe you carried her that whole way.”

Sam doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Even so, I don’t want him to touch me.

I’m 24, recently divorced , and finding my way through the daily tasks of living on my own. I’m leaving the grocery store with a giant tote bag on my lap where I’ve arranged the tidiest pile of grape-fruits, cartons of milk and yogurt, boxes of cereal and microwave popcorn. I’m aware that the teetering tower looks precarious, and part of this ritual includes a series of breezy and bright no thank yous to the inevitable offers of help. Bringing someone else into this dance would actually be more difficult than completing the task myself; and I love the feeling I get when I fill my tote, transfer it to my car, lug it into my apartment and put each item into its designated spot. I know it looks like I don’t, but really, I’ve got this.

On this particular evening, I’m almost at my car when a man the age of my dad offers to help. “Oh, no thanks!” I say. “I’ve got a whole system.” He eyes me as if I’ve just claimed I’m about to jump clear over my car. “All right,” he says, taking five steps back to lean against the car parked beside mine and crossing his arms. His eyes don’t leave me or my groceries.

I start my routine: put the tote on the floor of the driver’s side, transfer from my chair to the car, take the wheels off of my chair and throw them in the back seat, pull the frame of my wheelchair over my body and place it into the passenger seat, and, finally, lift the tote of groceries over my body to nestle in the frame of my wheelchair. A little involved, yes, but once you’ve done it 20 times, you don’t even think about it.

I try to ignore the weight of the man’s eyes on me, but I feel my hands start to shake. My temples and upper lip feel damp. His presence feels like a challenge, a threat, a bet that I’m bluffing. I’m rushing and fumbling, but I’ve gotten through all of the steps except the last one. I’m trying to pull the tote over my body, but it keeps getting stuck, and the more I pull, the more frantic I feel, the harder it is to breathe.

“Actually,” I finally say. “You’re making me really uncomfortable. Could you please stop watching me?”

Without a word, he walks to the other side of the car and stands with his back to me, still no more than 15 ft. away. I start pulling out each item from my tote and tossing it toward the passenger seat. I have to get out of here. I yank the bag up and over, slam my door shut and peel out of the parking lot. I make it through two lights before tears start pouring down my cheeks.

I’m 27, sitting alone in a busy coffee shop grading freshman English papers. As a girl nears my table, I keep working, but I can see her standing within an arm’s length. I yank out one earbud and look up.

“Hi, I’m Lydia!” She beams.

“Hi, Lydia,” I say. I smile too. I’m hoping it’s the kind that says, You are intruding, but I am being patient with you.

“What’s your name?” Lydia asks.

Why would I tell you my name? I think. “Rebekah,” I say.

“Hi, Rebekah. I was sitting at that table over there and I felt God put it on my heart to pray for you. Could I pray for your healing to be able to walk?”

My head explodes with the word No. No. No. No, no, no, I do not want you to pray for my healing.

“Oh, no thanks,” I say. “I don’t think I’m comfortable with that.” I’m feeling very proud of myself for saying no. No is a newer word in my vocabulary, and it gives me a surge of pride and guilt to use it now.

“I don’t want to do anything that would make you feel uncomfortable,” Lydia says. “Could I just pray a blessing over you?” I pause. I reach for my no word. But who says no to a blessing? I don’t want to be the scowling woman in a wheelchair, raining on the parade of a smiling, optimistic do-gooder.

“O.K.,” I say.

Lydia puts a hand on my shoulder; my stomach reaches for my throat. People are starting to look at us.

Lydia begins her prayer. “God, I want to pray a blessing over Rebekah this afternoon. You love her more than all the stars in the sky and more than all the sands on the beaches,” Lydia says, her hand still resting on my stiff shoulder. “God, I pray that you would bring healing to Rebekah …”

Wait, healing? As in the prayer I said no to?

“Bring healing to Rebekah in whatever form she needs to be healed.” Such clever maneuvering.

“Amen,” she finishes.

“Thank you, Lydia. That was really kind of you,” I say, loathing myself as I express gratitude for the very thing that has left me feeling so small.

Why can’t I allow her to know how she has made me feel? Am I protecting her, or am I protecting myself? I stare at my reflection in the computer screen, feeling empty. Stop being dramatic, I think. A sweet girl prayed a blessing for you. It’s like you’re pouting about the kittens cuddling too hard. And yet, my throat tightens, and my eyes well.

“So how am I supposed to be helpful?” you might be asking. “Are you telling me I can’t open the door for a disabled person? How do I know when someone does or doesn’t want my help? What are the rules?” These inquiries remind me of the questions that come up when we talk about sexual consent. Human beings are complicated, and communication can be nuanced. “No, please don’t. This is making me uncomfortable” isn’t always expressed through language. You have to pay attention to the human person in front of you. What signals are they giving you? What expression do you see on their face? Even if this isn’t intuitive for you, pay attention to their eyes–are they avoiding your gaze or looking toward you like they want to engage? If you really can’t tell, you can ask, but if someone says, “No thank you,” listen. You might get it wrong sometimes, but please don’t let the discomfort of “messing up” make you throw up your hands and leave this conversation.

This deeply felt resistance I run into every time I suggest we complicate our understanding of kindness is so consistent, I think it’s worth interrogating. Why exactly are we threatened by the proposition that we loosen our grip on this type of kindness? I have a guess based on my own firsthand experience of privilege.

When we’re granted access to the world in a way that others aren’t, we often feel guilty. There’s a discomfort in watching another person struggle to navigate spaces that we move through with ease. We can alleviate some of that discomfort when we pull someone along. Phew! I’m not one of those regular privileged jerks. I care! But when we’re focused on alleviating our own uneasiness, we’re not really looking into the face of the person whose hand we’ve grabbed. What does the person actually need? Do you even know? Is this an individual problem to solve in the moment? Or does this individual encounter reveal a structural change that needs to be made?

Like anyone else, disabled people are both capable and in need of some help. Just as with every other human, their competence and needs are unique. You have to pay attention to understand them. If you want to be genuinely, actively “kind” to disabled people, invite them into your organizations, businesses and programs. Allow them to perform in more roles than the grateful recipient of generous philanthropists. Recruit disabled engineers and dancers and office administrators and comedians and lawyers and speakers and teachers to participate in your world, and do your best to make that world accessible to them. And if you insist on using “kindness” to describe this kind of inclusion, recognize that including disabled people is a kindness for all of us. Because listening to voices that are typically silenced brings to the table nuance, endurance, creativity, beauty, innovation and power.

I’m running errands one afternoon, wearing my favorite steeltoe logging boots with red laces. They’re heavy and big and make me feel rugged and powerful. I pull up to the carrepair shop and see a man watching me pull my chair out of my car and put it together on the pavement. This setup ends with my feeling small so regularly, my prickles spike before I even process the emotions. I will myself to throw my chair together at turbo speed before he can read me as desperate and flailing.

Then I hear him. Such a simple, casual sentence. “Looks like you’ve got this,” he says.

I look up. “Yes!” I say. “I really do.”

This essay was adapted from Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

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Essay on Disability

Students are often asked to write an essay on Disability in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Disability

Understanding disability.

Disability means having a condition that makes it tough to do certain things. Some people are born with disabilities, while others get them from accidents or illnesses. Disabilities can be seen, like when someone uses a wheelchair, or unseen, like trouble with learning or hearing.

Types of Disabilities

There are many kinds of disabilities. Physical ones affect the body, like trouble walking. Sensory disabilities impact senses, like being blind. Mental health and learning disabilities affect the mind, making learning or feeling good harder.

Living with Disability

People with disabilities can do many things. They go to school, work, and play sports. Sometimes they need tools or help to do these things. It’s important to treat everyone with respect and kindness, no matter what.

Support and Rights

Laws protect people with disabilities, giving them the same chances as others. Ramps, special software, and support in school are examples. These help make sure that everyone, regardless of ability, can join in all parts of life.

250 Words Essay on Disability

There are many types of disabilities. Some people might have trouble seeing, hearing, or walking. Others might find it hard to learn or remember things. It’s important to know that just because someone has a disability, it doesn’t mean they can’t live a full and happy life. They can still play, learn, and work; they might just do these things in a different way.

People with disabilities use tools and help from others to make their lives easier. For example, someone who can’t see well might use a cane or a guide dog to walk around. There are also special computers and programs that help people with different kinds of disabilities to study or do jobs.

Being Kind and Respectful

It’s very important to be kind and respectful to everyone, including people with disabilities. They should be treated just like anyone else. You can be a good friend by understanding their needs and helping them when they ask for it. Remember, having a disability doesn’t stop someone from being a great friend, artist, scientist, or anything else they want to be!

500 Words Essay on Disability

When we talk about disability, we mean a condition that makes it hard for a person to do certain things. This could be because their body or mind works differently from what most people consider usual. Disabilities can be seen, like someone in a wheelchair, or unseen, like someone who has trouble learning.

Disabilities come in many forms. Some people are born with them, while others might get a disability because of an accident or illness. Physical disabilities affect the body, making it tough to walk, see, hear, or move around. Mental disabilities can make learning, communicating, or handling emotions challenging.

Life with a Disability

Accessibility and support.

To help people with disabilities, we need to make places more accessible. This means creating ramps for wheelchairs, having books in Braille for those who can’t see, and using sign language for those who can’t hear. Support also comes from friends, family, and helpers who give their time and love to make sure everyone can join in.

Respect and Understanding

Sometimes, people don’t understand what it’s like to have a disability, and they might act in a way that is not kind. It’s very important to treat everyone with respect, no matter how they look or what they can or can’t do. By learning about disabilities, we can be better friends and help make sure everyone feels included.

Technology and Disabilities

The power of positivity.

Having a disability might make some things tougher, but it can also teach us about strength and courage. Many people with disabilities have done amazing things and have shown that it’s not the disability that defines them, but their talents and personality. With a positive attitude, anyone can overcome challenges and reach their goals.

Disability is part of the human experience, and it touches all of us in one way or another. By learning about it and creating a world that is good for everyone, we build a kinder, more understanding society. Remember, it’s not our differences that matter, but how we treat each other. With care and support, we can all help make life better for people living with disabilities.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Am I disabled?

With my pen hovering over a form, there is no easy answer: better to provoke stigma with support, or resist classification.

by Joanne Limburg   + BIO

Do you consider yourself to be a disabled person?

Yes: ☐ No: ☐ Prefer not to say: ☐

Yes. Because forms like this – and questions like this – always throw me into confusion, and sometimes into complete mind-stoppage. You appear to be asking a closed question, but ‘consider’ is a word I would use to open up a question. Forms are full of such questions, presenting themselves as straightforward logic gates, which on closer inspection turn out to be impossibly multivalent. Rather like everyday speech. You haven’t been specific enough, so I’ll just have to throw everything at you – at least then some of it will be what you’re looking for.

Yes . Because I have a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), and that comes under the broad spectrum of conditions that are recognised as disabilities. If this form is part of a process that requires documentation, I can provide a copy of a detailed report by the psychologist from Britain’s free National Health Service who diagnosed me.

No . Because for the 42 of my 50 years that preceded my diagnosis, I was, as far as I knew, non-disabled, and it’s hard to shed such a well-established assumption about myself. For most of my life, I’ve been used to thinking of disabled people in the mainstream way – that is, in the third person. When I tick ‘yes’, I still can’t quite believe it. Even after eight years of paying close attention to disability scholarship and activism , when I picture disability, my mind still defaults to the stock images: the wheelchair symbol, the guide dog, the white stick, the prosthetic limb, the accessible toilet.

When I read the book Disability Theory (2008) by Tobin Siebers, I recognised that the representations to which my mind defaults are not direct representations of disabled people or their bodies, but metonymic representations – where the paraphernalia associated with disabled comes to stand for the people who use them. The disabled people whose paraphernalia is not so readily visible (the shunt, the stent, the colostomy bag, the anti-seizure or anti-inflammatory drugs, the blood-sugar monitors etc) cannot even offer any symbols to stand as proxies.

I’m thinking about one of those default images now: the painted wheelchair symbol that marks out a disabled parking space at a supermarket car park, and the figure on that wheelchair. The stick person appears fused to the wheelchair, suggesting not just that a disabled person can be only a person who uses a wheelchair, but is someone who cannot be separated from it.

T he wheelchair stick-figure seems to me to stand for a set of commonly held, largely unexamined beliefs about disability that go beyond the medical or naturalistic models used by clinicians, and usefully outlined by the philosopher Robert Chapman in the recent Routledge collection Neurodiversity Studies (2020). All the medical model requires is evidence of a body or a mind, which in form, function or both deviates from the statistical norm in a way that harms the disabled individual and puts them at a relative disadvantage. That stick person, fused to their chair, denuded of all other distinguishing characteristics, does quite a lot more. It equates disability with mobility impairment, yet it also suggests that a disabled person is one who is:

i) disabled to the same degree in the same way at all times and in all contexts

ii) nothing but their disability

A disabled person is always and only disabled.

Inside every Yes box is a flat, painted wheelchair stick-figure, asking me what I’m doing in their parking space.

No . Because, as the wheelchair-stick-figure implicitly seems to ask, why would anyone want to occupy a disabled space if they had a choice? Isn’t it better, if you can, to sneak out of it in able-bodied disguise, and pass for non-disabled? Why would you want to identify with an unheard, underdrawn wheelchair stick-figure, stuck helplessly to the tarmac, walked over and parked on and generally ignored? Why would you want to be the person who other people are grateful not to be? Why would you want to identify as one of The Most Vulnerable In Our Society – the group that exists to be rhetorically useful to politicians and campaigners, but who are rarely the main topic of speech, and always assumed to be unable to speak for themselves?

Why would you want to own up to an ‘underlying condition’ that apparently makes your death from unrelated causes less regrettable than someone else’s?

Why would you volunteer to be written off?

Why would you volunteer to be pitied?

Well, in that case, Prefer not to say.

I had naively thought that diagnosis would lead to lightening of the burden of social labour

Prefer not to say. Because although, on paper, the purpose of saying Yes is to access the support I require (which I am legally entitled to as a documented disabled person) and also to spare me the debilitating labour involved in passing for non-disabled, in practice it tends to mean swapping one kind of labour for another. This is the labour involved in accounting for the difference between what people believe about autistic people and what they believe they are seeing in me.

Like many autistic people – particularly those who, like me, have gone through most of our lives knowing that we were different but not knowing why – I have absorbed the lesson that it is safer to pass if one possibly can, and I’ve grown accustomed to putting in a great deal of exhausting effort in order to do so, with the result that if I disclose my autism I am often met with comments such as:

‘I would never have known.’

‘But you don’t look autistic.’

‘But you make eye contact.’

‘But I don’t find you hard to get on with.’

‘But you’re nothing like my son/sister/cousin/clients/pupils…’

Even the person who assessed me for Disabled Students’ Allowances a few years ago felt the need to point out that I ‘wasn’t like most of the people’ they saw. They also expressed surprise that I’d completed my first degree, commenting: ‘I would have expected someone with your profile to have dropped out.’

Then there was the fundraiser who phoned me on behalf of an autism charity I’d supported, to ask if I would increase my regular donation. After we’d been talking for several minutes, she asked what my connection to autism was, perhaps expecting something like ‘I have a child who…’ or ‘a brother who…’ or ‘I work with…’, because when I disclosed that the autistic person concerned was the one she was talking to, I could feel her shock down the line as she said: ‘Well, you are obviously managing OK, but as you know, there are many other autistic people who…’

On both occasions, I felt like apologising. I had naively thought that diagnosis would lead to lightening of the burden of social labour; instead, I seemed to have replaced the labour involved in passing for non-disabled with the labour of dealing with other people’s discomfort when I chose not to pass.

Prefer not to say. Because people aren’t just surprised or uncomfortable, but often actively suspicious. In the cultural imagination, a claim of disability is a demand for something – extra effort, extra attention, extra resources; or for something special – special treatment, special favours, special dispensations. To be disabled is to put other people to more than ordinary trouble.

The legislation around disability is based on the principle that what is being asked for is no more than the reasonable adjustments required to allow the disabled person to live, work and learn on the same terms as anyone else. It is supposed to be about ensuring equality, not bestowing scarce and unearned social goods. In practice, though, disabled needs are treated as ‘special’, and the support is offered as ‘additional’. Special, additional and, from a capitalist point of view, a poor investment, since disabled bodies are rarely the most productive. When even the most visibly disabled people are seen as non-productive burdens, any such claim to identity inevitably calls up images of a cultural bogeyman or woman: the attention-seeking, trouble-making, fraudulent scrounger.

In the UK, over the past 10 years, successive governments have used the figure of the scrounger to justify cuts in public spending, intensifying the atmosphere of suspicion and resentment around disabled people and their needs. You can be verbally abused for using a disabled parking space when you don’t use a stick or wheelchair, and confronted if you’re using a wheelchair simply to conserve limited energy, and then have the nerve to quit it for a brief moment. It was not paranoia, but a fear of being publicly shamed that caused a friend of mine with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) to remain in her airport wheelchair, even when the mutual friend who’d offered to push her nearly forgot her and left her behind at passport control. That same reasonable fear of being shamed makes me hesitate when I have to fill in a form. If I am going to ask for support, or resources, or accommodations that are extra or special or additional or different (as opposed to what I need so as to do everyday things most people take for granted) ­– if I am going to put everyone to that trouble, then I should at least look like I need it, and I can’t promise that I will.

Y ou asked if I considered myself to be disabled but, as you can see, one of the reasons why that’s such a tricky question is that, before I answer it, I’m trying to calculate the relative merits of Yes, No and Prefer not to say based on my best guess about what you think disability is, what you think it looks like, and how you’ll treat me, based on my answer. Just like I calculate whether it’s worth responding to every unkind, untrue and damaging comment I see or hear about autism. Just like I calculate whether going into any given social situation will be worth the tiredness and the effort of processing and checking my performance for hours or days after the event. Just like I calculate whether I have enough social energy to interact with the person I’ve recognised on the other side of the road, or whether I should put my head down and pretend I haven’t seen them.

It’s an exhausting and dispiriting business. In fact, it’s – Yes – disabling. But what’s disabling about my condition can’t easily be disentangled from what is disabling about the effort it takes to manage it – and to manage other people’s responses to it as well. I have certain traits that seem to fit the medical model of disability, and which could be considered impairments – that is, unfortunate deviations from statistical normal functioning. For example, the fact that spoken words sometimes fail me (written ones don’t, which is why I became a writer – it is as much a compensation for my weaknesses as it is an expression of my strengths); the fact that my auditory processing sometimes lets me down causing other people’s speech to hit my ear in the first instance as just noise, with the meaning kicking in a beat or two later; the fact that I can’t cope with crowds; the fact that I’m almost place blind, and need help to not get lost; the fact that I experience problems with executive function, which don’t affect my writing, but make it very hard for me to sit down and initiate a writing session, or make myself lunch, or get myself out of bed, or into the shower; the fact that I have trouble getting to sleep; the fact that I can’t cope with noise, light touch, the smell of certain perfumes, the texture of certain fabrics, or the texture of some foods; the fact that I’m never quite sure where I am in space.

These things are all real, and they are the sort of answers you’re looking for when you look at me behaving nicely, and ask: ‘But how does it manifest itself ?’ (You have no business asking that, by the way, but I’ve calculated that it’s less trouble to throw you a bone than have you disbelieve me and suspect me of a false claim to some kind of special attention.)

But that is not the most distressing thing. Dealing with you – that’s the most distressing thing.

If a wheelchair user fails to get into a building, this is a failure not of their body, but of the building’s design

If by ‘disability’, you mean the social model, then it’s a definite, unambiguous, unhesitant Yes. The social model was formulated by a network of British disabled activists, the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS), in the early 1970s. It is explicitly critical of the conventional, medical model, which sees disability as synonymous with impairment. As they wrote in their ‘Fundamental Principles of Disability’ (1975):

In our view, it is society which disables physically impaired people. Disability is something imposed on top of our impairments, by the way we are unnecessarily isolated and excluded from full participation in society. Disabled people are therefore an oppressed group in society.

The social model distinguishes between the impairment, which is a property of the individual, and the disability, for which society is responsible. To take one commonly used example: if a wheelchair user fails to get into a building, this is a failure not of their body, but of the building’s design. From this perspective, the harms associated with disability come from societal forces, from marginalisation and stigmatisation. Disability, then, becomes a political matter, an issue of structural oppression.

The social model sits well with the neurodiversity paradigm, which arose in response to the medical model of autism – the one that, as Chapman points out, defines all our characteristic cognitive, emotional, behavioural and sensory traits in terms of deficits. As Steve Silberman explains in NeuroTribes (2015), the term ‘neurodiversity’ was first coined in the 1990s by the Australian sociologist Judy Singer, after her daughter was diagnosed with Asperger’s and she began to recognise traits in herself. Since then, the use of the word has proliferated, and so have its definitions. One that I find useful, as articulated by Chapman, explains the neurodiversity paradigm as:

the theoretical and ideological shift towards reframing those who fall outside neurocognitive norms as ‘neuro-minorities’ marginalised by a ‘neuronormative’ organisation of society in favour of the ‘neurotypical’ rather than as a matter of individual medical pathology.

Adopting this paradigm isn’t only a matter of changing the way we describe autism. The pathologising of autistic traits has serious real-world consequences. There are parents so appalled by the prospect of having an autistic child that they knowingly expose their children to infectious diseases – potentially fatal ones – because they have been led to believe that vaccination causes autism. When a difference is stigmatised to that degree, it has a wretched effect on the mental health of those who bear it: Sarah Cassidy, a psychologist now at the University of Nottingham, writing for the UK National Autistic Society, draws attention to recent studies that have found alarmingly high rates of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide among autistic adults. Neurodiversity means that I don’t have to apologise for being myself and that parents don’t have to apologise for their children. It means that we’re not walking tragedies and that we don’t belong in the bin.

Yes. Because identifying as disabled has enabled me to accept myself, to acknowledge my limitations and my particular difficulties without shame. In a just society, it should be possible for everyone to assert their right to live and thrive without editing out those parts of themselves that are difficult or challenging, and without recourse to the ‘hardship-denying’ rhetoric that can limit the usefulness of both the social model and the neurodiversity paradigm.

C hapman has extended the value-neutral model of physical disability proposed by the feminist philosopher Elizabeth Barnes and applied it to cognitive disabilities, distinguishing between ‘local’ and ‘global’ wellbeing, where local refers to ‘wellbeing in some specific sense and specific time’, and global refers to ‘wellness on the whole’. While it is undeniable that there are aspects of both physical and cognitive disability that can affect local wellbeing, Chapman notes that Barnes is keen to point out that there is also a great deal of empirical research to indicate that ‘physical disability precisely does not tend to make global wellbeing worse, even though stigma and marginalisation do.’ The same could be said for intellectual disability, and for autism.

Yes . Because now that I understand that it is stigma and marginalisation that threaten my wellbeing, I can use that full self-acceptance as the basis for positive action, and begin to strive for proper accommodations, self-respect and dignity, not only for me as an individual, but also as member of a minority group – at 15 per cent globally, a large and significant one. It’s about claiming visibility as a disabled person, in a world where, as the disability activist Sandy Ho writes: ‘The erasure of disabled people is one of the most common international crimes against humanity.’

To counter this erasure, to counter the reduction of a huge, diverse and creative community to a two-dimensional painted symbol, disabled people continue to reach across the boundaries of the separate spaces that our different diagnoses place us in, and work together. In this short space, I’ve been able to reference only a tiny proportion of the disabled writers, scholars and activists whose work and visible presence – in journalism, on social media – have helped me find my place in the world and understand the work I need to do in it. As Alice Wong, founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, states in the introduction to her anthology Disability Visibility (2020): ‘ Community is political … Community is magic … Community is power … Community is resistance … ’

I’ve come to understand that when I pass as non-disabled, when I say No , the best that I can hope to be is an inferior version of an ideal of normality that allows only for the narrowest range of body types, cognitive styles and life trajectories, that equates the worth of a person with her economic productivity, that fetishes independence and disavows our connections to each other, and that seeks to discriminate arbitrarily between those who are allowed their full humanity and those who are denied it.

So, to return to your initial question:

Political philosophy

C L R James and America

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

Harvey Neptune

Progress and modernity

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

Daniel Waldenström

Neuroscience

The melting brain

It’s not just the planet and not just our health – the impact of a warming climate extends deep into our cortical fissures

Clayton Page Aldern

Falling for suburbia

Modernists and historians alike loathed the millions of new houses built in interwar Britain. But their owners loved them

Michael Gilson

Computing and artificial intelligence

Mere imitation

Generative AI has lately set off public euphoria: the machines have learned to think! But just how intelligent is AI?

Anthropology

Your body is an archive

If human knowledge can disappear so easily, why have so many cultural practices survived without written records?

Helena Miton

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Disability Essay | Essay on Disabled Person, People With Disabilities, Concept of Disability in Media

December 22, 2021 by Prasanna

Disability Essay: The definition of “disability” is not set in stone. It can vary quite a bit depending on how it is being broken down. This means we can group disabilities under some general themes, but sometimes, there are situations that do not fit neatly into these categories. For example, most disabilities are thought of as orthopedic disabilities, that is, disabilities involving the body and its functions.

However, there is also what is called ” cognitive disability.” This is not something people think of as easily, because in most cases the disability is invisible. But although this type of “disability” has no outward appearances, it can and does affect a great many people. As the labels imply, “cognitive disability” refers to conditions or diseases of the brain. The most well known type of cognitive disability is Alzheimer’s disease, which is an irreversible, progressive mental deterioration that usually begins with old age.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Diverse Nature of Disabilities

As discussed above, disability is a multifaceted and complex state, and may extend to: cognitive function, sensory impairment, physical, self-care limitation, and social functioning impairment. Disabling conditions may be acquired as a result of genetics/chromosomal abnormalities or as a consequence of environmental agents. As noted, the condition may be c (e.g., back pain that requires physical therapy) or irremediable (loss of a limb due to an accident). Coping with disability is hard, especially when you live alone and need to rely on yourself for everything. But the key thing to remember is that disability affects everyone in different ways. It’s very rare that two people will experience the same exact disability due to the diverse nature of disabilities.

Concept of Disability in Media

It’s pretty rare to see disability depicted accurately in the media, to be honest. And even if disability is portrayed accurately, it usually isn’t in a very graphic way. More often than not, the media attempts to tell the story of disabled people without actually portraying disabled people . There is a lot of work that needs to be done for the public to understand disability. For example, most media will never portray a person with a real disability in a leading role.

Are the Jobs and Environments open to Disabled People?

Some of the occupations you are considering are likely conducted in an environment that is restricted or even inaccessible to disabled people. For example, many administrative roles are conducted within a chair-free office setting. This may make it impossible for someone who is mobility impaired, has joint problems, or suffers from arthritis to take up this position.

Moreover, you may be surprised to learn that a number of occupations are physically taxing and the nature of the work puts the worker into vulnerable positions. Such environments are undoubtedly  difficult for individuals with physical disability. For example, a person who is visually impaired or otherwise has difficulty moving around in the workplace may not have the ability to physically reach items safely. This can lead to accidents that can result in injuries or even loss of life.

How do People with Disabilities Live a Full-Filling Life?

You might think that people with disabilities live very full-filling lives, but in reality, often they don’t. It’s quite hard for them to find job opportunities in the workforce. They may also find it difficult to do many simple, day-to-day tasks. Nevertheless, one of the best things is to find joy by strengthening relationships in all aspects of your life – reaching out to others and making an effort to take care of yourself. Volunteering or doing activities that interest you, even if you are disabled is also a good way to keep yourself engaged. Regardless, with proper training and motivation, people with disabilities can live a fulfilling life.

Social isolation is a major problem for many people because a life with disabilities can be quite lonely. Such people should develop a support system to counteract this problem. One solution to this problem is social media – this is due to the fact that social media is an easy way to make new friends because everyone from all over the world has access to the internet. People with neurological symptoms could make use of treatment from a psychiatrist to help reduce anxiety, stress and depression. Early intervention can be effective particularly to children with disabilities and in order to deal with this issue, substantial support should be provided by family members.

A Few Tips for Living With a Disability

The U.S. Census Bureau counts approximately 34-37 million people, or roughly 10% of the population, as living with a disability in the United States as of 2014. These people experience anything from hearing or muscular limitations to paralysis and cognitive challenges. It’s only logical that there is a lot going on in our day-to-day life that we do to cope with these limits and remain happy and successful. If you’re living with a disability yourself, here a few tips that might help a bit:

• Always treat yourself with respect and self-love. While people might not always treat you the way you deserve to be treated, always be kind and understanding towards yourself, because you’re truly half of life’s happiness.
• Make sure your surroundings are safe for you. For example, if stairs are a real challenge for you, make sure your apartment is on the ground floor or at least the first floor.
• Budget your day to strengthen your sense of purpose. For example, if going out and socializing makes you feel good and can be done in a way that doesn’t make you feel too exhausted, try to plan the week ahead in such a way that one of the days is reserved for that purpose. Remember to leave yourself a little energy reserve to rest!
• Remember, people around will be there for you .
• The experience of being alone can also be positive if you do it in a way that is meaningful and enjoyable for you . For example, painting, playing guitar, writing stories, watching a movie, etc.
• Remember that you are not a machine and learn to care better for yourself and become aware of your own limits when it comes to physical, emotional and mental energy.

Conclusion on Disability Essay

Being disabled can affect many aspects of life. Moreover, most places are not easily accessible to those with disabilities – transportation, public amenities, and more. Even employment opportunities are limited, though some institutions will have certain reservations for the disabled in place. Regardless, there are ways to make our world more accessible for those with disabilities. First off, it is important to educate the general population on what they can do to help combat this issue. Raising awareness and educating others is paramount. Those with disabilities should not be “fixed” but rather accommodated.

A good place to start is by teaching schools how to accommodate those with physical disabilities, then encourage children who are differently abled that they can still make a contribution to society. The same applies for workplaces where employers need to reevaluate their cultural perspective so as not to be discriminatory against disabled employees (some laws against workplace discrimination do exist and are published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

FAQ’s on Disability Essay

Question 1. What is a disability?

Answer: Disability means that you have a physical or mental impairment, which changes how your body works. The impairments can affect things like your bones, muscles, brain, sight, hearing, speech, movement or the way you think. When you first find out that you have a disability, it can be an overwhelming experience.

Question 2. How to cope with a disability?

Answer: The following are some tips for how to cope with a disability: 1) Get educated on disabilities and disabilities rights. 2) Seek out support from family, friends, and professionals. 3) Join a self-advocacy group or other social group related to your condition. 4) Save money for the future by saving part of your income and/or getting financial assistance from the government or private organizations. 5) Prepare for emergencies by making lists of emergency contacts and creating an emergency plan with your family members or friends.

Question 3. What are examples of disability?

Answer: The following are examples of disability:

• Conduction Deafness
• Visual Impairments
• Motor Impairments
• Cerebral Palsy
• Polio Disease
• Muscular Dystrophy
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How to Help Those Who Have a Disability

Last Updated: January 23, 2024 Fact Checked

Building Communication Skills

Volunteering, educating others.

This article was co-authored by Trudi Griffin, LPC, MS . Trudi Griffin is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Wisconsin specializing in Addictions and Mental Health. She provides therapy to people who struggle with addictions, mental health, and trauma in community health settings and private practice. She received her MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Marquette University in 2011. There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 435,506 times.

A disabled person is anyone with a physical or mental condition that substantially limits at least one major life activity. [1] X Research source If you want to know how to help people with disabilities, there are many routes you can take. Simply learning how to effectively communicate comes first, but you can also offer your services as a volunteer or educator.

Things You Should Know

• Some people prefer person-first language (such as "person with a disability") while others prefer identity-first language (such as "disabled person"). Always ask which term an individual uses to describe themself.
• Always be respectful, and ask if someone needs assistance before offering to help.
• You can help disabled by volunteering, donating money, or helping with accessibility.
• Educate others online or in person so they can support people with disabilities, too.

• When speaking about someone with a disability, it's often polite to place their personhood before their specific condition. For example, do not say "mentally ill person" or "the mentally ill." Instead say, "person who has a mental illness." Do not say "wheelchair-bound." Identify them by another means (like you would anyone else), and if you're talking specifically about the use of a wheelchair, say, "person in the wheelchair" or "person who uses the wheelchair." Keep in mind there are a few noteworthy exceptions to this; many people in the Deaf, Blind, and Autistic communities prefer identity-first language, meaning they want to be called an "autistic person" or a "Deaf person" (with the capital D indicating they identify as part of the Deaf culture). [3] X Trustworthy Source Austistic Self Advocacy Network Nonprofit organization run by and for individuals on the autism spectrum that empowers autistic people through education and public advocacy Go to source
• Certain terms were once considered politically correct are now outdated and can offend. The terms "mute" or "dumb" used to be appropriate for referring to people who cannot speak, but now terms like "nonverbal" or "nonspeaking" are preferred. Lame or crippled were once used to describe those with a physical disability that limited mobility, but now terms like physically disabled are preferred.
• The terms "retarded" and "mentally defective" are considered very offensive by today's standards. Person with an intellectual, developmental, or cognitive disability is the preferred term. While "retarded" was once considered appropriate, as so many people use in a derogatory fashion this is no longer the case. Refrain from using the term in this way, as it's extremely unkind to people with cognitive disabilities.

• Look at the person with a disability, and not their interpreter or assistant. Oftentimes, people who are deaf look to their interpreter while another person talks as they need to do so in order to follow the conversation. You should still look at the person who is deaf, however, as that is who you're communicating with, not the interpreter.
• If you are communicating with someone in a wheelchair, sit down so that they don't strain their neck looking up at you. Avoid bending down like you would to a child; this usually looks awkward.

• Sometimes, a person with a disability may seem to be struggling when they are actually fine. It may simply take them longer to do certain tasks, but that does not necessarily mean they need a helping hand. If you think they might need help, just ask.
• If you see someone with a disability struggling, simply say "Would you like any help?" or "Do you need assistance?" You do not have to say any more than this.
• If someone declines your offer of assistance, do not be offended or insist on helping. Simply go on with your day. They know their needs better than you do, and pushing them would come off as rude.
• Do not offer medical advice, especially if you are not a doctor. While suggesting yoga for someone with chronic pain may seem helpful, remember that person already has a doctor who knows his specific medical history and giving out advice without solicitation comes off as condescending. [6] X Research source

• When introduced to someone with a disability, always offer to shake hands. Even someone with limited hand use can usually manage this and refraining from offering a handshake, a typical gesture of courtesy, calls attention to a person's disability.
• Speak in your normal voice and tone. People often feel they should speak slower or louder, especially if they're interacting with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, but this can come off as rude or infantilizing. Simply talk in your normal voice.
• It is okay to do things to make communication easier. For example, if interacting with someone who is hard of hearing, make sure to look directly at them so they can read your lips and follow other visual cues. Sitting down to make eye contact with someone in a wheelchair can be a polite gesture. If someone has a speech impediment, rather than pretending you understand something they said when you did not you can politely ask them to repeat it.
• Be yourself during any conversation. If you accidentally use a common expression that does not apply, like saying "see you later" to someone who is visually impaired, do not panic and apologize profusely. That person will understand this is a colloquialism and not meant to be taken literally.

• For the most part, people with disabilities would rather you simply asked a question politely rather than remaining confused. For example, it's completely appropriate to ask someone who is deaf if they can read lips and would therefore prefer if you faced them each you time you talked. If you're planning an event and you know the wheelchair ramp is in the back room, it's fine to say to someone in a wheelchair, "Do you know where the wheelchair ramp is? It's hard to find, and I just want to make sure you know."
• People are wary to ask questions as they do not want to call attention to someone's disability. However, avoiding an obvious question can sometimes call more attention to the issue than simply addressing it. As long as questions are relevant to the situation at hand, they will likely not come off as prying or insensitive.

• Ability First is an organization that provides programs for children and adults with disabilities via employment, recreation, and socialization programs. Ability First has different branches throughout the country and they offer opportunities for volunteers. Depending on the route you take, you may work with people with disabilities hands-on or perform clerical and office duties to help facilities, events, and programs run smoothly. You can browse the Ability First website to find volunteer opportunities in your community.
• The Southern Poverty Law Center has a program called Teaching Tolerance, where an instructor conducts workshops with college and high school students to teach young people how to interact with people with disabilities. You can browse the SPLC's website to see if there's a Teaching Tolerance seminar being conducted in your area and contact the leader to see if they need volunteers for set-up, advertising, or other tasks. [10] X Research source
• The United Disabilities services is a non-profit organization that strives to help people with disabilities, including veterans and the elderly, live more independently. They help make homes more accessible, provide medical equipment, custom wheelchairs, and service dogs. The UDS takes volunteers for a variety of fields, from office work to community relations to fundraising and more. While the organization is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania they do have branches elsewhere. [11] X Research source
• You can also look for opportunities through organizations specific to your area. Call local hospitals and nursing homes to ask about where to volunteer or talk to someone you know works professionally with people who are disabled.
• Some organizations, such as Autism Speaks, [12] X Research source are considered to do more harm than good. Check with the disability community to make sure it is a good group.

• All the organizations listed above periodically conduct fundraisers. Donating money, even a small amount, can help. You can also ask friends and family members to donate as well. If you're having a birthday party, wedding shower, or other big even where it's custom to bring gifts, you could ask for donations instead.
• If you know a disabled person who needs money for an issue related to their disability, you can help that person raise funds. You can throw an event, like a dinner or party, when entry fees are collected to pay for that person's medical costs. You can raise money via online campaigns, using sites like GoFundMe. You can have some kind of contest or raffle, charging submission fees or charging for tickets. There are a variety of ways to raise funds for someone you know in need.
• If you're in school, certain organizations hire college students as fundraisers over the summer months. If you can find an organization that helps people with disabilities, applying for a job fundraising with them can both allow you to help people with disabilities and gain professional experience.

• If a person's disability means they are unable to drive, you can volunteer to help with transportation. You can either drive someone directly or help people navigate public transportation. Many volunteer organizations recruit people for this purpose specifically.
• Some organizations seek to make the world in general more friendly to people with disabilities related to mobility by installing ramps and other wheelchair-friendly devices in public places. You can help by writing letters to congresspeople, signing petitions, collecting other people's signatures, and raising awareness of buildings or structures that limit access to those with mobility-related disabilities. [14] X Trustworthy Source Kansas University Center for Community Health and Development Community-based research center focused on supporting public health development and education Go to source

• Service dogs are dogs trained to assist people with cognitive or physical disabilities. Before they can be placed with an owner, they need special training and are usually placed with a volunteer owner until they are 18-months old. [16] X Research source
• If you volunteer to raise a service dog, you will be required to attend regular training sessions and train the dog at home in between. [17] X Research source
• While training a service dog can be rewarding, it is also a difficult experience. It can be hard to give up a dog or puppy after becoming attached. Make sure you are emotionally prepared to do so before committing to the task.
• This is a great option for college students. First, many colleges students want a pet but cannot commit for too long of a period. Second, university is one of the best ways to socialize a dog as there is such a wide array of activity on campus.

• Post links to articles about various disabilities, educating people on a range of physical or cognitive disabilities. Do not just share factual information, however. Provide links to article on how to talk to people with disabilities and how best to help and volunteer.
• If you're tying to raise money or collect signatures for a petition, social media is a powerful tool. Posting links that show people where to donate or sign is the quickest and most convenient way to help your cause.
• Choose articles people are likely to read on their computer or phone. In general, internet users are more likely to select shorter articles, especially those that are in the form of a list or make heavy use of bullet points.

• Oftentimes, a person will unintentionally use the wrong word or phrase. If this is the case, you can politely correct. For example, if you hear someone say "Down Syndrome girl" you could say, "Actually, the preferred term is 'girl with Down Syndrome.'"
• The words "retarded" and "retard" are used a lot, even in some forms of media, as a catchall term for something frustrating or otherwise unpleasant. People will often defend their use, saying they do not mean it "in that way" but you can step in here and explain that, regardless of how they mean it, the word carries associations that are hurtful to many.
• If you see discrimination against disabled people happening in a work or school environment, report the discrimination to the proper authorities. If you're unsure who to speak to, you can contact an organization that advocates for disabled people and ask them for advice.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://adata.org/faq/what-definition-disability-under-ada
• ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-communication/inclusive-language-words-to-use-and-avoid-when-writing-about-disability
• ↑ http://autisticadvocacy.org/home/about-asan/identity-first-language/
• ↑ https://www.nln.org/education/teaching-resources/professional-development-programsteaching-resourcesace-all/ace-d/additional-resources/communicating-with-people-with-disabilities-e030c45c-7836-6c70-9642-ff00005f0421
• ↑ https://www.yahoo.com/health/8-helpful-things-that-dont-really-help-people-117557974473.html
• ↑ https://www.respectability.org/inclusion-toolkits/etiquette-interacting-with-people-with-disabilities/
• ↑ https://createthegood.aarp.org/volunteer-ideas/people-with-disabilities.html
• ↑ http://www.tolerance.org/article/disability-awareness-were-it-together
• ↑ http://www.udservices.org/get-involved/volunteer/
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/aspergers-alive/201311/reporters-guide-the-autism-speaks-debacle
• ↑ http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/phsyical-social-environment/housing-accessibility-disabilities/main
• ↑ https://udservices.org/how-to-volunteer-with-people-with-disabilities/
• ↑ http://www.udservices.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Vounteer_ServiceDogs.pdf

About This Article

If you want to help people with disabilities, watch for things they seem to struggle with and ask them if they need any help. However, always respect their answer and don’t help them if they don’t want you to. They know what they need and being too insistent can come off as rude. If you want to help more people than you can on your own, try volunteering in your area at places like Ability First or a Teaching Tolerance workshop. You can also volunteer to train a service dog, which usually takes about 18 months. To learn more from our Counselor co-author, like how to use social media to educate others about disabilities, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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New technologies are empowering persons with disabilities. But are they Assistive?

Consumer tech has reduced daily friction for countless individuals, making it easier to control households, shop for groceries, and connect with loved ones. These technologies can be especially empowering for persons with disabilities, increasing accessibility and resolving frustrations of everyday activities. You may have seen related news in press releases and popular headlines: “ Alexa is a Revelation to the Blind ,” “ Disabled Americans Deserve the Benefit of Self-Driving Cars ,” “ Amazon Alexa Can Help People With Autism Do More On Their Own .”

But are these technologies assistive ? Disability nonprofit Understood.org defines assistive technology as “any device, software, or equipment that helps people work around their challenges.” Classifying a device or software as assistive technology (and/or related regulatory labels) can lead to insurance coverage and tax incentives. It can change how devices are viewed in healthcare settings and impact product research and design. In this article, we speak with bioethicist and disability scholar Dr. Joseph Stramondo about how to define assistive technologies in today’s consumer tech revolution. 

What is assistive technology?

According to Dr. Stramondo, categorizing assistive technologies isn’t so simple. For example, I might use a broom to reach a folded blanket at the top of my closet. Does the broom help me work around my challenges? Sure, but we wouldn’t classify it as assistive. 

Dr. Stramondo identifies assistive technologies by their impact on a person’s narrative—i.e., if the technology identifies someone as a member of a disability group. “Any given technology is assistive if it identifies a user as disabled because of the meaning the technology holds in our shared cultural imagination,” he says. For example, using a motorized wheelchair would impart a cultural indication of limited mobility, whereas using an autonomous vehicle would not. In this example, Dr. Stromondo would classify the motorized wheelchair as an assistive device, but not the AV. 

The same concept holds true for multi-use devices or platforms. Computers, mobile devices, and smart speakers are helpful to disabled individuals, but their use doesn’t indicate participation in a disability group. However, certain apps or add-ons might. “A laptop is not assistive technology but screen reading software certainly is,” Dr. Stramondo says. While an iPhone would not be classified as assistive technology, LookTel (an app specifically that helps visually-impaired people count money) could be.

Under the right circumstances, tech features like Apple Watch’s fall detection setting could also be classified as assistive. “Features themselves should be understood as assistive technologies,” Dr. Stramondo said, “If only disabled people use these functions and if they are embedded in the story our culture tells about disability, then they are assistive, regardless of how they are activated.”

Assistive technology vs. medical necessity

Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurers rely on an additional classification, medical necessity, to determine which purchases they will discount, subsidize, or reimburse. Medical necessity is a highly restrictive criterion, often requiring a physician’s prescription and alignment with national practices. 

In Dr. Stramondo’s perspective, “I would not think that it would be helpful to determine whether a technology is assistive based on whether it is funded by health insurers, because so many very important technologies are now not funded since they don’t pass the test of medical necessity.” He offers the example of Laura Hershey, a muscular dystrophy patient who wrote a well-known essay about restrictive medical necessity requirements. “[I] would expect [the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)] to provide a motorized wheelchair for anyone who wants one. Such a chair can boost a disabled person’s quality of life enormously,” she wrote, “Instead, MDA has very restrictive criteria for determining who receives a motorized wheelchair.” 

Dr. Stramondo and others suggest alternative approaches, such as combining assistive technology definitions with quality of life evaluations, preventative care efforts, or compensatory justice. 

By Dr. Stramondo’s analysis, today’s consumer tech sits in a middle ground. While not assistive technologies themselves, these devices and platforms support powerful assistive features, applications, and add-ons that play an increasingly valuable role in helping the disabled population manage their day-to-day lives. 

However, more importantly, disability groups are key consumer technology users, regardless of product labels or categories. Inclusive approaches such as Universal Design ensure that consumer tech makes a difference in the lives of all potential users.

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Adriana Krasniansky

Adriana Krasniansky is a graduate student at the Harvard Divinity School studying the ethical implications of new technologies in healthcare, and her research focuses on personal and societal relationships to devices and algorithms. More specifically, Adriana is interested in how technology can support and scale care for aging and disability populations. Adriana previously worked as a writer and consultant in the technology field, managing projects involving artificial intelligence and robotics. Her work has been featured in publications including The Atlantic, Quartz, and PSFK.

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My Problem With College Admissions Essays as a Disabled Person

As a 20-year-old transfer student who spent a summer studying abroad, dragging out the old same elegized story of my life as a young person “robbed of a normal carefree youth” is a bit boring. I’m tired of hearing my story, too. The story isn’t untrue or unworthy of being heard; it’s just so often associated with the disabled community that it becomes the only story expected of me. The disabled community is the largest marginalized minority in the world. There are many narratives worthy of being told, but so often they are overlooked for the inspiration porn , instantly shareable Facebook headlines.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good overcoming adversity story. These stories are valid and so important. The essays I write for those college admissions boards, outside of how my disability affects my life, are not necessarily a Penguin Classics level work ready to be sent off to the closest corporate bookstore. The essay I try to write focuses more on my personal journey of self-discovery that genuinely starts out with “I’m a cliche” and goes on to wax poetic about the magic of soul searching. But when does the disabled community get to stop “overcoming adversity” and allow members to be known as individuals? My multiple sclerosis is an important part of my life, but as I’m sure many disabled kids who have applied to college can attest: it’s also the hardest to make sound not boring.

Personally, before I was diagnosed my life was a whole lot of sleeping all day, then vomiting if I ate anything. Really fun to relive as you beg a school for scholarship money, right? This is why I wholeheartedly believe college application essays are inherently ableist. I understand my privilege in this world as someone who was diagnosed later in her youth and was fortunate enough to have opportunities — like study abroad, or even being able to afford my medical care.

This is not what colleges want to hear about, though. Sure, maybe under the veil of how my disability affects such experiences and how I overcame it. (Spoiler: Sometimes I don’t; life for disabled people isn’t endless amounts of awe-inspiring obstacle climbing.) The personhood of any disabled person cannot be boiled down to one label. A disabled life is more than just one bad thing after another, so let me revel in the good once in a while.

Now, excuse me as I finish my Common App essay with this last line of lamenting my disabled experience. Hey, I still need that scholarship money.

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My journey to self-acceptance as disabled was full of realizations about what labels are and who gets to define them. I am disabled with a lot to say and not talented enough to join a punk band.

People with disabilities essay

Disability is one of the most important issues in the contemporary society because stigmatization of people with disabilities contributed to the formation of biases and prejudices which put them into the disadvantageous position compared to people, who did not have problems of disability. Such biases and prejudices contributed to the discrimination of people with disabilities which has been eliminated consistently since the emergence of the Civil Rights movement and introduction of legal changes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nevertheless, today, the problem of people with disabilities and their discrimination persists because many biases and prejudices are resilient. In this regard, education is particularly vulnerable to the problem of the integration of students with disabilities into the learning process since the modern education system attempts to provide equal opportunities for all students, eliminating the discrimination of students with disabilities. Moreover, the modern education system confronts another problem, the problem of students with excessive abilities, who also face problems with the integration into the classroom environment and development of positive relations with their peers. In such a way, the concept of disability/ability is fulcrum of the contemporary education system in relation to students interaction and elimination of discrimination of students based on abilities/disabilities.

Disability is the complex notion that involves limited opportunities and special needs of people but it does not mean the inferiority of individuals compared to those, who do not have disability. At the same time, ability is a set of skills, knowledge and opportunities to exercise them to perform specific tasks. In such a situation, the risk of the widening gap between individuals with disabilities and those, who do not have them because disability can limit opportunities for individuals to exercise their knowledge, skills and opportunities to the full extent, while those, who do not have disabilities, can take the full advantage of their skills, knowledge and opportunities (Kudlick, 2005). In this regard, the attitude of the social environment to people with disabilities may be crucial for their social standing and opportunities to stand on the equal ground for others.

One of the major challenges people with disabilities face is the challenge in their professional training and development. Disability may limit learning abilities of individuals that prevent them from obtaining the target education and making a successful career. For example, many students with learning disabilities, such as ASD, have difficulties with learning that prevent them from successful learning. In such a situation, they cannot complete their education just like other students do, while the lack of education limits their career opportunities consistently. On the other hand, many researchers (Mansell, 2003) point out that students with disabilities may be as successful as other students, while some students may be even more successful than the average student in certain subjects.

In such a situation, disability may be a substantial obstacle on the way to the professional development of individuals and to their career. On the other hand, often it is not the disability proper but the prejudice of employers that becomes an obstacle on the way of people with disabilities. However, such discrimination tends to disappear due to legal changes, including the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and current policies aiming at the inclusion of disabled people. In this regard, the discrimination of people with disabilities persists because the power of prejudices and biases is very strong.

At the same time, educators should be aware of special needs of students with disabilities. They should understand that students with disabilities are no different from other students but they have special needs, which educators should match to help them to succeed in their learning and reach a considerable academic progress just like other students do. In fact, students with disabilities are not inferior compared to their peers but they just have special needs. For example, some researchers (Mansell, 2003) admit that even children with serious mental disabilities may be integrated in the learning process successfully on the condition of meeting needs of those students but the problem is that educators are not trained to work with such students. This is why they have difficulties while working with students with disabilities and the integration of students into the learning process and into their peer groups becomes quite difficult.

On the other hand, the modern education focuses on such issues as Knowledge, Enquiry, Empathy, Pluralism, Social Commitment to prevent the problem of discrimination of students with disabilities and to set educators free from their biases and prejudices in relation to students with disabilities. Knowledge is essential for educators to understand needs of students with disabilities. The enquiry is essential for the research of latest advancements in the field of education and exploration of the problem of disability. The empathy is essential for educators to treat students with disabilities, which educators should treat on the equal ground compared to other students. The pluralism is essential for educators to develop the personalized approach to each students, regardless of their abilities and disabilities. The social commitment is essential for educators to treat students with disabilities as an integral part of the school community. The social commitment means that educators should serve to interests of the community and help students with disabilities to integrate into their communities and help communities to accept children with disabilities as equal community members.

At the same time, there is another issue related to abilities, which often remains unnoticed by educators and researchers, which is the issue of excessive abilities. What is meant here is the fact that some students are gifted in certain fields, which make them different from other students and, to a certain extent, put them in the position similar to the position of students with disabilities (Enns, 2013). Excessive abilities lead to the focus of students on the specific subject, which is particularly interesting for them and where they are particularly successful. For example, gifted students may be successful in math that will put them in quite a challenging position. On the one hand, conventional math classes will be boring for them because instructions educators provide for other students may be not even necessary for gifted students, who understand those instructions perfectly and know more than other students, while their math skills may match standards which are normally attributed to higher grades. As a result, such students feel bored with the classroom environment and the learning process because math classes are not interesting for them because they do not contribute to their progress that discourages them from paying much attention to their math class. This trend can be traced in relation to other subjects, which gifted students may be particularly strong in.

On the other hand, gifted students may have difficulties with developing positive interpersonal relations with their peers. In fact, peers may feel the difference of gifted students because of their excessive abilities that may lead to the development of the sense of inferiority-superiority in relationships between the average and gifted students. In addition, gifted students may stay too focused on their favorite subjects or particular interests that also prevent them from developing positive interpersonal relations with other students. In such a way, students with excessive abilities have difficulties with building up positive interpersonal relationships with other students just like students with disabilities.

Thus, the concept of ability/disability turns out to be pivotal for the modern education system and society at large because it influences consistently the development of students and position of individuals with disabilities and excessive abilities. In this regard, disability and excessive ability are two extremes which may raise problems in the personal and professional development of individuals because they face the risk of the development of poor interpersonal relations with their peers. At the same time, both students with disabilities and excessive abilities need the integration into their classroom environment and development of positive interpersonal relationships with their peers.

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Definitions

Areas of curriculum necessary for students with severe disabilities, special education policies in sky view elementary school district.

Intellectual disabilities pose a great challenge to students, parents, and teachers alike. The effects of these disabilities vary from individual to individual and usually require intensive management. This partly arises from the wide range of differences in the types of intellectual disabilities, and differences in the range of impairment even among students suffering from the same type of intellectual disability.

This paper explores different types of disabilities and their impacts, to review the efficacy of policy initiatives meant to streamline the management of students with intellectual disabilities in the Sky View Elementary School District.

This paper discusses the main types of intellectual impairments. These disabilities include intellectual disability, autism, severe disabilities, and multiple disabilities.

This section reviews the definitions of each of these conditions. According to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), intellectual disability describes a condition characterized by “significant limitation in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior”.

The condition must be existent before the age of 18 for it to fit in this definition. The main causes of intellectual disability are genetic factors, malnutrition during pregnancy, birth trauma resulting in asphyxiation, and illness or injury leading to brain damage. They can occur before or after birth.

Autism covers a wide range of developmental impairments. Modern literature does not refer to autism as a single condition but as a spectrum. The autism spectrum reflects the varying severity of autism in autistic persons. Autism refers to a developmental disorder that generally inhibits the development of the skills needed in “communication and social interaction”. An autistic person may or may not have learning difficulties.

There is no consensus on the actual cause of autism. However, there is a growing body of evidence linking the occurrence of autism to genetic predisposition. However, the onset of the condition depends on environmental factors during pregnancy, during childbirth, and the initial days after birth.

Severe disabilities and multiple disabilities refer to a special category of impairments. Usually, people with severe disabilities require help in more than one area of their life to live normally. Severe disabilities usually include retarded mental development.

In the case of multiple disabilities, one person usually suffers from more than one disability. For instance, a person may experience mental retardation and a form of physical disability. In these cases, the person requires full-time care to live normally. Severe and multiple disabilities results from various causes. These causes include prenatal conditions, birth defects, accidents, infections, and exposure to toxins.

The impacts of intellectual disability, autism, and severe and multiple disabilities on education are very many. These impacts vary from case to case, and the degree of education possible depends on the severity of the underlying conditions. Some of the impacts of these disabilities on education are as follows. First, the students need full-time care in addition to specialized instructors.

This means that schools must use more resources to take care of special children. Secondly, schools need special equipment to take care of the special needs of these children. For instance, a teacher in a normal school may have the option of using chalkboards and projectors as teaching aids. In a special school, it may be difficult to use these facilities because of low attention spans among students.

The teacher must use an individualized approach to teach each student. Thirdly, special schools compete with normal schools for resources. Public schools have greater political power because of the huge number of students they handle. This makes it difficult for special schools to get additional resources to cater for the special needs of intellectually impaired students.

The areas of curriculum necessary for students with severe disabilities exceed those required for normal students. This arises from the fact that students with severe disabilities usually need more time and practice to master basic life skills.

By the time they attain school-going age, it is still common for them to require help with basic skills such as going to the bathroom. In this regard, their instructors must use a wider curriculum to help them to develop their skills.

The main areas of focus in the training of students with special needs are as follows. First, a student with severe disabilities needs training to master basic life skills. In this regard, basic life skills refer to activities such as eating, using the bathroom, dressing up, and even crossing roads. The severity of the impairment plays an important part in the decision to teach them these skills.

Secondly, the curriculum for students with severe disabilities should include communication skills. The teaching of communication skills must correlate to the ability of the student.

For instance, some autistic students can learn how to speak and can increase their vocabulary. Some cannot speak at all, and may only benefit from the use of sign language. In this case, the development of the teaching plan for each student must take into account the potential of the student.

The third aspect of the curriculum intended for students with severe disabilities must be the development of social skills. The main issue in this regard is that the failure to develop practical social skills can impair their ability to fit in society after school.

In any case, students with severe disabilities also need to know how to interact with their families, friends, and acquaintances as part of their daily lives. The challenge is greater for curriculum developers in cases where the students avoid contact with other people.

The fourth aspect that must form part of the curriculum for the training of students with severe disabilities is safety skills. Walking alongside a road is a completely mindless affair for a normal person, but may be life-threatening for a person with an impairment that hinders their ability to assess the danger posed by traffic.

For instance, if an autistic child notices that the road has continuous lines between lanes, the child may try to walk at the center of that road. Safety education can help to reduce or eliminate the dangers associated with such behavior.

The final area needed in special school curriculums is academic skills. Some students with severe impairment can learn how to read, write, and calculate. In this regard, the curriculums must support the development of intellectual skills up to the highest attainable level.

The Sky View Elementary School District special education program has many positive traits and seems to compare well with the curriculum elements discussed in the previous section. The notable aspects of the special education program at Sky View are as follows.

First, the district has acknowledged the diversity that exists among students with severe disabilities. The district, therefore, offers students instruction based on the abilities of different students. For instance, the district has self-contained classrooms meant for a student with severe disabilities.

Students spend most of their time in school in these classrooms to improve their skills. This measure makes it possible to segregate students according to their skill level to concentrate on the range of skills they can learn.

Secondly, the district offers resource instruction to students in special schools. Resource instruction refers to the exposure of students to higher-level materials suited to specific learning capabilities. In this case, a student who has greater potential in certain areas receive instruction to develop their potential.

The third aspect of the instructional model used in the Sky View is that it gives parents and guardians a wide range of options regarding the choice of facilities for their children. The district has programs that allow for continual instruction for students who lose skills during breaks. Also, the district gives parents the option of full-time residency of their special children in faculties that offer full-time care.

The main problem associated with the management of the curriculum for special needs education in Sky View Elementary School District is the isolation of special children from normal children. There are very few points of contact between students in the special units and children in ordinary classrooms.

This can lead to maladjustment to society when students with severe disabilities leave the institution. At the same time, the students do not benefit from the opportunity to learn how to communicate and to socialize with unimpaired persons. This is one of the most important skills needed by severely impaired persons.

AAIDD. (2013). Definition of Intellectual Disability.

Dodd, S. (2005). Understanding Autism. New South Wales: Elsevier.

Downing, J. E., & MacFarland, S. (2008). Severe Disabilities (Education and Individuals with Severe Disabilities: Promising Practices). International Encyclopeadia of rehabilitation , 114-118.

Glenn, R. (2007). Bringing User Experience to Healthcare Improvement: The Concepts, Methods and Practices of Experience-based Design. Oxon: Radcliffe Publishing.

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Helping Others Essay Examples

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