My Perceptions On Disabilities

The perceptions of people with disabilities has changed drastically over the different era’s. Beginning with the Era of Isolation, people believed that kids born with a disability were possessed by demons or simply born that way as the result of a sin. Although during this time, not many survived birth, the ones that did were left on their own to either live or die. To this day there are still people who think that having a child with an impairment is a punishment for a past sin. During Ancient Greek and Roman times, parents were encouraged to kill their children if they were born with a disability, making isolation that occurred years before look like a walk in the park.

During the Middle Ages, instead of ridding those with disabilities altogether, they were used as servants, clowns (if they suffered from dwarfism,) and many different other forms of abuse for the public's enjoyment. It wasn’t until the Renaissance Era that any form of humanity was put towards those with a disability. The Catholic Church was dominant during this Era of Asylum and made it a point to be humane toward people who had a disability, although still isolated them from society. The example best used for this time period is Quasimoto in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

The Industrial Revolution, also known as the Era of Vocational Education, people with disabilities were slowly given chances of an education. There was a large shortage of workers during this time period so they made the decision to train people with disabilities to do the work that they needed done. This is an important era of change because it slowly showed disabled people as being somewhat valued by society, giving them a small amount of education.

During the Early Turn of the century, countries started to practice something called eugenics which was a way for them to try and control the gene pool. They saw having a disability as a threat to the health of the nation and believed they could put an end to it on their own. Once WW1 ended, however, soldiers started to come home with numerous types of disabilities but remained valued by society, which rubbed off little by little onto the non-soldiers with disabilities. The term “handicapped” then came into play in the 1950’s and 60’s. This term came with a background of pity and began from the idea of beggars putting their hands in caps, hoping for money.

During WW2, women began fighting for equality, leading to the creation of Rosie the Riveter. This spokesperson for women's equality began to give people with disabilities some confidence to prove that they too have rights and worth. This fight continued into the Civil Rights Era and people with disabilities began demanding their rights, blaming negative attitudes and environmental factors for preventing them from reaching and showing their potential. This was the first major advocacy campaign for disabled people, beginning where we are today with legislation in order to improve rights and access to the free world.

There is a clear improvement from the Era of Isolation to now, however, we still have a long way to go. Similarly to the argument that negative attitudes and environmental factors highly affect those with disabilities, we still need to accept that prejudice against this issue still very much exists in our current society. There is a lot of talk that goes on about this subject matter, but not nearly as much action.

I do not want to become too political while writing this, however, I think that our current leader does a very poor job addressing disabilities in a positive light. Regardless if true, there have been multiple offenses where Donald Trump has been seen to mock those who are disabled and he has been sued numerous times for violating the American’s with Disabilities Act. There is no easy way to perceive people with disabilities in a more positive light if our President is highlighting all of the negatives.

I do believe that we are improving our school systems and special education programs, especially when it comes to the accommodations that we supply, however, I do not think that special education and regular education link the way they should. The special education program needs to be more about addressing the needs of all students rather than separating those who have higher needs altogether. The goal for schools and educators should be to build accommodating learning opportunities for children with exceptionalities in regular educational programs. Special education needs to fall more as a support system than a separator but I am confident that we are working towards that goal.

When it comes to public transport, I am very happy to see the benefits and improvements being provided for people with disabilities and I am also thrilled with the amount of jobs being opened up to disabled individuals. Beginning with simple grocery store jobs, we have been coming up with more and more opportunities to accommodate so people with disabilities can work and make money, allowing for a more normal lifestyle.

“Normal” is a word that I would say is very close to my heart when speaking of those with disabilities. Not only is there no such thing as being normal, but until something is pointed out about an individual, we don’t even think about if they are normal or not.

My passion to advocate and become a special education teacher began when I was in kindergarten, as crazy as that may seem. One of my best friends to this day has an older brother who suffers from severe Autism. Being young and fairly unaware of the world around me, in kindergarten I did not see any difference within her brother other than maybe being shy. It wasn’t always an easy process to get him to speak to me or interact with me at all, but I never eased up. As time and many play dates continued, I grew even closer to my friend's brother and even made it through to him enough to start sharing hugs before I would leave to go home.

One day when my mother had arrived to pick me up from my friend’s home, I ran up to her and her brother and gave them both big hugs to say goodbye, thinking nothing of the matter that they both hugged me back. It wasn’t until I looked over and saw my friend’s mom crying while my mom held her hand. To me, I had just hugged two of my friends like I had done many times before. To their mom, I had been hugged by her son on the spectrum that had never hugged anyone else in his life.

When I got in the car afterwards, my mom finally explained to me what Autism was and that my dear friend had it. She proceeded to explain why their mom was crying and told me that I had a gift. I had the gift of not seeing anyone as abnormal and not treating them as anything but human. Not only was a giddy hearing such kind words coming from my mom, but I had then grown a passion to understand what Autism was and how I was going to continue to make a difference in his life.

The older I got, the harder it was to stay connected to childhood friends, and even though we grew apart, I never lost that connection fully with my friend and her brother. When I was in high school, my social media filled up one day with news on a lawsuit at a local Middle School and videos of my childhood friends mom in tears during interviews. Her son, my friend and inspiration had been shoved and locked in a janitor's closet by his special education teacher who couldn’t handle him anymore.

This teacher made such a negative impact on him that he no longer walked, talked or many any further improvement on the spectrum. She had not only ruined her career but ruined any positive light that parents in the area had on special education in the school system.

Many trials and news stories later, I had grown even more dedicated to changing that light back to bright and happy. I began volunteering with clubs for special needs and putting together an event every April for Autism Awareness month. To this day it is my mission to advocate for people with disabilities to the best of my ability. Becoming a teacher is part of my goal to prove that good teachers exist, care, and will give every ounce of love possible to their students. I hope to learn new accommodations daily to help my students learn. I have also published multiple articles on the word “retarded” and why it should never come up in a sentence or be used towards anyone. I greatly look forward to future events and learning opportunities that allow me to advocate further and have extremely high hopes that perception of those with disabilities will slowly become nothing but positive and inspiring.

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