By We Are Being Disabled By Our Society, than by our impairment
When a company hires a normal staffs, they’re asked for their abilities and skills. But in the case of someone with disabilities, you are questioned about your disability and health. Then only about your abilities and skills.
Why so much difference?
There are tons of barriers that we are facing being someone with disabilities.
Internationally, ‘disability’ is defined as the condition caused by long-term physical, mental, intellectual and sensory impairment, functional limitation caused by that impairment and the restrictions in participation in any social activities.
The national laws and policies also adopted this definition. However, many out there are defining disability only as the physical and mental impairment.
We imagine someone who lost their legs/hands, lost eyesight/hearing abilities, having no intellectual abilities etc. when we hear or see the term “disability”.
Disability, understood in terms of impairment only, losing any organs/parts of body for short time or long time would also be identified as disability but they are not called person with disability. So, we need to understand that the above mentioned three situations should be involved to be consider someone as person with disability.
Among the three situations, the first two are related to the impairment that can be minimized through the use of appropriate assistive devices and technologies. But the third one is associated with our society and environment which is very crucial in determining the level of severity of our disability.
With the use of advance technologies, even the disabled people are now getting more and more independent. We have been able to tackle with many challenges and can equally compete with others.
The most famous scientist Stephen Hawking was able to identify the Black Hole Theory despite his severe form of disability. This was possible due to the use of advanced technology.
Like him, others with some kind of incapability can also showcase their abilities and prove the society that disability is not an inability but the narrow mindset that people have and the environment they have created are pushing us far behind. It is increasing the gap between person with and without disabilities.
The barriers start from our home.
Many of us are either getting neglected or overprotected by our family members. On one hand, they are making us weaker and limiting our abilities bounding out limits. They presume we can’t do it and deny us from even trying.
Many of our parents still don’t want to expose us in social gathering as a matter of shame or guilt. As our own family limits our growth and exposure, the society exhibits similar behavior towards us.
But we still try to break those barriers at our possible manner. And when we come out in the society challenging our own disability, we are judged in different ways. Many show sympathy towards us. Only few admire our abilities. Only limited admire our capacities in words and emotions but again when it comes to take action, they hesitate to choose us again.
Still, most of the educated people seem to be ignorant and being guided by their traditional thoughts. As a result, we are facing challenges in areas like in education sectors, health services, and transportation and most importantly in job placement area.
Let’s imagine once! What would happen if all the physical infrastructures including roads, buildings and transportation had the facilities of ramp, tactile, signage and other accessibility features? What would happen if all the people had at least basic level knowledge of sign language?
What would happen if everyone received the jobs based on their skills and abilities rather than by being judged beforehand? What would happen if no one was discriminated/judged based on their physical/mental/intellectual /sensory impairment?
Obviously, no one would have been left behind and all of them would have been living a dignified and independent lives. But, the problem is that our society is dominated by traditional and narrow mindset. Everywhere, there are barriers which are created by our society itself in the name of normality.
We know that we have some impairment which can’t be removed completely. But, with the use of assistive devices and technologies we are making our lives easier and living independently. We have the trust that we can equally contribute to our society and country by proving our own abilities.
But, until the accessible environment has not been ensured, and unless people’s attitude and perception become positive towards the term ‘disability’ we cannot prove that we are equally abled like everyone out there. So, I must say that we are being disabled by our society more than by our impairment.
Photo by Vijay Sadasivuni
Also Read: https://offlinethinker.com/lonely-neha-saru-magar/
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