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Cherry SudartonoENG 103.0857Prof. Boris – Sandwich Revision
What “Disability” Means to Me
According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, “Disability” means “the condition of being disabled, and the inability to pursue an occupation because of a physical or mental impairment.” For me personally, I think the word “disability” means the condition when a person lacks the power to finish or to execute tasks that are considered normal to people.
The first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the word “Disability” is disabled people. Disabled people or “handicapped” people are only called so, because we, so-called “perfect people” think that our body works perfectly without any flaws. I think most of the times we stereotype disabled people as people who have amputated limbs or people who use wheelchairs to move about.
There is also another disability, which is mental disability, for example, Down syndrome. When I took my Fundamental of Biology class, I learned that Down syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra 21st chromosome in the body. Down syndrome can easily be recognized because of some maybe even major differences in body features. Often, Down syndrome is associated with brain malfunction (lacking the ability to think as a normal person would) and it is usually identified at or before birth.
Beside the definitions, I personally think that normal people base disability on stereotypes or biases. Many people make disabled people feel bad because of their “inadequacy.” For example, in the documentary If I Can’t Do It by Walter Brock, during the A.D.A.P.T demonstration outside of a McDonald’s restaurant, the narrator overheard a man telling all the disabled people that they are wasting taxpayer’s money. Basically, what he is trying to say is that disabled people are just a waste of time and money and that they bring no benefits to normal people.
I have a friend who has a girlfriend with a disability, and yes, we do question him. “Why did you choose her? You could have had better girls!” That was what we said to him but we needed no answers from him, for the look on his face when he was with her was so filled with love and pride that we decided to just drop the subject afterwards.
There is also the hypocrisy against disabled people. For example, we see people who made a joke about disabled people. Then we have another man telling him that it is wrong for him to do so, but on the other hand, that man would not hire a disabled person as a possible employee because he thought that the disabled person might not be as qualified for the job as a normal person would. Yet, for all we know it could have been the other way around! I think all of these are based on a paradigm that disabled people are less qualified than healthy people.
I think such prejudice and hate are more hurtful than racism, because people tend to forget that these people have feelings and compassion too. There is nothing worse than having people telling us that we are no good or that we are better off dead. How wrong could we be? I see people in wheelchairs doing things that are so unthinkable such as teaching, playing basketball, reading poetry and so on. Even though these are all considered normal, but to see the effort that they put into those activities are just incredible to me. It would be like a miracle if we could have a world where even disabled people should fear neither hate nor prejudice from others, if only we build more respect for people with disabilities.
Sources
"Disability." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 18 April. 2007. Keyword: Disability
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If I Can’t Do It. Walter Brock. Perf. Arthur Campbell, Jr. Fanlight Production, 1998