Identify and Protect yourself from this form of Disability Discrimination
Disability discrimination can take many harmful forms. When it is directed towards physically handicapped people, however, it is especially harmful. That's because discrimination against the physically handicapped is surprisingly commonplace.
After all, it’s so easy to just “do nothing” when it comes to making the world a more accessible place. In the meantime, people with physical handicaps are left with nothing.
That’s why when it comes to handicap discrimination, it is hard to say who, exactly, is the perpetrator. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is found by looking to your right and left, up and down. Everywhere you turn, people are implicitly discriminating against physically handicapped people.
Exclusion of those with physical handicaps is the wrong action to take for our society today. That’s because discrimination towards physically handicapped people leads to ostracism, and severe ill will against a sector of our population that needs nurture and care.
Indeed, one of the best ways to combat discrimination against the physically handicapped is by actively promoting ways of integration.
For schools, the workplace and the public sector, it is extremely important to avoid programs and policies that encourage the exclusion and discrimination of handicap people. Instead, encourage real integration into the society by giving handicapped people access to services and media that are commonplace in the lives of the temporarily able bodied.
Make it so that you are not the one who is the perpetrator of handicap discrimination against the physically or mentally disabled people living amongst us.
If you are an administrator or leader at any institution in which handicap people require aids for access to the tools and services that you provide or make available, then it is your imperative to stop asking, “who is the perpetrator of handicap discrimination” and better yet realize that you are—unless you take the right steps to end discrimination towards physically disabled people. |
