Looking Further Than Disabilities

Do you like the idea of diversity? I say that our school welcomes differences in strongly and with a respective manner. But I think that we should enlarge on the idea of diversity and welcome in new issues. I say that we have to expand on the topic of disabilities- or different abilities. We have focused a bit on it in mentor time but we have to educate people on this topic. In this essay it says why disabilities says what the lack of understanding can do, and how we can fix this problem.

I take the position that disabled people should be guaranteed the same rights and privileges as everyone else. We must look further than just appearance and consider their personalities and feelings. We must educate, respect, and support them.

My first reason is that people often treat disabled people in rude or un-mannered ways, causing lack in self esteem and confidence. Disabled people are often treated as a different species, many people have rude attitudes and behaviors towards them. Hardeep Aiden, from the opinium says “Two thirds (67%) of the public feel uncomfortable talking to disabled people.” (May, 2015) This means that we have been proven to produce a negative effect on disabled people. Awkwardness effects disabled people causing their self confidence to drop. What if you were always treated in rude or disrespectful manners? How would that make you feel? Some cases can get worse, and disabled people put even more doubt on themselves. Tom Shakespeare says “some of them feel profoundly depressed and upset.” (June, 2014) With this negative effect on disabled people it can lead to some horrible thinking of themselves. With personal experience, I say that everyone should think of each other's feelings. By only having a mindset that is limited to certain people, it can lead to other problems later in life. I believe that you should always encourage everyone in the same way, by moving past one barrier you can push through negative thinking and actions towards others.

My second reason is that schools should take time to educate everyone on this topic so everyone is more understanding of each other. In all of the schools I have been in, this topic has never been brought up once in class- and I have been to 5 different schools. Andrea McCarthy says “Much of the discomfort people feel about disability may stem from a lack of understanding.” This means that the negative mindset might be coming from the lack of knowledge on this topic which says a lot. People could not know that they are being rude, and maybe hurt someone's feelings which lowers confidence. It’s like a chain, if somebody doesn’t understand it can cause other problems and people won’t learn from their mistakes. Courtney Long says “Our research shows that both the general public and disabled people believe that more everyday interactions and greater public education about disability will increase understanding and acceptance of disabled people.” (December, 2015) This means we have to take time to educate and interact with the public to create a difference.

My third reason is that we must push past the barrier of appearance. I can connect deeply to this cause I have faced many struggles of appearance. I often try not to interact and most of the time hide or cover my “hand” but I realised all of us have to push past that thinking and all that matters in personality. We are all human, we all have the same rights, we must respect each other in that way. Scott Rains, a researcher of the opinium says “People don’t make an effort to get to know the people and judge them by their looks and appearance.” This means that we have to think of what's inside not outside. Often people are use to judging everybody, and that is natural but it can be stopped. Have you ever been stared at? Constantly having the feeling that someone is talking behind your back? Not a lot of people face this as much disabled people have. I say that we should think of everybody before you make assumptions of personality by just looking at their appearance. Dylan Redd says “People are not accepting to others that are not like them and need to be more open to people.” This means that people won’t accept diversity if it’s different to them, I say we have to teach people how to accept people even if they are different. I know it can be a struggle sometimes, but if we look on the inside of a person we can change our lifestyle so that we all support and respect on another.

Wrapping it up, I say that we have to have a clean palette and open our minds a bit more. I understand that it can be difficult to accept something that is different from yourself, but on the inside it is all the same. I conclude saying that all we need is a education on this topic to look further. I propose that our school should make a mentor time unit focusing on diversity in general including this topic in it. In school now we only have some slivers of diversity but for learning to expand it needs more types of diversity and it should definitely include this topic. Scott Rains says “ Research shows that public education could help tackle the discrimination and stigma associated with disability.” I think you should consider how we can tackle this problem, and give new learning for everyone.

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