The main barriers facing people with disabilities is discrimination, ableism, and stigmatization. The negative labelling, stereotyping and negative prejudice against a person with a physical, intellectual and mental health impairment has led to the belief that people with disabilities are worthless and a burden to the society (Bos, Pryor, Reeder & Stutterheim 2013, p. 1). Trait and perceivable societal beliefs that disabled people need to be fixed to fit in the society has resulted in widespread disapproval. Society uses visible and overt stigma toward people with disabilities. This Stigma is mostly used in cultural, race, gender, and religious beliefs.
History shows that ignorance, neglect, superstition and fear are social factors that have exacerbated isolation of persons with disabilities. For example, from a religious perspective, disabled people are view as bad luck, being punished by the gods or cursed, and being possessed by witchcraft (Plattner, 2011). These assumptions lead to stigmatization and a belief that people with physical, intellectual, or mental disabilities need to be fixed (Smith, 2020). This belief has become a reason for society to discriminate against physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities (WOLBRING, 2008). For these reasons, disabled people are being oppressed, treated unfairly, and have less access to justice and equality.
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There is diversity in disability. People with disabilities experience different emotions and life experiences. Autism Spectrum disorder is a perfect example because different people from different age range experience different symptom and pains. A child from 2 – 3 years of age will experience symptoms like lack of ability in receiving, sending, processing and understanding concepts, lack of pointing to object or orienting to name or gaze monitoring (Elder, Dawson, Toth, Fein, & Munson, 2014). The society classify disability as a single concept, while it’s more complex and categorizing. People disabilities have been discriminated against, deprived, and limited to participate effectively in recreation, education, and employment as some industries think that disabled people are incapable and cannot contribute effectively in the workforce (Lin and Yang, 2018). They are portrayed as unproductive, incapable, unsuccessful, and burdensome to economic, political, and social society (Barnes and Mercer, 2005).
Although legislation and plans have been implemented to create equality, justice, freedom, and rights for people with disabilities, there are still social rejection, avoidance, discrediting, and stereotypic miss presentation of disabled people. For example, the right of disable to participate fully in the society or equal access to social, political, and economic resources in the community (United Nations, 2006). Governments and the decision-makers need to thoroughly review their rules and regulation to make immense to where it has been lacking. The social adaptation of the concepts of being ‘able’ or ‘normal’ has led the society into overlooking, breaking, or underestimating the legislation set in place.
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