Disabled
people definitely face many disadvantages. They are viewed as strange, almost
eccentric people and are rarely represented on television and other media. They
are more likely to suffer from mental health problems and face isolation. Perhaps
it will be easier to be accepting of disabled people if we become more
accustomed to them and have more opportunities to interact them. I was
surprised to learn that as many as 19% of Americans suffer from a disability. Based
on my personal experiences, I would have predicted that the statistic was just around 5%. Many disabilities are probably not so apparent to people who
casually pass by. We might consider a person in a wheelchair or crutches to
have been in an accident rather than suffering from a disability. Other
disabilities, like autism, can often be difficult to notice. And how will we
gain more exposure to people with disabilities? The lack of exposure to
disabled people is “shrinking our insight into the physically and emotionally
complex world” that we experience. We may be exposed to disabilities
through a grandparent or a relative, but is that experience really enough to
become accustomed to disability? I remember how in elementary school, our class
would sometimes take time out of our day to interact with the autistic children
in their separate classroom. These interactions were crucial in putting our
lives in perspective, showing how fortunate we were to live “normal” lives. But with the workload in high school, we no longer have these interactions with other people which can lower our "insights" into the world. Perhaps
the perception of disabilities depends on which particular disability someone
has. Many people know about certain disabilities, such as blindness and autism,
but it is important to understand how we cannot make generalizations about
disabled people. We can notice their differences, but we must learn to respect
them.
