Social attitudes towards individuals with a disability
Posted on 29th January 2020 at 13:48
Growing up with a disability is an extensive challenge, not just physically and mentally but also emotionally for someone living with a disability.
One of the main factors influencing a person’s emotional wellbeing is being accepted by society and not treated like an outsider as such. However, despite the improvement of social attitudes and perceptions on individuals with disabilities over the years, this is still a common problem that people with disabilities encounter on a daily basis in today’s society.
Growing up with a disability is an extensive challenge, not just physically and mentally but also emotionally for someone living with a disability. One of the main factors influencing a person’s emotional wellbeing is being accepted by society and not treated like an outsider as such. However, despite the improvement of social attitudes and perceptions on individuals with disabilities over the years, this is still a common problem that people with disabilities encounter on a daily basis in today’s society.
Growing up with a disability is an extensive challenge, not just physically and mentally but also emotionally for someone living with a disability. One of the main factors influencing a person’s emotional wellbeing is being accepted by society and not treated like an outsider as such. However, despite the improvement of social attitudes and perceptions on individuals with disabilities over the years, this is still a common problem that people with disabilities encounter on a daily basis in today’s society.
According to the SCOPE impact report from the years 2011/12 which can be found on thepacecentre.org, only 32% of families with disabled people feel accepted by their local communities. This is quite a shocking discovery considering it is now the 21st century and everyone should be made to feel accepted and apart of their community regardless of ability, gender, age, race and religion.
The report also states that more than half (58%) of people with disabilities have been victims of crime and 15% of those people believe the crimes were motivated by their impairment or disability. This is quite a distressful statistic to find out as you can imagine and it is a basic human right to feel safe and socially accepted in today’s society. Targeting a person because of their disability or impairment is unacceptable and as the human race, it is our duty to tackle this issue by understanding and breaking down the barriers as to why this occurs.
SCOPE reports that ever since the year 2000, the gap between the views of disabled and non-disabled people about disabled prejudice has trebled and will continue to rise if we do not raise awareness and discuss the impacts of socially discriminating against people with disabilities and how this affects their emotional wellbeing and mental health.
The way people act towards and socialise with individuals with disabilities can have a major impact on how they view themselves and their role in society. This is why it is vitally important to tackle the negative attitudes towards people with disabilities by avoiding a moment of rudeness or ignorance and understanding that they have feelings and emotions just like everybody else.
SCOPE’s new facts and statistics report states that "a third of the population claim to not know a single person with a disability" and so the judgments they make and the way they treat people with disabilities is solely based on stereotypes and what they know as oppose to actually having knowledge of what life is like for someone living with a disability.
Social attitudes towards people with disabilities have been quite negative for many years however, there has certainly been an increasing progression in tackling the issues regarding social attitudes and pushing for a more diverse and socially accepting society that welcomes all people including those with disabilities and impairments.
I'm sure you will all agree; "We need disability awareness to be back on the agenda!"
Written and published by Ahmed Hassan
Work experience student
Digital marketing at UCB
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