Introduction
Every society has people with disabilities. The severity of the disabilities varies from one person to another with some requiring round the clock care while others live independently requiring only to be assisted occasionally.
People with severe disabilities are a challenge to their families because of the expensive care they require and often they are isolated from the normal world.
A severely handicapped person lives in a world of their own, a society that supports special people, instead of the one where regular people live, people like Walker, can live with freedom and develop on their own pace.
Severely handicapped people may find happiness from living among normal people that they may not discover in an alternative (isolated) environment.
Society’s attitude towards the disabled
Society generally finds it difficult to deal with people who have disabilities. There is a feeling that the disabled would do better in an isolated environment where they live with other disabled people.
Society treats the disabled differently due to various reasons such as anxiety, fear, reservations, and culture. For instance, in some cultures, disabled people are seen as a curse and source of shame; thus people shun; them (Kaplan 1).
Some parents have kept their disabled children hidden from society and in some extreme cases; some are tied up to prevent them from coming out of their homes. The parents do this because they fear stigmatization in society.
Thus, it can be said that society has a negative perception of people with disability and people living with disabilities face discrimination in various fronts such as in employment and education.
On the contrary, society has come up with programs to help children living with disabilities cope with their lives. For example in education, special schools and programs have been established to cater for the special needs students.
In the wider society, things like special parking spaces are set aside for the disabled, construction of special toilets and so forth. The special facilities are specially designed to help the kids with special needs live as normal as possible and make their situation and environment less stressful.
Moreover, laws regarding discrimination have been formulated to protect disabled persons from discrimination based on their handicap. The American with Disabilities Act has led to changes in the public attitude towards the disabled (Kaplan 1).
Despite the strides made in dealing with the disabled, there is a contest on the usefulness of isolation. Are the disabled happy in their isolated environment or would they prefer to be in a normal environment where they interact with the rest of the society?
Some urge that the separation reinforces the notion that disabled people are abnormal and that is why they must stay in a separate environment. They are not seen as an integral part of the society but as dependent people.
On the other hand, those who oppose integration especially in learning institutions say that it ignores that the disabled children have special needs that can only be met in a special environment that a normal class would not provide.
Moreover, many teachers in mainstream schools do not have training on how to handle students with special needs (Special education 1).
However, integrating disabled children in mainstream schools is important because it gives them a sense of belonging and they get to interact with their peers and learn at an equal footing.
More importantly, it gives them happiness because they do not feel alienated from the community (Kaplan 1).
Difficulty in dealing with disabled children
Disabled children are difficult to deal with due to their physical or mental condition. Their parents who are their primary care gives go through many challenges and stress as they try to make the lives of the disabled children as comfortable as possible.
They find it hard to communicate with their children especially those who have severe mental disabilities. The parents cannot tell what is going on in their children’s mind and they have to guess.
Ian Brown a father of a disabled child called Walker talks about his experience in raising his son who has cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFC). The disorder makes his son hit himself and punch his head that he has to be restrained to prevent himself from self-harm.
The father goes through pain as he deals with his son who has developmental problems. However, he loves his son dearly in spite of his disability because a parent should give his child unconditional love.
He has a great love for Walker, as he “Loves him as he is because I have discovered I can…” (Brown 57).
Loving the disabled children and living with them in a normal environment is very important in helping them to develop and learn about things that they would never have a chance of learning in their isolated environment.
The father has learned how to deal with his son as he learns about him in their day to day interactions. Nonetheless, he says sometimes he feels as if his son is the face of the man on the moon that one knows is not there because he cannot communicate with Walker.
Other parents too deal with such challenges and have to learn how to take care of the unique needs that their children possess. Learning about the needs and how to deal with them will help parents and disabled children have a more fulfilling relationship.
Integration of the disabled in society
Integrating the disabled into society is very important. The fact that one has a disability does not make one a lesser human being, and therefore one needs to be given a chance to live a full life in the mainstream society without discrimination or isolation.
The people without disability ought to live together with those who do because they can learn from one another.
For example, Brown says that after searching for his son who cannot talk, walk and is still in diapers he discovered that “The purpose of intellectually disabled people like Walker might be to free us from the stark emptiness of the survival of the fittest” (Brown 187).
It means that every person regardless of his or her form has the potential to contribute to the society and each is a unique individual with a lot to give to the world (L’Arche 1). Thus, parents with disabled children ought to integrate them into normal society.
This will enable them to learn from other people on how best to take care of their children. More importantly, give the children a chance to develop normally. For instance, Brett, a family friend suffers from cerebral palsy and at nine years old, she attends a regular Catholic Elementary school.
She does normal things such as horseback riding, swimming, going to movies and playing video games. She has a funny sense of humor and lives with her family. The normal environment has a very positive effect on her because she ventures out and does what every other normal child does.
Conclusion
Allowing disabled children to live in normal society is crucial. It gives them an opportunity to develop socially as they interact with their peers thus preparing them for their future lives.
The disabled children get an equal education with their non-disabled counterparts hence closing the gap between the educational attainment of non-disabled and disabled children.
The children engage in normal learning activities and feel a sense of pride when they accomplish their objectives in the learning process.
Also, the ‘normal’ children get a chance to interact with the disabled children and learn how to live with them and be helpful when a need arises instead of laughing, mocking or fearing them.
This is important in reducing the stigma associated with being disabled. On the other hand, disabled children learn from ‘normal’ children.
Works Cited
Brown, Ian. The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son. Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2010.
Kaplan, Deborah. Definition of disability. n.d. Web.
L’Arche. n.d. Web.
Special Education. 2007. Web.