People with disabilities, a significant minority group, are often unable to use standard services or products available to nondisabled people. This frequently leads to inequality and inaccessibility in employment, education, and issues in day-to-day life. There are even more segregational due to negative stigma surrounding disability, financial status, cultural and religious perceptions, and lack of federally provided services and welfare resources (Masango, 2018).
However, many motions and programs are either implemented, put into practice, or developed to solve issues that affect people with disabilities in their daily lives and on a large scale. Lifestyle issues include access to transportation, special clothing if needed, building entrances, health care, and education or employment. Issues that affect more deeply rooted problems like ignorance, social stigma, and inequality in political, occupational, and cultural rights are being addressed with long-term policies and educational campaigns.
Accessibility is an issue that has been very prevalent in most people with disabilities and still requires development. The majority of current technology or publicly available resources are designed in a universal way that usually focuses on nondisabled individuals or groups. To improve accessibility, companies and designers can focus on creating resources that are accessible to any individual, disabled or not, or provide support features that allow disabled people to implement assisting devices. A prominent example is the screen reader, which transforms images and written text into speech or braille to help visually impaired or blind people.
Such devices allow people with disabilities the option to intake information, which is an often overlooked necessity. A variety of laws, initiatives, and regulations are currently implemented to ensure simpler and less costly access to information resources and the functionality of a device. Voice-operated wheelchairs were a vital improvement in technology for disabled people as they allowed quadriplegic individuals, whose disability can be incredibly profound and limit mobility substantially, the ability to move independently.
Transportation is another feature that can be non-accommodative in the life of a disabled person. Locations and modes of transportation can be classified as accessible or inaccessible depending on their efficiency in time-efficient travel for as many people as possible. Currently, many vehicles are still unequipped for passengers with disabilities. Taxis and some public buses are still the only modes for certain disabled passengers. Still, they do not always come with ramps, devices, and stabilizations for the visually impaired, and other necessary features.
Additionally, the incompleteness or inadequate services and maintenance of roads, stations, and vehicles considerably worsen or disrupt travel for disabled passengers. This can include poorly maintained or clean pavements, making them inaccessible to cane and wheelchair users. In rural areas, a lack of roads can make independent living impossible. Audio-projecting devices are also a necessity for blind or visually impaired passengers. Other commuters may also be less inclined to respect the personal space of disabled passengers, bus and taxi drivers may be untrained or unwilling to assist entry and exit of the vehicle when needed. For passengers who cannot travel by bus, taxis may be the only option but are also significantly costlier.
Access and comfortable presence within buildings are significant to people with disabilities. Regular housing units are usually built without consideration for the potential of tenants with disabilities. Modifications are typically made after purchase, though many initiatives have promoted blueprints that adapt wider door frames and ramps to initial building plans. In the case of multi-floor buildings, private or residential elevators are an excellent alternative to commercial elevators, which can also be incredibly expensive.
Accessibility to medical healthcare is the most vital aspect of a disabled individual’s lifestyle. Current issues touch upon scarcity of resources and working staff and the certain attitude employees may have towards patients with disabilities. As with other patients, people with disabilities have the same rights to respect their dignity and privacy. However, there are many cases where these values are not upheld when treating patients with disabilities, often in the person having mental or intellectual disabilities. There is a lack of awareness and educational material concerning HIV/AIDS or other transmittable diseases that is accessible for disabled people. There are frequent instances of medical policies and services offered by departments not being in alignment with actual treatment provided in the clinic or hospital.
Preventative care, rehabilitation services, and early diagnosis methods are not as standard within medical faculties as they should be according to the number of disabled individuals within the medical center’s district. Additionally, clinics often do not employ permanent specialists such as audiologists, psychologists, optometrists, and other therapists that may be needed in an emergency. Clinics rarely have interpreters or may not consider the height of the reception area for wheelchair access. The majority of these issues stem from management and resource delegation as well as fundamental infrastructure planning. Better cooperation between healthcare committees and local government can improve the current state of hospitals for disabled and nondisabled patients.
Within social environments, people with disabilities often face incorrect assumptions, myths, and prejudice, or unequal treatment. Though the perception of disabled people has significantly improved over the past decades, much discrimination remains in used language or associated with illness. Terminology that is used in relation to wheelchair users often implicates chronic disease or a permanent sickly state.
For instance, referring to people as ‘wheelchair bound’ or ‘confined to a wheelchair’ suggests a lack of independence, vulnerability, or inferiority, though they are untrue. Sometimes assumptions work in reverse, such as the myth that all deaf people can read lips or that blind people gain a sixth sense. Segregation is also promoted by such wrongful guesses. Many assume that disabled people are only comfortable in environments with other people with disabilities or those nondisabled people are always obligated to care for them.
It is essential to find the origins of these myths and format cohesive statements as to why they are false. The unconscious connection between sickness and wheelchairs likely originated from a common method by which patients were transported around the hospital. However, a wheelchair is used for various reasons and is often simply an assistive device the same way a car or bicycle is, with the purpose to move from one location to another.
Lip reading is a different skill for every individual with deafness and frequently proves not entirely reliable. Blind people can develop better perception through their remaining four senses but do not possess a ‘sixth’ sense. Curiosity is often dissuaded in young children though relating correct information at such a young age is incredibly beneficial and can prevent wrongful assumptions in the lives of these children.
References
Masango, S. (2018). Some of the challenges faced by disabled persons. Rise N Shine Disability Magazine. Web.