Introduction
Policy advocates the world over have stepped up efforts towards the realization of the rights of people living with disabilities. Specifically, stakeholders are constantly pushing for the recognition of the fact that persons with disabilities could perform optimally only if others provided a fair ground for them to express their feelings and act as they please. This paper presents the perspectives of two advocates for the rights of persons living with a disability demonstrated in their blogs. Research reveals that while the activists deal with different types of disabilities, they seem to communicate that disabled people are not different from others and that their communities need to treat them with respect.
Carly Findlay
The Perspectives of Disability from the Blogposts
The author holds in most of her blog posts that people living with disabilities are often misunderstood. She consistently indicates that many people have been scared by her skin appearance—she has ichthyosis, which is a genetic disorder characterized by very scaly and red skin—when she does not intend to be scary. She further indicates throughout her blogging that living with a disability of any kind puts one at the mercy of others because they have to make a greater effort if they want to impress people, and oftentimes, it is not appreciated (Findlay, 2016). Consequently, the author suggests that like non-disabled people, persons with disabilities should be appreciated as part of the communities in which they live without having to perform, appear, or act better than the rest.
The Viewpoint of Disability and Individual Impression
Throughout her blog, the author communicates the fact that non-disabled people are biased in their perception that people living with disabilities are scary because they lack social personalities. As part of the large communities in which they live, the posts suggest the need for people to embrace persons with disabilities because they did not choose to be born or to live as they do presently. If this was the only view of disability, I would get the impression that living with a disability requires a great deal of self-love and self-esteem to withstand the frequent challenges of discrimination.
Words I Wheel By
The Perspectives of Disability from the Blogposts
The author of this blog moves around in a wheelchair because she has a disorder that affects her joints and muscles. She feels that despite being disabled, she can manage most of her duties and responsibilities without necessarily having to bother others even though many people underrate her capabilities. For this reason, the author constantly comments in her posts that she does not need the approval of others to realize that she has the inner strength to deal with challenging situations and that she only needs a platform to express herself. The author remarks that people should develop a perspective that disabled people also have rights, which the non-disabled should respect because she feels that she is often forced to compromise her dignity for coexistence with others (Ladau, 2016).
The Viewpoint of Disability and Individual Impression
These blogposts communicate that non-disabled person always infringes on the rights of disabled people both consciously through unaccommodating interior space design and unconsciously through discrimination. Consequently, if the blog was the only information that I encountered on disability, I would get the impression of the need to extend compassion to persons with disabilities as one of the ways of promoting their dignity.
In conclusion, the two blogs point out the fact that people with disabilities are often maltreated against their desire to be respected and cared for by those with whom they interact. However, the authors of the blogs suggest that persons with disabilities are intrinsically motivated to deal with such harassment and infringement of their rights.
References
- Findlay, C. (2016). My face scared my cleaner away today. Carly Findlay. Web.
- Ladau, E. (2016). There is no room for you here: on encountering discrimination. Words I Wheel By.