Disability Diversity: Embracing Differences in Our Communities

In diversity essay will be discussed curent topic and what is the phenomenon of disability discrimination. Diversity is the understanding of each individual as equal to each other and is the act of recognising the differences and respecting them. Discrimination is the unjust treatment to individuals. Disability discrimination is the act of unjust treatment towards individuals with a disability. The individual is often treated less favourably than an individual without a disability in the same or similar circumstances. My tangible representation of diversity demonstrates an example of disability diversity by showing the image of a flock of birds crowding around and trying to help a disabled crane with a broken wing. It also shows how the bird is not being discriminated for its disability.

The society’s values and attitudes towards disability is disrespectful towards individuals with a disability. They look at people with a disability as if they aren’t humans and we speak and interact with them rudely. People with disabilities are normal humans just like us and should not be discriminated for something they cannot control. Disability diversity is the opposite of disability discrimination. It is about how we as a society should all accept and respect everyone, disabled or not. We are all equal human beings and individuals with disabilities are not able to control how they were born or what happened to cause the disability. One article states how a disabled woman in the UK had difficulty riding public transport. She had asked for wheelchair assistance when she had reached the station however, not one staff member showed up to help her. At one station, she almost got stuck on the train if she hadn’t stuck her foot out to stop the door from closing. Another person from the same article stated that a lady with a pram had moved away, making space for the individual’s wheelchair stating she was getting off very soon anyways. She later found herself facing a set of accusing faces, looking as if they were saying a young person on a wheelchair just forced a mother and her child off the bus.

Some impacts and consequences on individuals with disabilities and others within the wider community that can be caused due to the way society treats them is a change in their physical or mental health. The way society treats people with disabilities can cause mental health disorders such as depression. On buses, the public is often rudely staring at individuals with disabilities judging them for having a disability. The Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health held a program that recorded the effect on their physical and mental health over the period of 12 months and what had caused it. Individuals that had taken part in this program reported that the main impact of being targeted or harassed was a change to their physical health like a rise in blood pressures. The lack of accessibility can be very painful for individuals who suffer from this aspect of discrimination. For many buildings, the accessibility of a wheelchair is not available and this causes disabled people to miss out on the everyday lives of a normal person. They may not be able to come to an event due to the challenges they face to get to the venue and can cause disabled individuals the feeling that they aren’t human as they aren’t experiencing the daily lives of ‘humans’. In one shop, the staff was asked why they didn’t have a lift and answered with it would be inconvenient for our other customers. This was a painful comment with the hidden meaning of ‘we care more about our able bodied customers than you’ which is a painful statement and would have hurt the victim mentally.

In some places, such as Victoria, there is a law that bans disability discrimination. Disability diversity is also taught in schools to educate the future generations on how some individuals may be treated. To conclude this essay about diversity, I propose that individuals in the community should start to look at the situation from the other person’s perspective and remember that they didn’t want to become disabled, it happened uncontrollably. We should learn how to treat others the way we want to be treated to promote empathy and understanding within the society towards inclusiveness and diversity.