How People with Disabilities Are Viewed and Treated

How People with Disabilities Are Viewed and Treated We live in a society where people are judged for who they are and if they seem to have any type of flaws those flaws tend to make up who the person is. People with disabilities shouldn’t be judged by their disabilities. Our society has come a long way in accepting people with disabilities but we still have more to accomplish seeing as the harsh judgment still exists. We need to be able to live in a society where people do not judge, can accept others for who they are and help others who may need some assistance or guidance do to a disability, especially children. They are our society’s future. Just because they are disabled doesn’t mean they are not a part of the whole or that they cannot possibly make a positive difference in the world. As the author of the article, “A Child with Down Syndrome Keeps His Place at the Table” points out that we have made a lot of progress for children with Down syndrome in the United States. Most of that progress he points out is their rights to go to school. They have progressed from just being recognized as needing to be “somewhere special”, a place of horrific mistreatment. Such a place was exposed in a hidden camera documentary filmed by Geraldo Rivera in 1972 for severe neglect and mistreatment of the residence that all had some sort of disability. This place was Willow Brook State School and was located on Staten Island. His exposer of this school was a small part in a large change where advocates for the disabled, committed parents, as well as others fought for the rights that are presently in place today. Even with the many advances in society there still remains open bigotry though not as much. Though most are discrete and not as straight forward the hostile judgment is still there. The word “retard” is used in school yards between students and in movies but is not seen so much today as bigotry but as just being a bit “edgy”. Why as a society do we feel the need to

Cited: The New York Times Opinion Pages “A Child with Down Syndrome Keeps His Place At the Table”, written by George Estreich Published January 25, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/opinion/a-child-with-down-syndrome-keeps-his-place-at-the-table.html?ref=contributors&_r=0