Do You Treat the Disabled Differently?
@mythociate (21437)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
September 20, 2013 11:36pm CST
An article (at the redirect) says that society in general treats the disabled as 'other'---I know we disabled ARE different, but being treated that way often leaves us feeling treated as 'not quite good enough to be human' ... like we're "infants that will never grow-up."
I think that's because people have at the base of all their behavior a 'what's in it for me'-indicator---if the indicator reads "something good," all love-systems are GO; if not, people's minds are elsewhere (hunting for the next 'something good') while we do the absolute-least (just "being polite") for the 'nothing in this person for me'-person in front of us.
What do you think?
Ad Blocker Detected! It appears that you have an advert blocking browser extension enabled. Our Publishers use this revenue in order to monetize their websites and provide you with their content. To permanently remove this message please consider to white
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Hopefull90 (921)
• United States
12 Oct 13
I am treated much better when I ride the electric cart instead of walking. Having worked with the disabled I think I might have more patience than most people when it comes to the disabled.
3 people like this
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
16 Oct 13
@Bluedoll Me? or @Hopefull90 ?
I'm ... well, I too would say I'd treat them fairly; but I probably wouldn't 'invite a mentally-disabled to be my trusted-partner in a story-writing/business venture' 
@Hopefull90 (921)
• United States
16 Oct 13
@Bluedoll I deal with two who have this problem. I take my stress medicine faithfully.
2 people like this
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
23 Sep 13
I treat disabled people with respect, understanding and kindness. My six year old son is physically disabled. He is in a wheelchair because he is unable to walk. He goes to a mainstream school and has a special needs assistant. It is awful a carer gets spoken to yet the person in the wheelchair doesn't very often. The disabled person is sometimes treated like "other" than a human. I would like to see all disabled people be treated well. I like to see public buildings with a wheelchair access ramps and elevators.
3 people like this
@wongchoiyee (7413)
• Malaysia
19 Oct 13
Never give up on disabled one. I love these people.
2 people like this
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
24 Sep 13
Well, six-year-olds are sort of 'other' anyway 
at least regarding 'the way teachers talk about them to parents sometimes' (sorta the way doctors are trained to talk about patients, referring to them as 'brain-injuries,' 'strokes,' 'broken legs,' or whatever they're being treated for).
But I ... I don't know. It seems that the disabled is treated more like a 'problem the carer(s) must solve' than like 'a fellow problem-solver.' (Maybe I'm so-deeply "distoibed" that I see the world as 'a big equation/problem to be solved.')
And when I was thinking of what they were treated like, I was going to say 'king or queen who must be acceptably taken care of,' but then I saw how that's kind of "what we disabled are (except without the power a king has over the treasury)," and maybe what ALL people are---beings who receive their "position" by virtue of no other fact than 'we are there.'
And maybe that's why the disabled are treated differently: because they don't/can't give value to the abled's world, so the abled see the disabled as worthless. (AND WE ARE WORTHLESS, BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK WORTH OF US!)
at least regarding 'the way teachers talk about them to parents sometimes' (sorta the way doctors are trained to talk about patients, referring to them as 'brain-injuries,' 'strokes,' 'broken legs,' or whatever they're being treated for).
But I ... I don't know. It seems that the disabled is treated more like a 'problem the carer(s) must solve' than like 'a fellow problem-solver.' (Maybe I'm so-deeply "distoibed" that I see the world as 'a big equation/problem to be solved.')
And when I was thinking of what they were treated like, I was going to say 'king or queen who must be acceptably taken care of,' but then I saw how that's kind of "what we disabled are (except without the power a king has over the treasury)," and maybe what ALL people are---beings who receive their "position" by virtue of no other fact than 'we are there.'
And maybe that's why the disabled are treated differently: because they don't/can't give value to the abled's world, so the abled see the disabled as worthless. (AND WE ARE WORTHLESS, BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK WORTH OF US!)
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
16 Oct 13
@mythociate
Thank you so much for creating this topic.
I don't think this is the major reason though there may well be people that think the way you described. I think the ,main reason is about understanding. People who are not disabled do not understand what it is like to be disabled so they jump to dumb conclusions.
It is like shouting at a deaf person because they can not hear but can read lips or then treating them like they are mentally less than they are because they can not hear. Some times people can not put themselves in the place of the person with a disability. Education can solve this.
2 people like this
@dawnald (85130)
• Shingle Springs, California
16 Oct 13
I'm generally pretty matter of fact about things. I will hold a door for a physically disabled person, but then I'll hold it for an able bodied person too. I don't talk to a physically disabled person as if they are mentally disabled. I talk to them normally.
2 people like this
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
16 Oct 13
Hmm, sounds like a good answer ... for holding the mentally-disabled away from you like a stinky diaper. (You don't care if it's sloppy stink or solid-stink, you're holding it at arm's length & quickly depositing it in the 'hazardous waste'-can!)
And that works for most of them (as you then do not have to deal with them), but I (though I hate to think of 'me' as "mentally disabled," wanting to understand it more as 'socially disabled'---almost like non-white races once were) WANT TO BE PART OF 'THE LIFE'. (The reason why people get employed (besides money): to make themselves 'Pathways' for people to go about living).
1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
21 Sep 13
This I found to be a good read! It is true sometimes the disabled are treated like the "other". We should perhaps treat the disabled differently like for example with consideration as in wheel chair access but people regardless are still just people like everyone else. Hitler would have treated the disabled differently, he would has exterminated the "other".
We can do much better than this! We can treat everyone with equality and extend our hand in friendship. We might be surprised because quite often the people that need the most help is ourselves. There are so many "disabled" people that are very "able" and have accomplished much in life.
2 people like this
@Hopefull90 (921)
• United States
15 Oct 13
I have seen a few disable do amazing things while some who have hardly anything wrong with them go to the government to help them out.
1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
16 Oct 13
@Hopefull90 If you are presently talking about the USA government maybe they should go help them out.
I like reading about success stories. Some people have interesting backgrounds with challenges that you would think would make what they did not possible.
I like reading about success stories. Some people have interesting backgrounds with challenges that you would think would make what they did not possible.@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
16 Oct 13
@Bluedoll @Hopefull90 In every one of those stories, it involved someone 'putting their faith' into the "injury-conqueror's" endeavor (that's not just 'telling them they can do it,' that's actually investing (money, time, material, work) in their success).
