What are you wanting to learn?
Defining Disability
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a person with a disability is defined as
a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. This includes people who have a record of such an impairment, even if they do not currently have a disability. It also includes individuals who do not have a disability but are regarded as having a disability
(ADA National Network, 2021). Some disabilities are visible to others, such as Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, paralysis, amputation, etc., while others may be invisible, such as depression, ADHD, speech and language disorders, some brain injuries, etc.
Social Issues Faced by People with Disabilities.
Though the ADA has made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of disability, many disabled individuals face discrimination often in everyday life. Many business and able-bodied individuals hold prejudiced attitudes and exhibit discriminatory behaviors toward disabled individuals. Ableism is an example of these discriminations. According to Eisenmenger (2019), ableism is
the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior.
Read More Here!
Social Issues and Mental Health
The social issues described in the section above may have severe mental health consequences for people with disabilities. According to the CDC,
Adults with disabilities report experiencing frequent mental distress almost 5 times as often as adults without disabilities.
(CDC, 2020). The mental health issues faced by people with disabilities usually are not in response to the disability itself, but rather they are often in response to the treatment they receive by others. Social isolation created by lack of accessibility, discrimination, and ableism can put people with disabilities at risk of mental illness. In addition to issues faced in general society, people with disabilities also battle feelings of loneliness, and some even experience abuse from health care providers and caregivers (NAMI, 2021).
Read More Here!
Accessability
The previous articles have shown all the ways that one's mental health can be negativly impacted by how they are treated by society. Unfortuantly that isn't where the problems with the mental health of people with disabilities end due to social issues. In order to improve one's mental health, one of the things they need to is reach out to professionals who know how to best treat these issues. However, due to a number of social issues getting the medical help the need to keep their mental health in check is nuch harder than it is for normally abled individuals.
Read More Here!
