what effect does prejudice have on people with special needs ? Give example
Answers
Disability Prejudice
Prejudice in the Modern World Reference Library
COPYRIGHT 2007 Thomson Gale
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Disability Prejudice
All people deal with prejudice (a negative attitude towards others based on a prejudgment about those individuals based on little prior knowledge or experience). While some people are victims of prejudice, all are susceptible to developing prejudices against others. Most people hold negative attitudes either consciously or subconsciously toward persons with disabilities. These negative attitudes lead to prejudice and discrimination.
People with disabilities live in every country in the world. In 2005, the United Nations (an international organization created to resolve conflicts in the world and provide humanitarian aid where needed) estimated there were 500 million disabled persons worldwide. In the United States, one in seven Americans is disabled.
People with disabilities are a diverse group—the visually, hearing, and speech disabled; persons with mental retardation; persons who have lost a limb; persons with restricted mobility such as those with spinal cord injuries; persons with learning disabilities; persons with various illnesses such as muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, or seizures. Muscular dystrophy is a disease that causes gradual wasting away of muscle tissue, eventually leaving a person wheelchair- or bed-bound. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease, whose most visible symptom is difficulty in breathing due to accumulation of mucous in the body's airways.
In the United States, as throughout the world, there has been a long history of prejudice against persons with disabilities. In his book No Pity, author Joseph P. Shapiro quotes Patrisha Wright of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund as saying, "All disabled people share one common experience—discrimination." Prejudice and discrimination against persons with disabilities result in a lack of accessibility to economic and educational opportunities, inadequate medical care, and exclusion from social interaction. This lack of accessibility leads to poverty, social isolation, and political powerlessness.