People with Disabilities - Book Report/Review Example

Article summary and analysis People with disabilities are generally powerless, poor, stereotyped, and socially degraded. In order to gain equality in the society, it is imperative that disabled people like being what they are and others like them rather than thinking of themselves as physically incomplete (p. 22). Oppression originates in the disabled people themselves as they consider themselves inferior to the able-bodied people. The socioeconomic condition of the disabled people is characterized by being outcast (p. 23). The universally pejorative attitudes embedded in cultures suggest that to be disabled is to be abnormal.

Such cultures form as a result of the legitimization of the duality of values in everyday life. Psychological internalization is a driver of disability oppression and causes the disabled people to become socially excluded. Understanding the way oppression is organized and reproduced is fundamental to its conceptualization. Students with disabilities experience a lot of abuse in the schools. Television has played a major role in inculcating this concept in the people that disable people live a miserable life and to be normal, an individual needs to be as much close to being able-bodied as possible.

The author has adopted a unique approach by defining oppression in terms of a phenomenon of power wherein relations among people develop in terms of inferiority and superiority, subordination and domination (p. 30). The author has highlighted the important role played by schools in inculcating this concept in the students with disabilities that they are different from the rest of the class, so that they are excluded from the mainstream; “Students with disabilities, as soon as their disability is recognized by school officials, are placed on a separate track” (p. 32). I agree with the author that for the most part, the problem is initiated at places which are least suitable to play the role of problem initiators.

Schools are meant to impart education so that differences among people on any basis can be removed and the society can be made harmonious. Dealing with students with disabilities differently in the setting of a classroom has many negative implications on the psychology of the student as well as his/her ability to connect with others in the normal manner. Given the fact that students with disabilities are exposed to abuse and bullying in the schools, it is ethical and moral obligation of the school administration to enforce strict rules to protect the rights of the disabled students.

Removing the oppression toward the disabled people from the society imparts the need for the regulatory authorities to supervise the programmes that are telecast and broadcast so as to ensure that disability is not portrayed as a curse in the society. Instead, programmes in which disabled people are called and where they get a platform to share with the audiences their good life experiences might prove very effective in removing the social stigma associated with being disabled. There needs to be a robust effort both from the government as well as the disabled people themselves so that oppression toward the disabled people can be removed.