The Cruel Toll of Disability Hate - Essay Example

Critical Evaluation The Cruel Toll of Disability Hate Summary of the form and Content of the article The Cruel Toll of Disability Hate is a newspaper article providing the reader with qualitative evidence on the prevalence of the abuse and humiliation that exists in the wider British society. The author, Tom Shakespeare, gives an account of his face-to-face account of harassment and humiliation from girls he finds on the train he boards on his way home (The Guardian, 2010). It is critical to note that although he is abused in front of many passengers in the train, no one bothers to utter a word or even stop the girls from hurling insults at the author. This behaviour of other passengers onboard only shows how less serious the society views this vice despite its detrimental effect on the abused. The author, who although admits that harassment is prevalent among disabled children in schools, is of the opinion that harassment amounted to bullying and not crime. His position on the matter, however, is met with different opinions from media students investigating the prevalence of hate crime in Britain (The Guardian, 2010). Through the students, the author understands the gravity of the matter but even then, he sets to justify the claims of the advocates and supporters of people with intellectual disability. His findings show that indeed, hate crime is rife in Britain. This fact is compounded further by the deaths of David Askew and Raymond Atherton among others on grounds of continuous harassment and harassment (The Guardian, 2010). Reflection of the Issues of Social Justice This newspaper article pinpoints fundamental issues of social justice in Britain in a very vivid manner. The author cites various instances that ultimately raise questions as to whether there is social justice in the country and if there is, then just how serious is the issue taken. In the train, for instance, while very young girls harass the author, no one seems to care. It seems that there is a tendency for people to mind their own business, and no one is concerned about the other. In addition, the very fact that no one seems alarmed. This tells that it is an issue that has existed for long making it appear as normal. The author also tells about his inquiries where he is told about the horrific experiences the intellectually disabled people face. In particular, the advocates and supporters of these people inform him of the scorning that these people are subjected to including being sellotaped on trees and being beaten up (The Guardian, 2010). What is more shocking is that even with such levels of humiliation, the intellectually disabled tend not to be believed when they report the incidents. The very fact that the people subject to humiliation are not listened to by the authorities based on their intellectual status is an act of discrimination and social injustice in the society. It is quite ironical that the people (police) vested with the authority and powers to protect civilians harass and discriminate rather than upholding the law (The Guardian, 2010). The advocates and supporters of these people argue that despite having valid claims of harassment and discrimination, the police often tend to disbelieve the intellectually disabled people and hence take little or action on their reports. It is also clear that there is so much social injustice as the deaths of David Askew and Raymond Athernon among others seems not to have been acted upon (The Guardian, 2010). Strengths and Limitations of the Evidence Presented Strengths The timing of publication is important in providing this evidence. The article was published in the year 2010, and anyone following the events in the UK would agree that there many social issues going around (The Guardian, 2010). In fact, the many social issues culminated in the famous 2011 UK riots where five people died, and over 2000 people arrested in connection with the riots (The Guardian, 2010). It is no doubt the evidence presented by the author aligns well with the events. In the article, the author goes on to get more evidence from the advocates and supporters of the humiliated groups and the media students making a film on the same (The Guardian, 2010). Since the supporters and advocates of the intellectually disabled people have a wider experience on the matter, then it is only fair to credit them by justifying that the evidence is true. Limitations While the evidence may be perceived as true, questions arise about the author’s reliance of advocates and supporters of the intellectually disabled people in presenting the piece. It is only common knowledge that one cannot rule out the possibility of bias reporting from these people. They could have exaggerated the issue in the quest to present the issue as serious while that could not have been the case. The author documents the deaths of people that happened a few years ago (The Guardian, 2010). As time goes, things change; it is, therefore, possible that things could have changed between when they died and the present time. Social Variations in Disability Prevalence, England, and Wales 2011 Summary of the form and Content of the piece of Evidence This is a summary of an infographic detailing social variations in disability prevalence. Adapted from the Office for National Statistics, the infographic is a quantitative piece of evidence as it is based on numbers. According to the figures presented, it is clear that the rates of disability differ significantly based on the socio-economic class in both England and Wales (Office for National Statistics, 2013). From the pie chart, it can be deduced that the rates of prevalence of disability was significantly higher in the North and Wales across all socio-economic classes. It is also worth noting that men and women falling in lower occupations (classes 4 through to 7) had the highest levels of disability in both English and Wales regions. This is in contrast to the higher occupations (classes 1-3) that had significantly low rates of disability (Office for National Statistics, 2013). According to the Office for National Statistics (2013), it can also be deduced that there is a high rate of regional inequality among the disabled. Thus, men have a higher rate in most of the regions, except for Wales where women have significantly high percentage numbers. In particular, places such as Islington are depicted as having the largest inequality in the prevalence of disability among the different classes of occupation for men and women (Office for National Statistics, 2013). A closer look at the data also indicates that local authorities that command the largest inequality in the disability prevalence fall in places with very large populations, for instance, Inner London and industrial Centers of South Wales. Reflection of the Issues of Social Justice It is clear from the infographic that there is a significant disparity in the distribution of men and women in each social-economic class. A quick observation of the trends of disparity shows that there is a greater range particularly in those regions commanding highest rates of disparity. However, the greatest disparity is seen in the “routine” class than in any other socio-economic class. It is also clear that that the rates of disability continue increasing as one move from the higher, managerial and professional (class 1) to the routine (class 7). The tendency could be because of the increasing disadvantage that is linked with the socio-economic position of occupations (Office for National Statistics, 2013). This can be inferred to imply that the socio-economic factors have a huge impact on health problems. The high class have lower disability rates while the lower class have high disability rates. It is also of importance to look at the disability prevalence in local authorities. One common feature that characterizes disability prevalence is that local authorities with the lowest inequality have low population centres (Office for National Statistics, 2013). Focusing on the local authorities having the highest inequalities, one can easily draw a conclusion on the cause of the same. For instance, the infographic shows that highest inequality in the disability prevalence occurs in local authorities with large population centres. In these centres, the high populations consist of people working in heavy industries such as the Welsh coal mining (Office for National Statistics, 2013). Since these people are often exposed to health hazards, it is no doubt that there is a high rate of disability inequality in these areas. Strengths and Limitations of the Evidence Presented Strengths The quantitative evidence presented in this infographic is quite strong following the methodology and the presentation style adopted. The fact that it comes from a recognized and a highly respectable institution i.e. Office for National Statistics, gives it much credibility. The Office for National Statistics, for instance, adopts activity restrictions in measuring disability. This essentially good measure provides a good indicator for assessing health and social care need and fitness for work types of occupations and access. The office also uses socio-economic position to classifying people. Accordingly, people are classified according to their salary range, educational background, and social standings just to mention a few. It is through this classification that the seven classes are established. This is representative and an accurate classification of people (Office for National Statistics, 2013). Limitations This piece of evidence, while seemingly strong has some limitations. The fact that it only focuses on England and Wales means it cannot be relied upon to give a holistic view of social inequality in the entire U. K. (Office for National Statistics, 2013). Secondly, the infographic decides to use only seven classes in the analysis. While this may be representative, it is possible that some people could have been excluded from the sampling process. In addition, the questions used in Census were derived from a few people who sat and framed them (Office for National Statistics, 2013). It is possible that the questions will not have been conclusive enough. References Office for National Statistics. 2013. Social variations in disability prevalence, England and Wales, 2011 [Online]. Available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/differences-in-disability-prevalence-by-socio-economic-occupational-groupings-in-england--wales--english-regions-and-local-authorities--2011/info-disability-prevalence.html (Accessed 11 March, 2015). The Guardian. 2010. The cruel toll of disability hates crime, [Online]. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/mar/12/disability-hate-crime-david-askew (Accessed 11 March 2015). Read More