The Normal Functioning of the Bodys Internal Organs - Case Study Example

Introduction In the modern world, we are exposed to factors and activities that may alter the normal functioning of the body’s internal organs and/or external ones partially or permanently. This may result to partial or permanent disability which is generally looked at as possession of abnormal traits and/or features from other members of the society. Scientifically it can be viewed as an impaired breakdown or deviation from the expected norms by an individual in relation to other members of the society. Depending on the normal characteristics of the people in the society, disability may take different forms and features of society’s social economic and cultural structures will tend to bring variations in definitions of disabilities. Disability can be due to factors of environmental exposure, accidents, inherited, congenital or through a prolonged ailment. Physically an individual is impaired or unable to perform a physical activity due poor or uncoordinated physical organs like limps bones, joints and the gross movement ability to include stability and balance of conducting these activities. Vision disability can be viewed as inability of someone to see the nature and the surrounding which can be caused by disease or trauma. Hearing disability commonly known as deafness is the inability to perceive or detect sound frequencies compared to other members of the society in that for your communication louder voice has to be used or sign language, if someone suffers partial or permanent audio disability respectively (Rosenthal, 2007 p33). There are other forms of disabilities referred to as olfactory or gustatory impairments which although commonly associated with old age, they can also be witnessed in several age brackets including the youths which are characterised by poor smell, sensory and taste abilities. Sports can be viewed as an organised participation of an individual or a team of persons in a physical or mental activity competitively. This is to mean, for any activity to be classified as a sport, competition is inevitable for the participating teams or persons competing towards the given achievements of the sport but in line with the defined sport’s guidelines. Basically sports are meant to provide entertainment to the audience, maintain physical skills and /or improve both physical and mental standards of the participating parties (Rhoda, 2012). Sports are also viewed as a leisure activity in that the participants involve themselves in these physical activities for refreshment or for passion leaving out the competitive clause. The physical athleticism or dexterity in sporting activities helps achieve the intended goal of mind relaxation, physical body growth and advancement of skills both in competition and in other sectors. Physical sports include athletics, soccer, tennis basketball volleyball, body building modelling and many more. They are classified as physical due to dexterity involved to achieve the intended goal which is a win in competitive sport or relaxation and mind satisfaction in the case of leisure. Mental or mind sports may not include the physical dexterity but the mental competition of the competing parties qualifies it to be a sport. The international Olympic committee recognises sports such as chess and bridge as mind sports. Due to different rules and regulations associated with different kind of sports, there exist different governing bodies which concentrate on the growth and development of particular sports of their specialization. This is justified by the fact that different sports require different nurturing skills in line with human growth and development process. They allow participants from different races, colour, economic and social and geographical backgrounds to actively compete as a team or guided by the competition. With this, sports have been viewed to eliminate all forms and kind of discrimination in this differently talented world. Sporting activities have included and/or incorporated the interests of the disadvantaged people in the society. Disability in sports can be viewed as a section of the sporting activities designed to fit and incorporate people with disabilities into the sporting arena. This is justified by the fact that disability is not necessarily an inability and that despite the malfunctioning of either the physique or the mental health one can still be and excel in competition. They are referred to as adaptive sports or Para sports, adaptive in that they are like the ones for the able-bodied competitors but they are designed to meet the needs of the disabled persons. Paralympics is a section of the Olympics which is designed to offer people with physical disabilities a chance to personally compete and also represent their countries. The formation of the Special Olympics in 1968 to cater for children and adults with mental and intellectual disabilities bring around four million athletes in a hundred and seventy countries and more than fifty thousand events a year. We shall look at the different sporting activities, how they have included the interests of the disabled persons and the overall achievement of the sport in alleviating the stereotype. In Olympics the inclusion of Paralympics has seen more than four million athletes from different geographical locations meet in various stadia globally. The sports have been structured from long distance events, short distance events and events that require special equipment like wheelchairs for the participants with total motor disabilities and mechanically modified limps to cater for the amputated persons. This has taken place in different commonwealth games, Olympic winter games and other competitive sports organizations. Depending with the type of disability, these organising bodies do come up with the rules and regulations for fair play and they also set aside the motivating factors such as the coaches, ample and reliable training and competing courts and the overall token of appreciation determined to resemble the intended course of change to the competitor. For instance, they provide coaching facilities in regard to the level of disability, and if the competition is for the intellectually disabled, then the token of appreciation could be to volunteer to volunteer at the similar events in future. This will boost self-esteem of the competitor and improves his/her social interactions status in any setting in the future. Most of education institutions have a curriculum system that incorporates physical activities of the learners. They include different sports like athletics, soccer, high jump, pole vault and other intellectual or mind sports like chess, bridge and question sessions. In addition, there is physical education course that’s intended to oversee the growth and development of learner physically and intellectually (Simon, 2008p 12-13). These institutions hire a qualified professional on matters of physical education who guides the learners in achieving these sporting events. Considering that these institutions have learners from different social, economic, cultural, and geographical backgrounds, sporting activities combine these variations into a single entity of learning and competition. Due to different talents of the learners, some are good in soccer, some are good tennis, some are better in athletics etc., helps the learners, even the ones with disabilities realize their talents and this reduces the personal retention trait associated with disabled persons (Martin, 2008). This also alleviates stereotyping and stigmatization from the able-bodied learners in that they appreciate the disabled’s talents a far as competition is concerned. Realization of competency and professionalism in these sports by the disabled persons help boost their self-esteem, gives encouragement and confidence to venture in to other social or economic activities in the society. Cognitive disability varies in individuals and it can take forms of perceptions, memorising of certain concepts or intellectual phrases and verses, language use, problem solving and attention. There are the required standards by the society in to one’s capability of doing the above mentioned attributes and a deviation or signs of less cumulative features of these can be termed as disability. Persons with these kinds of disabilities have been unable to socially interact with different sections of the society especially the ones with language use disabilities like stammering. To curb these problems, mental are mind sports have played a crucial part in showing individuals prowess and excellence in certain games (Elizabeth, 2008). For instance persons with language use problem may excel in a chess game competing with an orally abled person. Organising competitions whereby for example the learners are out there to test the affirmative action that someone should take in case a certain dilemma hits his/her family or society, helps determine the problem solving ability. An individual might have a physical disability but excel in a cognitive sport. Alternatively, most of education institutions organise sporting challenges all in the intellectual setting. For instance, Celtel African Challenge was a mental sport involving public universities in Africa with mode of sport being intellectual on the question answer platform. Classification of sports as entry, main stream and/or professional has enhanced smooth incorporation of disabled persons and their talents in the society. For instance early detection of disabilities helps the trainers, coaches and facilities providers nurture the talent of the affected person stage wise. This is to mean disabled children will participate in the entry level; the disabled youth will participate at the mainstream or intermediate level whereas the disabled adults will participate at professional level (Samuel, 2009 p24). These stages or levels are entitled to different training facilities, environments and predetermined goals in line with the type of disability. For instance, a gradual progress of a disabled child competition from entry level, then to intermediate and finally to the professional level accompanied by success in those levels, it not only improves his/ her confidence in tackling other societal problems but it also gives the society a chance to recognize these individuals as heroes and heroines. Despite the challenge of these persons and the years they have stayed with these disabilities, success which is a product of a well organised structure in sports will boost their self- esteem and reduce the stigma and stereotype by other members of society as they are not seen as a liability but an asset to the society. Geographical differences between nations in the world are associated with possible environmental disabilities and organising international sporting events like the commonwealth games will unite and incorporate racial difference as sports are seen as providing venues for symbolic competition (Frank, 2008 p36). Participation by the disabled persons in these international sporting events helps eliminate the objectivity of stereotyping. For instance, it’s believed that the Hiroshima bomb attack had some physical long term and recurrent physical and cognitive disabilities to the people of Japan. Although there are some physical provable symptoms that show adverse effects of the menace, stereotyping was still there until FIFA- the world’ football governing body allowed Japan to hold the 2002 football world cup. People from all the corner of the world joined Tokyo and other cities of Japan for audience and participation. The stereotyping of the body size and sight capabilities of Japanese’ as a result of Hiroshima attack was eliminated as sporting activities proved that there was no difference between them and other competitors. Assistive technology has boosted sports in that there are new developed tools and equipment that assist disabled persons to participate. Depending with the type of sport by the disabled and the type or level of disability, the assistive technology can be low tech, simple or a sophisticated one where computers are used (Oliver, 2011). This has transformed the disabled member of the society from medically therapeutic patients or dependants to competition-oriented persons and an income earning individuals. This has helped them to do away with trauma, stigma and other social evils directed to the disabled. These assistive technology devices include light weight wheelchairs for basketball, tennis and racing for the persons with motor deformities; hand cycles designed for the persons with legs disabilities for racing, cross country sit skis allowing the skiers to sit down along the trail with tips that dig the snow and many more. This has helped to cover different types of disability and has eased the smooth incorporation of the disabled to the sporting world (Federici, 2009). Conclusion Sports has turned out to be the effective uniting factor not withstanding racial, geographical, social, education, and ability differences. The role of competition as the basis of each sporting activity also plays a role of determination and appreciation of our varied differences. Disability on the other hand, is a factor and its presence in the society is inevitable. Sports have proved to provide the optimum platform of transforming the status of disability in the society thus strengthening appreciation of our abilities and reducing the uncalled for stereotype ideals. References B. Rosenthal. (2007). "Developing an objective definition of visual impairment". Vision '96: Proceedings of the International Low Vision Conference. Madrid, Spain F. Rita and G. Koutoukidis, K. Lawrence (2008). Tabbner's Nursing Care: Theory and Practice. Elsevier, Australia. O. Rhoda (2012). What Psychotherapists Should Know About Disability. Guilford Press. B. Frank (2008). Handicapping America: Barriers to disabled people. New York: Harper & Row. B. Samuel (2009). Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement. New Haven: Yale University Press. D. Elizabeth; G. S. French (2006). Rethinking Disability: Principles for Professional and Social Change. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole C. Marcia and S. Federici (2012). Assistive Technology Assessment Handbook. CRC Press. W. Oliver (2011). Assistive Technology: Principles and Applications for Communication Disorders and Special Education. Emerald Group Publishing E. Simon (2008). The Centre for Olympic Studies Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology. Ontario: New york press. K. Martin (2009). Europe Between the disability and sports Wars. New York: Longman Read More