Disability Awareness Workshop 2
Why Should You Care?
Why should a ‘non-disabled’ person care about disability rights? Your brain chemistry is balanced, your IQ is within the normal range, and if you are fortunate, your sight, taste, touch, and hearing are relatively good. This is obviously not a comprehensive list, but these limitations are the typical stereotypes of “disabilities.” News flash – a disability is not like most minority groups. You can move in and out of the community at any time. Disabilities strike people of every racial, religious, or socio-economic background.
By supporting disability rights, you are helping others, you are securing your comfortable future, and your independence. In a world without adequate necessities for people with disabilities, a senior citizen becomes unnecessarily dependent on others. With declining hearing and eyesight, one cannot get around the grocery store independently without the proper accommodations. Large print at the ATMs will help you retrieve your cash at the grocery stores, and signs with large print help you find which aisle has what you are looking for. With the appropriate aids in place, senior citizens can remain contributing and independent members of society. As the world faces an aging population, senior citizens’ independence is becoming a necessity for our society.
Although individuals with disabilities have been a part of society for thousands of years, they still struggle for full unification. Fortunately, the Disability Awareness Workshop was able to come to Towson University promoting awareness and introducing disabilities to students. The workshop helped students distinguish between a disability and a handicap. “A disability is a long-term or chronic condition medically defined as a physiological, anatomical, or emotional impairment resulting from disease or illness, inherited or congenital defect, trauma, or other insult to mind or body.” (Goldsmith,...