Inclusion in a Capitalistic Society
The Rehabilitation Counseling Consortium, in 2005, developed the following definition endorsed by all its member organizations, “A rehabilitation counselor is a counselor who possesses the specialized knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to collaborate in a professional relationship with people who have disabilities to achieve their personal, social, psychological and vocational goals” (Maki & Tarvydas, 2012, p. 194).
In my humble opinion, without a clear understanding of the built in system of discrimination inherent in Capitalism, one does not have a valid framework from which to discuss socially constructed barriers that dis-able people. These barriers did not spontaneously appear from one day to the next. By understanding the superstructure of the system of bias, favoritism, segregation, prejudice and inequality implicit in a capitalistic society one can have specialized knowledge, skills and attitudes to work together with someone who has been socially constructed as disabled. The construction of disability as a binary and the placement of particular individuals on either side is a result of power relations and beliefs about ideal productive bodies and about notions of usefulness, independence, and social and economic contributions (Amster, 2009).
American society remains fragmented and due to Capitalism, racist, ableist and sexist. Progress has been made toward a more egalitarian society, but stereotyping and stigmatization prevail in multimedia and advertisement, which reinforces society's marginalization of people with disabilities. Capitalism has led to values emphasizing workforce participation, financial and economic contributions to society, income capacity, job status, economic productivity, and work-related performance (Angus & Reeve, 2006).
Capitalism promotes division and hierarchies among identities, intellects, and abilities, as well as dividing people into classes and class strata based on their...