Disability identity

Question 1

What was passed in 1995?

Answer 1

The disability discrimination act was passed banning employers to discriminate against employees, job seekers and service providers with a disability. It also gave legal protection and enforced rights.

Question 2

What do the Paralympics do?

Answer 2

They raise awareness of the positive achievements for disabled people presenting them as self - confident despite social and physical barriers

Question 3

What is the medical model?

Answer 3

• They see disabled people as a medical problem with limitations
• This leads to a victim blaming mentality where they blame themselves rather than society which hasn’t met their needs
• Shakespeare (1996) argues that disabled people are socialised to see themselves as victims or inferior. They often feel isolated so it is hard to gain a strong collective identity as there is a lack of positive disabled role models and disability is treated with pity, avoidance and awkwardness in a largely abled bodied family

Question 4

What is the social model?

Answer 4

It focuses on the social and physical barriers to inclusion within society e.g. building designs and public spaces

Question 5

What does Gill (1997) say about disability identity?

Answer 5

She found that people with polio who developed it in their later life turned the fear and pity they felt previously for disabled people onto themselves

Question 6

What does Murugami (2009) argue about disability identity?

Answer 6

They argue that disabled people have the ability to construct a self identity that accepts their impairment but is independent of it

Question 7

What does Hunt (1991) say about disability identity?

Answer 7

They identified stereotypes that the media use to portray people with disabilities including portrayal as pitiable, pathetic, an object of curiosity or violence and as a burden. The British film institute confirmed these stereotypes through a 2016 study

Question 8

What are the disability statistics within the workplace?

Answer 8

• less than 1 in 20 people with a disability are in employment
• employees with a disability are paid almost £1 less per hour

Question 9

What does Keating and Santuzzi (2016) say about disability identity?

Answer 9

They argue that people choose to hide or downplay their disability at work in fear of discrimination

Question 10

How is disability seen in schools?

Answer 10

• Peers and staff are skeptical of needs and treat students differently
• Disabled people began to distance themselves from support and conceal their impairment
• The medical model has influenced education policy, seeing students with disabilities removed from mainstream schools and classrooms however there is more of an expectation for schools to be inclusive

Question 11

What does Olney and Brockelman (2003) say about disability identity?

Answer 11

They saw that students with visible disabilities were treated differently to those with hidden ones