4 ms·
Stepping back a bit: The main problem here is that disabilities are rare, and each disability requires different accommodations. Having the staff and equipment
by ggreer 13y ago
Stepping back a bit: The main problem here is that disabilities are rare, and each disability requires different accommodations. Having the staff and equipment to accommodate every disability would be prohibitively expensive, so most organizations just play it by ear. That forces each disabled person to fight for their accommodations; a frustrating and often embarrassing experience.
This problem will only get worse. As genetic screening and medical technologies improve, disabilities are going to become rarer. At some point, certain disabilities will become so rare that it will be socially and politically acceptable to stop accommodating them.
On the bright side, medical advances will mean fewer disabled people. Eventually, the wheelchair will go the way of the iron lung.
- silvestrov 13y agoIn old days, to be around people who accepted them, LGBT people had to move to clusters in big cities: acceptance of LGBT in 1950's were quite uncommon. Uncommon/expensive physical accommodations will require acceptance of people having to move into clusters. When disabilities become rarer, it will require a general acceptance of disabled people having to move into clusters and that it's not a human rights denial that accommodations are only provided in certain areas.
- 7952 13y agoI don't think disability is that rare. In the US disabled people are believed to be at least 30 million people. Why not have people trained and move them around? Why not have advocates within the university who do the fighting?
- LogicX 13y agoI have a different stance, and believe disabilities will skyrocket due to advancements in healthcare and availability of medical devices: People can stay alive longer, but be bound to say a wheelchair or mobility scooter, thereby requiring disability accommodation.
- Argorak 13y ago"Wheelchair bound" is discouraged nowadays, as it implies that the wheelchair is something negative. The opposite is the case: the wheelchair enables the user to freely move around, enabling his personal freedom.
- arethuza 13y ago"The main problem here is that disabilities are rare" I was curious about this (I have two disabled siblings, so I assumed that I would over estimate the frequency) - according to the Department of Work and Pensions: "Around 6 per cent of children are disabled, compared to 16 per cent of working age adults* and 45 per cent of adults over State Pension* age in Great Britain." http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/disability-statistics-and-research/disability-facts-and-figures.php#gd http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/disability-statistics-and-research/dis... To me that is a huge proportion of society.
- lmm 13y agoSometimes those counts include e.g. shortsightedness.
- Argorak 13y agoAlthough shortsightedness is easily corrected nowadays, it should still be counted as a disability from a certain degree on. Considering the numbers here, I would not expect the parents numbers to include all cases, though: "A recent study involving first-year undergraduate students in the United Kingdom found 50% of British whites and 53.4% of British Asians were myopic.[62]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia#Epidemiology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia#Epidemiology
- ronaldx 13y agoEach individual disability is rare and people have different needs. A solution for one disability won't work for every disability. And so, catering for disability in general is a challenging (but worthwhile) problem.
- ronaldx 13y agoMedical advances have - up to now - probably meant more disabled people, and I expect this will continue. As people reach old age, disability rates increase. Medical advances allow people to live full, healthy lives with their disabilities when they may not have survived childhood in the past. In any case, disability is not going away.
- DanBC 13y agoSocial advances too - where once people with disabilities would have been ghettoed away now they're helped to live independent lives.