Disability erasure takes many forms in our daily lives. It comes from using foul language such as the “R” word rather than a more appropriate word. It comes from influential people mocking disabled reporters. It comes from misconceptions and ignorance of different disabilities. It also comes from solely identifying people with disabilities as such. All these points are used to put down people with disabilities. They are dragged down to the bottom of the social food chain because they are easy targets to step on. Here begins the erasure of people living with disabilities.
Throughout history people with disabilities have labeled as social outcasts, they have been abuse and mistreated. It has even come to a point in which humans will try to abort a baby prior to their birth if a disability of any kind is detected, as if a life with a disability is not worth living. This paints a picture that the life of people with disabilities are valueless. Others who decide to keep their unborn babies then send their children off to institutions, this may be done for many reasons. Some parents may have good intentions sending there children away so that they can receive the proper medical care but not considering the other aspects of a child’s life they will be neglecting. Not only is this physical erasure it is mental. Consider the saying “out of sight, out of mind” when people living with disabilities are locked away from the rest of society.
Now online technology has come into play, it touches everyone’s lives one way or another. It allows people from around the world to connect and communicate. It allows people to create their own online identity regardless of who they are in the physical world. This both aids and hinders disability erasure. Online technology aids disability erasure in that it allows for an entirely new identity to be created online regardless of who the person is, they are then able to interact with other without the boundaries that may in the physical world. The problem with this is that it does not address attitudes towards people with disabilities. Even online, individuals are bullied for a known disability or for just being different. Essentially we erase disabilities in the online world to strive for a delusional equality even though it may increases empowerment within the community and allows for the spread of information in regards to the issue.
- This is what disability erasure looks like
- Disabled people are viewed as social outcasts: Shifting the view from victim to advocate
- Valuing the lives of people with disability
- Donald Trump’s worst offense? Mocking disabled Reporter, Poll Finds
- Meryl Streep was right. Donald Trump did mock a disabled reporter
- Misconceptions about ADHD
- Disability in the fetus
- Disabled Kids Living Isolated Lives in Institutions