Disability Awareness & Inclusion 101

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The following post contains important information about disability awareness and inclusion. Please read more.

Prologue

Do you wish that the world was fully inclusive to people with disabilities? What about people being more aware of disability? Unfortunately, that is not the case. Furthermore, people would be familiar with ableism and how to avoid it in a perfect world. All of these concepts will be explored in this blog post.

Word Lesson: Ableism

For starters, let's explore the concept of ableism. According to the Center for Disability Rights (CDR), "[a]bleism is a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities." In the book Sitting Pretty: The View from My Resilient Disabled Body, Rebekah Taussig mentions that "[her] definition of ableism" is not the same as that found in a dictionary. CDR adds that ableism generally "rests on the assumption that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ in one form or the other." Ashley Eisenmenger, who works for a Chicago-based organization called Access Living, reports that "[t]he world wasn’t built with people with disabilities in mind." In an article for the American Psychological Association (APA), Dr. Dana S. Dunn enumerates eight "[f]actors that characterize and contribute to ableism." According to Healthline, ableism generally affects the lifestyle of people with disabilities. For example, disability could cause an individual so affected to not have employment and thus his or her wages. In the next paragraph, you will learn how to escape ableism.

Believe it or not, there are ways to end your practice of ableism. Healthline reports that people with disabilities should be treated the same as their counterparts without disabilities (i.e., equal). However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that "[c]hildren with disabilities or chronic diseases" often suffer from bullying because they are dissimilar to their peers. The aforementioned Healthline article also enumerates a multitude of words "that promote ableism and stigma," which should be eliminated from your lexicon. I published a blog post in 2023 that briefly explains why words are powerful.

The next section (see below) explains what disability awareness is.

Introduction to Disability Awareness

A February 2022 article from Forbes provides several categories that define disability awareness. According to Andrew Pulrang, "[d]isability awareness calls for businesses and other organizations to learn about and comply with accessibility standards." He adds that "disability awareness emphasizes learning about and following the 'reasonable accommodation' guidelines in the Americans with Disabilities Act." Pulrang's reasoning is that it "provide[s] better service to people with disabilities." Now that you have been introduced to disability awareness, the next paragraph provides several ways to spread it.

The Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR) devotes an entire webpage to disability awareness, which enumerates several ideas for raising awareness on disability. For example, the CPIR's suggestions include classroom lectures on disability, "school reports[, and] youth groups." The CPIR's "Disability Awareness" page also mentions a number of resources that educate people on disability.

In the next section (see below), the subject of disability inclusion will be explored.

Introduction to Disability Inclusion

The National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) writes that the concept of "disability inclusion" is the integration of people with disabilities into activities involving those without disabilities. In an article for BetterUp, Allaya Cooks-Campbell reports that "[p]eople with disabilities aren’t lacking in engagement or vitality." She adds that "good disability inclusion policies" are not only essential for any business, but also "good for everyone" at all "level[s]" of the relevant organization. Furthermore, Understood writes that disability inclusion has the ability to "strengthen companies in several ways, from bottom-line benefits to brand loyalty." The Understood article also enumerates "five disability inclusion benefits" that might make an organization more "valu[able]."

Epilogue

Over the course of this post, you found out what disability awareness and disability inclusion are. You also got an overview of ableism, as well as information on how to stop it. Remember, people with disabilities are given EQUAL treatment to their counterparts without disabilities.

Resources

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Council for Disability Awareness (CDA)
• Disability:IN
• Global Disability Inclusion (GDI)
• Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI)
• National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD)

Disclaimer

The author and GAM Productions are presenting the information herein solely for informational purposes. This blog post does not serve as a substitute for consultation, advice, and/or treatment that involve a qualified healthcare professional. None of aforementioned parties shall not be held responsible for any injury or injuries that may affect the reader of this post. Neither GAM Productions or the owner thereof is considered a healthcare professional or provider.

Furthermore, GAM Productions is not a law firm. The organization's owner does not work in the legal profession. This blog post is not legal advice, so you need a licensed practitioner of law for this purpose.

GAM Productions is a fictional organization.

Bibliography

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Cooks-Campbell, Allaya. "Disability inclusion in the workplace: The what, why, and how."

BetterUp, 16 Sept. 2021, www.betterup.com/blog/disability-inclusion.

Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.

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Accessed 10 Jan. 2024. 

Gepp, Karin, and Crystal Raypole. "What Ableism Means and Why It Matters."

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"People with Disabilities and Chronic Diseases: Information about Bullying."

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cdrnys.org/blog/uncategorized/ableism/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.

Taussig, Rebekah. Sitting Pretty: The View from My Resilient Disabled Body.

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