Discrimination Disabled People

inconsistency Disabled pluralityApproximately 9 million of the worlds 650 million handicapped raft live in the UK. According to a recent report of the Department of Works and Pensions, level(p) though 3.6 million of the disenable, (i.e. approximately 40% of the total handicapped population) atomic number 18 between 19 and 59, only close a million (i.e. less than 30 % of them) ar employed. (Berthoud, 2006) Compared to the quick practice session rate of 76% (Berthoud, 2006) among the non change population, the figures for the alter are staggeringly low and pose serious questions ab step up British monastic order. Despite the UK organism among the first nations to sign the recent United Nations Human Rights Convention for Disabled People, the number of British adults claiming out of work disability benefits grew from 1 million in the mid(prenominal) 1970s to 2.5 million in the mid 1990s (Berthoud, 2006) an ironical fact and a telling commentary on the gap between habitu al policy and actual practice. Discrimination in the body of work, as well up as outside, continues to unfortunately exist in Britain despite extensive and jump onive legislation to combat the phenomenon. Work and pensions minister Anne McGuire recently stated that Britains 10 million disable community ready had to endure a legacy of exclusion, inside and outside the body of work. (Mulhol devour, 2005)0733966The decease ten years confound seen the progressive implementation of the cravements of the deterioration Discrimination Act of 1995, and its enlargement in 2005, as well as the decree of the Human Rights bill in 1998. The fact that these legislations, along with rhythmic public debate and solid research on the stretch out, wee been accompanied by a real increase in the number of unemployed incapacitate in the working age group (Berthoud, 2006) story to the existence of a genial problem of significant dimensions, which whilst recognised, is far from resolutio n.Discrimination arises primarily from prejudice it is an turned on(p) response to perceived threats and sorenesss that can non be rationally justified. (Lang, 1998) Discrimination against the disenable, at work and outside, social researchers feel, is primarily a social problem. (Lang, 1998) Entrenched in the thought processes and attitudes of society, it owes its origins to historical, social, cultural, and economic causes. (Lang, 1998) Whilst most sight appear to agree that divergence against the alter is abhorrent and has no place in modern societies, its continuance leads to concerns, both about the unassumingness of such stick withed positions, as well as about effective measures to reduce and eliminate the problem. descriptionThe deadening Discrimination Act (DDA), 2005, defines modify persons thus An adult or a child is handicapped if he or she has a physical or moral impairment which has an adverse effect that is substantial (not just trivial or minor) adverse and long 0733966term (lasting or expected to last for at least a year) on his ability to carry out normal day to day activities. People who have a disability within the commentary are protected from contrast even if they have since recovered. (Disability Discrimination Act the rights of change mountain, 2007) Whilst disability can b highroadly be described as a condition or function that is felt to be significantly impaired compared to the usual standard of an person of the concerned group, the term often refers to individual functioning and includes physical, sensory, cognitive, and intellectual impairment, as well as mental ailments and certain types of chronic disease. (Disability Discrimination Act the rights of disabled people, 2007) New provisions in the DDA (2005) have widened the definition of disabled persons to provide protection to people with cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis, and removed the stipulation that mental illness must be clinically well recognised to b e judged to be mental impairment. (Disability Discrimination Act the rights of disabled people, 2007)Although discrimination against disabled people has existed since historical times, the phenomenon has impacted pubic consciousness only during the last fifty dollar bill years. (Barnes, 1991) The enactment of the Disabled Persons Employment bill in 1944, even though it occurred in response to the peaceableness time unavoidably of injured soldiers, marked the beginning of legislation on the issue. (Barnes, 1991) Whilst example for the disabled, in the past, existed purely in the domain of charitable and voluntary organisations, the 1944 legislation made a concrete effort to encounter the problem by performing disabled persons as one group it also addressed the question of their employment, provided a range of specialist religious services designed to find jobs for disabled 0733966people, established a quota scheme, and institutionalised their juristic rights to employment. (Barnes, 1991) Although the quota scheme made it mandatory for employers to fill at least 3% of their staff strength with disabled people, the initiative never really made progress because of lack of governmental commitment and the proclivity of employers to falsify the provisions of the law. (Barnes, 1991) Confusion in policy making during the next few decades saw the introduction of confused fuzzy and ill thought measures like inducements and subsidies to employers to take on disabled employees. (Barnes, 1991) Whilst policy measures for up(a) employment chances of disabled people, up to the 1990s, focussed more on persuasion and inducement of employers, the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995 made it (a) illegal for employers to discriminate against disabled people in the course of pickaxe vacancies, and (b) mandatory for them to provide certain conveniences to disabled staff. (Disability Discrimination Act the rights of disabled people, 2007) Key right s of disabled persons under the act include the right to fair employment, the right to access goods, facilities and services provided to the public, the right to have reasonable adjustments made to premises or workstations by employers, the right to let or sell land or property, and the right to education in any school, college, or institute. (Disability Discrimination Act the rights of disabled people, 2007) The enactment made acts of wilful discrimination, as evinced by treating disabled persons less favourably than others, (because of their disabilities), without reasonable justification, or flunk to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons without adequate reasons, illegal and liable for severe penalties.0733966The scope of the DDA (1995) was further exaggerated by the DDA (2005), which added to the list of people covered under the scope of disabled, and included provisions that (a) made it illicit for operators of transport vehicles to discriminate against disabled p eople, (b) made it easier for disabled people to rent property and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations (c) ensured that discrimination law covered all activities of public authorities, (d) protected disabled councillors against discrimination and (e) covered larger private members clubs and bodies that awarded general qualifications (like GCSEs and A Levels). (Disability Discrimination Act the rights of disabled people, 2007) The stipulations of DDA enactments reveal a strong shift from introductory policies whereas policy makers previously assumed that disabled people were significantly less effective than others in the workplace, and policies for improving employment prospects for the disabled depended upon persuasion and inducement of employers, trustworthy legislation accepts the fact that disabled people are subjected to unfair discrimination and exclusion by employers and service providers. They need to be treated equally, and their special requirements con sidered and provided for.Whilst the 1995 and 2005 DDA enactments, even though falling short of compulsion, make it obligatory for all employers and service providers to ensure fairer treatment of disabled people, they also confirm the presence of intense and blatant intolerance and discrimination in the British workplace against disabled people. Nothing illustrates the extent of existing discrimination, rather oppression, in the workplace in the UK better than a report prepared by Deborah Cohen and Karen Hebert carried by the 0733966British Medical Journal (2004) on discrimination against disabled doctors by members of their own fraternity.In a small qualitative study, disabled doctorsreported feeling isolated and stigmatised, and that there wasa lack of understanding and flexibility. Despite medicine beinga caring profession, medicine is not supportive or enabling,especially to those who do not conform to the normative perceivedstandard. One doctor with a disability said You would expecttolerance from doctors, but this is the hit group when dealingwith their own most people dont want to know medicinehas a survival of the fittest style. (Cohen and Hebert, 2004)If medical professionals, who are under Hippocratic Oath and have made conscious career decisions to work in areas that require compassion and understanding, are apt to have discriminatory attitudes towards the disabled, such attitudes will obviously be a lot stronger in the common population. Discrimination, as is common knowledge, exhibits itself in a myriad ways, and is felt most sagaciously by the people who experience it. For many disabled people it starts from before they were born. The Society for Protection of unhatched Children (2007) states that prenatal screening tests that indicate disabling conditions in unborn babies often lead to pressure on mothers to abort the children. Human embryos conceived in test tubes are examined for disabling conditions and thrown away if found to have disab ling conditions. Newborn babies, particularly those with conditions such as Downs syndrome and spina bifida, are just abouttimes sedated and starved to death. Denial of fodder and water to those in Persistent Vegetative State is common. (Fatal discrimination against disabled people, 2007)0733966The discrimination that evidences itself in the workplace is but an extension of various discriminatory practices that disabled people experience at school and in society as they grow up these practices also often aggravate their condition and increase their discomfort in their working lives. An article in accessibleist Review (1995) states that the majority of disabled people are in poorly paid jobs, and are far less likely to be employed compared to people without disabilities. Whilst both disabled men and women earn significantly less than others, their living costs tend to be significantly higher because of needs such as transport, clothing and facilities in the home. (Equal Access, 19 95) It is estimated that two thirds of all disabled people live below the poverty line. Most disabled people earn far excessively little to buy their own houses. (Equal Access, 1995) Even though the article was published 10 years ago, current studies show little change in the situation on the ground. (Berthoud, 2006) The employment rate for disabled people continues to be much lower than that of people without disabilities, they earn less, and are far less likely to confirm responsible positions. (Berthoud, 2006) Theories to analyse and explain discriminatory attitudes depend upon different models and thought constructs, most of which have emerged in recent decades. Whilst discrimination against the disabled has existed since historical times, social researchers believe that discriminatory attitudes hardened with the advent of industrial enterprise and capitalism. (Lang, 1998) The industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism put an end to agrarian societies, created the need for able somatic men to work in factories, promoted the rise of individualism, and marginalised disabled people as ineffective and unprofitable components of society, who necessary to be segregated and cared for, rather 0733966than integrated in the productive working class. (Lang, 1998) Whilst this line of argument, though widely accepted, does not explain the presence of discriminatory attitudes towards disabled people in societies that remained non-industrialised and primarily agrarian until well into the 20th century, the sudden redundancy of people with impairments in the working classes during the industrial revolution led to the friendship of the medical profession in the issue. (Lang, 1998) The involvement of medical professionals, who were called in to categorise the type of impairment, led to the medicalisation of society and to the emergence of the Medical Model, the use of which continues even today. (Lang, 1998) The medical model assumes that (a) disability is a dis eased state, (b) it is basically an unfortunate individual problem that occurs on a random basis, (c) it is the responsibility of the medical profession to treat disabled people (d) disabled people are biologically and psychologically inferior to those who are able-bodied, (e) disabled people or their families cannot take decisions about their lives, and that (f) the medical profession should play a dominant office staff in deciding upon their lives. (Lang, 1998)Whilst discrimination against disabled people has existed from historical times and across societies, researchers feel that the issue was possibly aggravated immensely in the UK by the industrial revolution, the growth of capitalism and the dominance of the medical model. Social attitudes towards disabled people hardened during the 18th, 19th and much of the 20th century and developed into racy rooted prejudice, which evinced itself in various ways of discrimination and oppression, and led to the imposition of great diffi culties on disabled people. (Lang, 1998) Thompson, in 07339662001, provided a PCS model that attempts to explain the complex nature in which inequalities, prejudice and discrimination drop dead to impact the lives of individuals, groups and communities. (Thompson, 2001) Thompson argues that three interlinked levels reinforce discrimination and oppression within society. These operate at the Personal, Cultural and structural levels and mutually reinforce each other to create extensive and deep rooted biases against people. (Thompson, 2001) At the individualized level this relates to individual views and can evidence itself with patronising behaviour towards the disabled, feelings of physical and intellectual superiority, and abhor for the different physical appearances of people with impairments. At the cultural level, people can share common beliefs, (accentuated by the dominance of the medical model) regarding the physical and psychological inferiority of disabled people, alon g with related feelings about their incapableness in handling their lives, and the need to institutionalise and treat them separately. Structurally discrimination can evidence itself through a myriad of excluding and disem creatoring conditions like the preponderance of escalators rather than lifts at tube stations, the low representation of the disabled at the workplace, the lack of textbooks for blind people, the presence of separate schools for disabled children, and the widespread lack of facilities for disabled people at pubs, cinemas, amusement parks, airports, railway stations, and even polling booths.Recent years have seen some change in these attitudes and led to the development of the Social Model, which, in contrast to the Medical Model argues that disabled individuals are as much part of mainstream society as able bodied individuals and social obstacles like inaccessible buildings, useless transport systems as well as 0733966pejorative social attitudes, prejudice and in stitutionalised discrimination are the real concerns of disability. (Lang, 1998) Disability, in the social model is seen to arise from socio-cultural rather than biological causes it is imposed on existing physical impairments through isolationist and excluding attitudes, behaviours, and policies and amounts to oppression. (Lang, 1998)Conclusion Whilst discrimination and oppression against disabled people in the workplace continues to occur, recent legislation aims to level the playing field by ensuring that employers and service providers do not adopt discriminatory attitudes towards the disabled, and apart from treating them at par with able bodied people take scholarship of their needs and provide for the same. The DDA enjoins employers and service providers, namely companies and organisations that provide goods, facilities, and services to the public, for example banks, hospitals, local authority services, cinemas, railway and handler stations, shops, hotels, restaurants, foo tball grounds, public parks, and private education to make reasonable adjustments to cater to the needs of disabled people, and service users have the right to approach the legal and official machinery if such needs are not met.Social workers and practitioners, despite their education and profession are vulnerable to PCS factors and need to ensure that they approach the issue on the basis that the disabled, while being different, are part of mainstream society and need help and assimilation, not pity. genuine legislation calls for the active involvement of social workers in assessing the needs of disabled people and studies indicate that responses 0733966of social workers are influenced by a number of variables and often differ in assessing the needs of service users. reason the perspectives of service users is essential for assessing their actual needs. (Noe, 2007)Social workers will have to be flexible without losing focus, take cognizance of the views of disabled people, be the oretically informed, be ready to challenge and change existing ideas and practices, analyse the tyrannical nature of organisational culture and its impact on practice, include continuous reflection and evaluation of practice, have dimensional change strategies, which incorporate the concepts of networking, user involvement, partnership and participation, and analyse the issues of power, both personal and structural. (Noe, 2007)The contribution of disabled people to the workplace, especially in the context of an ageing society, can be immense and their inclusion will not just bring in the benefits of diversity but also add to organisational skills and competitive advantage f organisations. Whilst enacted laws will no doubt help in bringing in assimilation and integration, real progress will occur only with the proactive support of employers, service providers and social workers. These include making adjustments to premises, allocating some of the duties of disabled persons to others , altering working hours, acquiring or modifying equipment, providing good quality training and supervision, not turn down to provide services, and change existing policies and procedures to make them disabled-friendly.0733966Businesses would be well served by conducting access audits and involving disabled persons in recruitment, selection, training, and assimilation processes. Keeping disabled people out of workplaces, and refusing them to give them their due rights makes bad social and occupation sense because even as society loses out on their contribution, in exchange for some very(prenominal) small cost and adjustment issues, it denies them the opportunity to live meaningful and dignified lives. Nine out of seventy million Britishers are disabled the able bodied need to realise that even one road accident or a multiple sclerosis attack could make them disabled, and whether that would be good exuberant reason for excluding them from the rights and benefits available to othe r citizens.0733966 ReferencesBarnes, C, 1991, Chapter 4, Disabled people in Britain and Discrimination, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from http//www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/Barnes/disabled%20people%20and%20discrim%20ch4.pdfBerthoud, R, 2006, The employment rates of disabled people, Department for Work and Pensions, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from http//www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2005-2006/rrep298.pdfCohen, D, and Hebert, K, 2004, Equality and diversity in the workplace, BMJ Career Focus, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from careerfocus.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/329/7467/116.pdf Conaway, J, 1999, September, Enabling the Disabled, Americas (English Edition), 51, 52Conniff, R, 1996, Banishing the Disabled, The Progressive, 60, 20+Davis, K, 1996, The social model of disability and its implication for language use, Derbyshire coalition of disabled people, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from www.saifscotland.org.uk/documents/SocialModelLanguage-newlogo.pdfDisability and Acce ss Issues, 2004, Systems Concepts, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from www.system-concepts.com/articles/article0054.htmlDisability Discrimination Act the rights of disabled people, 2007, Shaw Trust, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from www.shaw-trust.org.uk/page/6/91/0733966Equal Access, 1995, Socialist Review, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr183/stack1.htmExploring anti-oppressive practices, Thompsons PCS Model, 2002, Student early days Work Online, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from youthworkcentral.tripod.com/aop_pcs.htmFatal discrimination against disabled people, 2007, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from www.spuc.org.uk/about/no-less-human/discriminationHirst, M, Thornton, P, and Dearey, M, 2004, The employment of disabled people in the public sector, University of York, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from http//www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/Thornton/Employment%Lang, R, 1998, A critique of the disability movement Asia peace-loving disability rehabilitation journal, Vol. 9, 1, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/english/asia/resource/apdrj/z13jo0100/z13jo0103.htmMatsell, G, 2006, Attitude towards disability needs to change, Nottinghamshire County Teaching, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from http//www.nottinghamshirecountyteachingpct.nhs.uk/EasySite/lib/serveDocument.asp?doc=12154pgid=9876.Mulholland, H, 2005, hurt still blocking disabled peoples path to work, Society Guardian, Retrieved November 16, 2007 from www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/may/25/disability.equalityNoe, S. 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