Wheelchair

My partner decided to experience having a physical disability, confining herself to a wheelchair for an hour around the Dalhousie campus. Using the 4D approach I first broke down the detecting aspect of what occurred. Most people were quick to move out of the way, or apologize for getting in the way. I also found that people were either extremely…

The only disability in life is a bad attitude ("Disability Quotes"). All people when given the right assets can thrive. The potential is there in everyone. It is just their willingness to try. Like a well-oiled machine, with all parts big and small working together, society needs all types to work peacefully, even those with disabilities. Everyone has a purpose. People with disabilities can contribute to society. A disability by definition is a, lack of adequate power, strength, or physical or…

On September 22, 2016, I completed my field placement observation in a middle school classroom located at The Day School. The heterogeneous group of students that made up the classroom have significant cognitive weaknesses in general learning abilities, functional communication, fine and gross motor skills, social skills, self-care, sensory, and physical development. In addition to their intellectual disabilities, many students in the classroom suffered with health care problems, including…

a disproportionate number of claims regarding physical accessibility in the workplace. Layla Thérèse, a Canadian with cerebral palsy, told TVO (2016), “In my cover letters I clearly state that I have a disability, that I use a wheelchair, and I would ask, ‘Are you wheelchair accessible?’ Nine times out of 10 the answer was, ‘We had no idea you needed that. No, we’re not. We’re sorry. Best of luck in your search.’” This is just one of many Canadians who cannot find an employer willing to…

Is disability displayed in movies reflect truthfully people with disability? Or is it more complicated issue than what we think? For many people, disability subconsciously appears to be an object that represents a person rather than a condition that a person have. In order to understand this, we need to introduce the concept people-first language. According to The Arc “People-First Language emphasizes the person, not the disability. By placing the person first, the disability is no longer the…

The repetition that motivated my investigation of the scene is Laila’s apparent need to prove her sexuality as something that exists although she has disability. I was drawn to this scene specifically because it encapsulates both her need for validation through able-bodied male approval and her yearning to assimilate with able-bodied society, or what she perceives as “normalcy”. In Margarita with a Straw, Laila’s apparent need to prove her sexuality “despite” her disability might reveal that…

Waist-High in the World is honest. The author, Nancy Mairs, writes with both conviction and vulnerability, not afraid to tell her truths and to admit to her own confusions and gray areas. The memoir tells us about what Mairs lives with, Muscular Dystrophy, but it also speaks to the larger category of mobility impairmenst in every section of the book. Mobility impairment is, in fact, a quite large category, encompassing everything from a slight limp in walking to in inability to manipulate most…

Body image is non-existent. It is just a figment of our imaginations, created by the insecurities inspired by society’s generalized idea of “perfect”. Don’t believe me? Let me prove it through this essay. Body image is defined in Merriam Webster’s Medical Dictionary as “a subjective picture of one’s own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others.” Going by this definition it would appear to me that its all in ones head, influenced by the idea…

Person First Language Reflection 1. What concepts did you find interesting or important from this article? I think the most important message that the article brings out is we need to treat the people who have disabilities as people like everyone first, but not as their medical diagnoses. They are the unique individual, they are a group of people that use their bodies in difference way, and they share the same rights as everybody. As people who don’t have disabilities, we shouldn’t use any…

several connections to the characters. He recognized one girl as being blind, because she had a cane similar to a friend of his. He also noticed that there was a girl using wheel chair, and he told me that one of the boys in his class has to use a wheelchair “because his legs don’t work real well.” What interested him the most about the story, though, was that some of the children got to bring their ‘pets’ to school or to the beach. He could not understand why one of the girls had a monkey with…