Disability: A subject that concerns all of us
Photo Attribution: Tobias Planz / CBM
Considering people living with disabilities – either directly or in the form of supporting family – one thinks the practical and economic consequences. With this article I want to address the psychological effects this can have both on the person with a disability but also in the immediate family. It is not doubtable that a disability places a set of extra challenges on the family system. There is a daily need for providing assistance that can lead to physical and emotional strain and exhaustion. But families of people with disabilities, when asked, admit that this ‘tiredness’ is not originating from taking care and providing assistance rather than the exclusion they face, day after day from the community. The burden initiates through dealing with people with judgmental attitudes that ostracize the family and reject the disable individual. This can have catastrophic consequences for the psychology of the family; therefore, the need for programmes and resources allowing full inclusion of persons with disabilities is evident.
Moving on the individual with the disability and focusing specifically on the delicate years of attending school, the problem intensifies. When children enter school environments, the interactions with other students and teachers can enforce the development of social skills and competencies. Of course that is the case, when the environment is open and accommodating towards these students and not furtherly restricted. Although schools are to provide education environments promoting integration, it is not always successful. It is important to acknowledge that people with disabilities are struggling both with the symptoms of their disability but also from the stereotypes and the prejudice that exists due to lack of understanding, they face in every day life. Humans have a fundamental need to form and maintain relationships. Social exclusion frustrates this need and has devastating psychological effects.[1] Following this, we can understand that exclusion practices can have dreadful results for people with disabilities and their families in the aspects of ability to participate in the society and their subjective well-being. These people feel less human and the people that are behind this exclusion either voluntary or involuntary can be perceived less human as well.
Becoming disabled is always likely to be a major life-event. What we need to ask ourselves is how we can make the experience of disability less devastating for the thousands affected. In a society, where segregation is an often occurring event, people with disabilities and their families face the hard reality of social exclusion, an unnecessary and additional to their hardships, burden. We, as members of the society and the policy makers must turn our attention to this reality.
