Ok so lately there's been a lot of talk about diversity (especially with the Oscars controversy and presidential elections) and there's something that has been bothering me in these different talks. I have not yet heard the word "disability" in these talks.
Diversity and discrimination include the following types: age, disability, equal pay, gender, pregnancy, race, religion, sexual orientation and more.
But the main ones that are discussed in the media or anywhere really are age, race, gender, and sexual orientation which I'm in supportive of but if you're going to include groups of people then you discuss all groups which include the group of people with disabilities.
Did you know that people with disabilities make up 20% of the United States' population? That means that 1 every 5 people may have a disability of some sort whether it's mental or physical.
So why is the disability group the last to be mentioned or not even not mentioned? Especially when we're in the middle of an election year leading to a new president? Shouldn't discussing what they're going to do to help people with disabilities be a topic (like employment, schools, etc.)?
Is this too much to ask? No. Not at all. After all like I said 20% of the population which is about 49 million people. That's a lot of people that aren't being spoken for or about in the mainstream media.
There needs to be more discussion about disability. About awareness towards disability. How to make inclusion better between the disabled and the abled. Sports are very important towards awareness for people with disabilities but there still needs more awareness to be done!
By the way, where are the actors who have a disability? Ok, yes there are actors who have disabilities but aren't seen as much as others. Also what's with disabled characters being portrayed by abled actors? Ok I understand that the story-line may have the person injured or something which leads them to be disabled but we need more disabled actors/actresses.
Ok that's another story for another time. But it's still relevant to this case. Anyways, back to the problem - INCLUDE the word "DISABILITY" in the discussions about working with people and diversity.
"...based on religion, or race, or gender, or LGBT, or whatever else it might be." - Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton (on the Ellen Show discussing loving one another)
"In 2016, the mandate is inclusion of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation." - Academy President, Cheryl Boon Isaacs (in her statement about the Oscars controversy)
Don't even get me started on Donald Trump and his mocking of the news reporter who has a disability.
Can't you see the problem here? Disability is never brought up in the group of words that people say when speaking of diversity. You can't leave out one group of people when discussing diversity because then you're not really being diverse.
Don't be afraid to say disability. Don't be afraid to bring it up in conversations. Don't be afraid to "stand up" for your own group of people. There needs to be a discussion about disabilities and what we can do to bring awareness to the group.
This leads me to January 20th (may write another post about this) which is International Day of Acceptance. It's time that we all come together and celebrate accepting of people with disabilities.
We are in a different and better position then we were 10 years ago but there's still a lot that needs to be done and spoken about.
Include disability in history books. Include disability in your discussions. Include disability when speaking about the other types of groups of people. Include disability in your political campaign (and continue including it after campaign is over). Include disability wherever you can. It's time that we do this. If we have one person start, it will lead to more speaking about it.
By the way you can help spread disability awareness by speaking about it, sharing posts about it, and also placing the wheelchair emoji to your display name on Twitter.
Remember, if you want there to be a change and more diversity (including ALL groups of people) to happen then YOU need to take part in that change.
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| New Wheelchair Emoji (there are different ones depending on your phone, computer, tablet, etc.) |
Until Next Time
CGoerlich <3
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