Disability Equity Management

Introduction – Session 7
 Disability Sensitization

An Overview of Myths and Facts

People with disabilities are brave
and courageous.

A. Myth
B. Fact

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Myth : People with disabilities are
brave and courageous.

• Fact: Adjusting to a
disability requires adapting
to a lifestyle, not bravery
and courage.

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All persons who use wheelchairs are
chronically ill or sickly

A. Strongly Agree
B. Agree
C. Disagree
D. Strongly Disagree

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Myth : All persons who use wheelchairs
are chronically ill or sickly

Fact: The association between

wheelchair use and illness may have
evolved through hospitals using
wheelchairs to transport sick people. A
person may use a wheelchair for a
variety of reasons, none of which may
have anything to do with lingering
illness.

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Myth : People who are blind acquire a
"sixth sense."

• Fact: Although most people who

are blind develop their remaining
senses more fully, they do not
have a "sixth sense."

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People with disabilities are more
comfortable with "their own kind."

A. Yes
B. No

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Myth : People with disabilities are more
comfortable with "their own kind."

Fact: In the past, grouping people

with disabilities in separate schools
and institutions reinforced this
misconception. Today, many people
with disabilities take advantage of
new opportunities to join
mainstream society.

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Myth : Non-disabled people are obligated to
"take care of" people with disabilities.

• Fact: Anyone may offer assistance,

but most people with disabilities
prefer to be responsible for
themselves.

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Myth : The lives of people with disabilities are
totally different than the lives of people without
disabilities.

Fact: People with disabilities go to

school, get married, work, have families,
do laundry, grocery shop, laugh, cry, pay
taxes, get angry, have prejudices, vote,
plan and dream like everyone else

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People with disabilities always
need help.

A. Strongly Agree
B. Agree
C. Disagree
D. Strongly Disagree

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Myth: People with disabilities always need help.

 Fact: Many people with disabilities are

independent and capable of giving help. If
you would like to help someone with a
disability, ask if he or she needs it before
you act.

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 Disability Sensitization

Some Aspects Related To Etiquette

Wheelchairs are an extension
of personal space.
A. True
B. False

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 Personal Space

• If you don't make a habit of leaning or

hanging on people, don't lean or hang on
someone's wheelchair. Wheelchairs are an
extension of personal space.

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Vision Impairment

 When you offer to assist someone with a

vision impairment, allow the person to
take your arm. This will help you to guide,
rather than propel or lead, the person.

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Patronizing Behavior

 Treat adults as adults. Call a person by his or

her first name only when you extend this
familiarity to everyone present. Don't
patronize people who use wheelchairs by
patting them on the head. Reserve this sign
of affection for children.

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Eye level

 When speaking to a person with a disability

ensure that you do not put physical strain on
them – example standing in front of a person
in a wheelchair – however asking is again a
good general rule.

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Addressing a person with a disability

• When talking with someone who has a

disability, speak directly to him or her,
rather than through a companion who
may be along.

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Assistance

 If you would like to help someone with a

disability, ask if he or she needs it before
you act, and listen to any instructions the
person may want to give.

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Directions

 When giving directions to a person in a

wheelchair, consider distance, weather
conditions and physical obstacles such as
stairs, curbs and steep hills.

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Directions

• When directing a person with a visual

impairment, use specifics such as "left a
hundred feet" or "right two yards".

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Forward planning

 When planning events involving persons with

disabilities, consider their needs ahead of
time. If an insurmountable barrier exists, let
them know about it prior to the event.

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 Speech impediments

• Be careful not to complete sentences – it

is patronizing

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 Disability Sensitization

Language
Really true?

• "Sticks and stones may break my bones,

but words can never hurt me." It depends
on who you talk to.

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Really true?

• Mark Twain once said the difference between

the right word and the almost right word is the
difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
• How true this is.
• Words are very powerful. They can lift your
spirits or crush them, put you in a good mood
for the rest of the day or make you want to lock
yourself in your room and hide away from the
rest of the world.

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Handicap

• The term "handicapped" has become so outdated and

derogatory that it is no longer used in any kind of
government paperwork. The H-word, as Kathie Snow
refers it to, has its origins in Old English, where it
referred to the loser of a lottery-like game who was left
with his cap in hand. The term eventually reversed itself
to become hand in cap, hand i’ cap and finally,
handicap.
• Article by Megan Drummond (People First)

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Affirmative
• person with an
intellectual,
• retarded;
cognitive, mentally
developmental
disability defective

Derogatory
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Affirmative

• person who is
blind, person who • the blind
is visually impaired

Derogatory
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Affirmative

• person with a • the disabled;

disability handicapped

Derogatory
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Affirmative

• the deaf; deaf

• person who is deaf
and dumb

Derogatory
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Affirmative

• person with
epilepsy, person
with
• epileptic
seizure disorder

Derogatory
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Affirmative

• person with a • crippled;

physical disability, lame;
physically disabled
deformed

Derogatory
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Affirmative

• People who are

• Overcame
integrated, their
productive and disability/
successful citizens
courage

Derogatory
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 Disability Sensitization

People with Disabilities

 A mood disorder is a
condition whereby the
prevailing emotional
mood is distorted or
inappropriate to the
circumstances.

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 Richard Dreyfuss -
Richard  Stephen Dreyfuss
 
(born October 29, 1947) is
an Academy Award-
winning American actor –
suffers from manic
depressive disorder
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 Harrison Ford - (born
July
  13, 1942) Ford is best
 
known for his
performances in the Star
Wars film series and the
adventurous archaeologist
and action hero –
depression in his youth
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 Abraham Lincoln -
(February 12, 1809 –
April
 
 
15, 1865) was the
sixteenth President of
the United States,
serving from March 4,
1861 until his
assassination – chronic
form of depression
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 Tourette syndrome (also called Tourette's
syndrome, Tourette's disorder, Gilles de la
Tourette syndrome, GTS or, more commonly,
simply Tourette's or TS) is an inherited
neurological disorder with onset in childhood,
characterized by the presence of multiple
physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal
(phonic) tic; these tics characteristically wax
and wane.

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 David Beckham -
David suffers from OCD
and it manifests itself
through constant
cleanliness and
perfection of all that is
around him
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 Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart - (1756-1791)
In late 1992, the British
Medical Journal
published an article by
endocrinologist
Benjamin Simkin, M.D.
speculating that Mozart
had Tourette Syndrome
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 Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological
disorder that is characterized by recurrent
unprovoked seizures. These seizures are
transient signs and/or symptoms due to
abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal
activity in the brain.
Epilepsy is usually controlled, but not cured,
with medication, although surgery may be
considered in difficult cases.

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 Sir Isaac Newton (4
January 1643 – 31
March 1727) A very
important scientist who
is responsible for
founding the three laws
of motion along with
studies concerning
Universal Gravitation
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 Julius Caesar - (July 13,
100 BC – March 15, 44 BC),
One of the most influential
men in world history,
Caesar participated in the
army with distinction
constantly excelling in
leadership skills. He had a
ruthless personality and
thought of himself as far
superior
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 Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is
a psychiatric disorder, specifically, an
anxiety disorder. OCD is manifested in
a variety of forms, but is most
commonly characterized by a subject's
obsessive drive to perform a particular
task or set of tasks, compulsions
commonly termed rituals.

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 Albert Einstein - (March 14,
1879 - April 18, 1955) Being
one of the most important
great minds of his century
Albert Einstein was then
known to suffer from
dyslexia mainly because of
his bad memory and his
constant failure to memorize
the simplest of things. It is
also thought that he had
OCD

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 1809-1882
Naturalist,
author; OCD
and stutter.

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Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis
that describes a mental illness
characterized by impairments in the
perception or expression of reality,
most commonly manifesting as auditory
hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre
delusions or disorganized speech and
thinking in the context of significant
social or occupational dysfunction.

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 John Nash - (born June
13, 1928) John Nash is
an American
mathematician working
in differential geometry,
game theory and partial
differential equations.

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 Disability Sensitization

South Africans With Disabilities

 Disability Sensitization

Technology
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