1-2 Short Paper: Living with Disabilities in the United States: From Segregation to Integration
Zachary Talbot
Southern New Hampshire University
PSY-230
Professor McKeown
The treatment of individuals with disabilities has changed as time has progressed. There are
likely many factors that have contributed to this; however, I believe the most prominent factors are
better education being offered to understand disabilities and more open-mindedness. Historically, society
has had a fear of things that we do not understand, but in order to understand it, it requires us to do our
own research. As society has progressed into being more welcoming, we are moving into the mindset
that we should fear people or things that are unfamiliar to us.
Dating back to ancient era Rome, children with disabilities were treated as objects of scorn. If a
child was blind, dead, or special needs in any way, they were publicly persecuted and thrown in the
Tiber river by their parents (The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities, n.d.)
Moreover, these children were commonly mutilated to increase their value as beggars. It is likely that
these acts of hate were caused by fear of the unknown. The parents that felt compelled to treat their
children this way was not sure what was wrong with their child.
In current times, with the help of better education for society, individuals with disabilities seem
to be more accepted than in years past. We are more open to accepting people that are different from us,
as opposed to bullying them. As of 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed,
making individuals with disabilities a protected group. The ADA prevents discrimination on the basis of
disability in employment, programs, and services provided by state and local governments (Hardman,
2016).
Our attitudes toward and treatment of individuals with disabilities have changed substantially.
Having a niece with special needs has provided me with a lot of insight into exactly how those
individuals are treated. My niece is nine years old and is nonverbal, only able to yell. She is able to
comprehend basic sign language, but unable to form complete sentences. As we take her into public, she
waves at every single person that walks by, with more than half of the people waving back at her. Within
the first few years of her life, people in public would oftentimes look at her as if there was something
wrong with her, but those looks have now dissipated.
An issue that was raised in the Lost in Laconia video that has relevance today is the lack of
legitimate care that is associated with state schools. Laconia was extremely problematic in the sense that
they did not treat the residents with care, forcing them to live in inhumane conditions. I often see reports
of my local state school for their lack of adequate living arrangements for the residents, work conditions
for the employees, along with not following safety guidelines. It is important that we hold these facilities
accountable as they are designed to care for an extremely vulnerable community.
References
Hardman, M. (2016). Human Exceptionality: School, Community, and Family (12th ed.). Cengage
Learning US. https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781305854888
