The importance of disabilities have not come to much consideration until the early 1800s. Before then, handicapped were highly discriminated against. In 1817, the first American school for the deaf was founded in Hartford, …show more content…
In fact, even one of the Presidents of United States was known to have a physical disability. as the 32nd President of the U.S., Franklin D. Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio. Roosevelt was the first President of the U.S. known to have a disability, and having to deal with that obstruction he struggled with keeping it a secret from the media. He did not want the people to know, for he was unsure and afraid of how they would react. This shows that in this time period views towards disabilities were not so positive, for FDR to be reluctant to let people aware of his …show more content…
Having a disability makes many ordinary routines very challenging. The physical, social and policy wise barriers were truly tough, and it was even harder that nobody understood and was willing to help. Physical disabilities set a limit to physical activity and participation, sometimes even completely prohibiting any sorts of movement. Due to this reason, it was much more difficult to access public facilities such as stairways. It also included means of public transportation like city buses , airplanes, trains and etc. It made something so simple and useful to a challenge for these people. Social hardships for the disabled people were just as strenuous as the visible ones, if not worse. Some mentally challenged people were not able to communicate properly. This lead to severe discrimination, where they were ignored, disregarded, even abused solely for being different. Discrimination continued on as far as being excluded from various things, which leads on to my next topic. Another part of the barriers presented were in the work and school environments. According to sources, For individuals who are blind and visually impaired, unemployment rates exceed 70 percent (American Psychological Association Task Force on Socioeconomic Status, 2007). Large percentages of students and adults with disabilities are struggling with poverty, due to their inability to complete high levels of education. In some