Welcome to week four.
Today we're going to be
talking about stereotypes
and attitudes.
And I'm Professor Greg Long.
We're going to talk about this
in a number of different ways,
number of different
perspectives.
But before we get started,
let's do our disability
etiquette question for the day.
And the question is,
what's the best way
to talk to children
about disability?
So give that a moment.
If a child came up to you
and had questions,
what should you tell her,
what should you tell
him about disability?
How might you
approach that?
Some suggestions in terms
of talking to children about--
to a child about disability.
One would be, certainly,
ask what they know.
See what kind of information
they already bring with them.
When you talk about
the individual
or you talk about
the disability,
talk about it from a kind
of a strength standpoint,
not a, oh, look at all of the things the person can't do,
but more look at all of
the things they can do.
So strength based
is very important.
Be honest with them,
and also encourage
them to talk about it.
And from your
standpoint, relax.
The hope is that these
etiquette questions that
we've been going through over
the lessons will give you
a bit more comfort; so that
when someone does ask you
or want to talk
about the stuff,
it won't seem quite so,
so scary.
Okay. So picking up now, when
we're going to talk overall
about this lesson, we're
going to hit, again,
the idea of importance
of language.
We're going to talk about
language and its affect on
attitudes and how people with
disabilities see themselves.
Because that's certainly
a part of considering
stereotypes and attitudes. Societal' s view of it.
And then end up with
a discussion of
what can be done to
change attitudes.
What are the most successful
ways of going about
and creating change.
So when you think about
societal attitudes,
I do want to mention a few
historical facts that
some of you certainly
may know about.
Others it might be
new information.
But if we think about it,
people with disabilities
have faced a very, very long
history of discrimination,
both here in the United States
as well as throughout
the world.
Within the United States,
examples would be,
for example, access
to education.
But it wasn't until the
1970s that a student,
a child with a disability
was guaranteed the right
to go to school.
Prior to the 1970s, roughly
one and five children
with disabilities
was educated --
with severe disabilities
was educated. Many were not.
So access to school
has been in the U.S.
only, say, a
40-year phenomena.
There are many other parts
in the world where children
with disabilities have no
guaranteed access to school
and have no accommodations
made for them.
One of the areas where we see
particular discrimination,
particularly historically,
so if you have a severe
disability or if you have
a mental illness,
where do you stay?
Are you part of
the community?
Unfortunately in the United
States we have a very long
history of institutionalizing
people with mental illness.
One of the most dramatic,
particularly from a
historical stand point,
portrayals of this is in a--
a pictorial essay entitled
"Christmas in Purgatory."
And with this, with this,
and its - you've got links
for this in your
activities for this week.
Some - a cameraman and
a journalist went in,
undercover, if you would, to a
variety of mental institutions
in the 1960s and took
pictures, hidden pictures,
of the conditions that existed
in those environments.
And the conditions
were horrific.
You had people that were
simply being warehoused,
were laying around naked,
were otherwise either chained
and/or in straight jackets.
Caused quite a, quite a stir,
because we as a society
think of ourselves as
being fairly progressive
and wanting to treat
everyone with consideration,
and yet, for that
particular group of people,
and a lot of these conditions,
while improved in 2013, still
if you have a mental illness,
the opportunities and
options for living in,
in the public, are
quite limited.
And then the final area as a
historical kind of indication
of discrimination
is eugenics.
And I know in talking to
my own students on campus
that many of them have not
heard of this concept.
But it was the idea in the
early part of the 1900s
that we could create a
better stock of person.
So much like, you know, you
can grow a better flower,
you can create a better
breed of cattle,
that there was a thought that
we could create a better breed
of human beings, and that
was the concept of eugenics.
It's a practice that ultimately
led to the sterilization
of over 60,000 United States
citizens for no other
problem than the fact that
they had a disability.
So as a summary of this, I would
just say as we look at this
that attitudes from a
societal standpoint,
very long history of
negative treatment
and lack of inclusion.
So when you don't
interact with people,
it creates the opportunity
for stereotypes to develop,
for certainly discrimination
and prejudice to be practiced.
So as we move into
our next segment,
we'll talk more
specifically about, again,
the impact of language on
attitudes and stereotypes.
