Class Entry 01.25.10

This week was a week that made me think more about the disabled people. I remember going to a church retreat to a shelter for the elders and the disabled people. It was a small shelter with a nice brown building. But what I saw inside was a sad scene to watch; some people there couldn’t even eat without someone else’s help. I remember many people crying while watching a video about the disabled people’s lives and the reason they ended up in the shelter. I thought it was sad to have the people having to be stuck in a small shelter together, not being able to fit in the normal society. That was the last time I actually had thoughts about them; I thought about how they aren’t different from us and have feelings just as we do for a short period of time. But as I got older I didn’t have time to remember them, the people who seemed far away from me. But this week’s learning made me think back at the people I have forgotten for a long time.
The disabled people get neglected because they are slower or less accurate in doing things than the average people. But most of the time, they are the same as what other people are like. To be honest, it is hard for me to look at the disabled people as the people who are the same as me; they are distant and different for me. This seems to be the same case to some people who hasn’t seen disabled people in a close view or a daily basis. I think getting the public to feel close to the disabled people is the most important thing to do. If people see the disabled people ever since they are young, they will feel more comfortable seeing them and living together with them. They would feel familiar to the disabled people and treat the disabilities as one of a personality instead of a factor that makes that person different from the normal people. The different treatments the society is giving to the disabled people seem to be creating a wall between them and the normal people. It is necessary to give the disabled people a special care and services, but too much makes them seem like poor people who we have to give help rather than normal people who are just like us but needs a little more help.
The distance that we feel about the disabled people seems to be the hardest thing that the disabled people try to get over. We have to try to get over the awkwardness we feel with the disabled people just because they are different in a small way. The difference shouldn’t make them be called disabled, and it should be a part of them that doesn’t seem like an unusual factor used to judge them. What the disabled people need is a normal attitude towards them more than the new improved services they can get.