Discrimination of Persons With Disabilities

Disability (noun): a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses or activities.
Synonyms: handicap, incapacity, impairment, defect, abnormality.

Our system has created the constant practice of discrimination against individuals that are classified as disabled, therefore they’ve lost their human rights.

Millions of people in our country go through their daily lives with some form of a disability. In fact, 1 in 10 people have a disability. People with disabilities constitute the nation’s largest minority group and it is the only group any of us can become a member at any time. 38%. This is the percentage of people who believe someone with a disability is a burden on our society. What makes them a burden? They are told they are not equal to everyone else. They are denied the rights to be included in the school system, to live independently, to be employed, to move freely, to access justice, to choose medical treatment and so on.

Specifically, employment discrimination against people with disabilities was prohibited in 1990 through the Americans with Disabilities Act. This still allows discrimination today to exist in the workplace and holds an incredible unjustness. Businesses are experts at denying jobs to people who hold a disability. Three key difficulties employers face in hiring disabled workers entail (1) negative perceptions, (2) lack of external hiring support, (3) lack of internal hiring support. Employers fear that disabled people will be “more work for their supervisors”. The reality of this ongoing debate is the employers' lack of commitment to a diverse workforce. In simple terms, it promotes strong discrimination of equal employment opportunity.

Why do we allow disability discrimination to continue? Simply because it’s easiest to deny someone a job. Stop denying jobs and give them their equal chance to earn a living. We cannot progress as a society if we maintain an extremely negative perception of someone who has a disability. This must end now. They are apart of our humanity.