Attitude towards Disabled People

Abstract

Article 41, of Indian Constitution deals with the issue of disability, in the context of right to work and education. The Government has also moved away from the welfare oriented policies on disability towards a right base approach. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Protection of Rights and Full participation) Act, 1995 is changed with The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014.

A person suffering from any form of impairment, be it physical, mental, intellectual or psychological, may or may not identify as a person with disability. Impairment is human diversity. If a person with impairment faces restriction when it comes to experiencing equal participation in the spheres of life due to certain barriers, it is that then he or she may be disabled. Disabled people continue to face challenges in many areas of their lives and many of these challenges involve people's attitudes. Public attitudes have an impact on the material and non-material aspects of everyone's living standards, and disabled people in particular.

Research on attitudes towards disability and disabled people is steadily increasing, but there's still much more that can be done to understand the issues involved. There is no doubt that the dream for a discrimination free and equal life for the disabled may require a comprehensive change in the institutional arrangements and legal provisions but the most important change has to come in our minds, in our thinking and attitude towards the disabled persons. Rightly has been said, ‘If you have to judge people, judge them based on what they can do, not on what they cannot. Judge them based on who they are, not who they aren't. Otherwise you're judging based on your own shortcomings'. The change would perhaps come faster if we could really feel that disabled one may be, but he can as capable as anyone else in this world.