Monday, Jun 09, 2008

SPP 020 Barriers Challenging People with Disabilities: Are They All in Our Heads?

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Download this episode (14 min)
What are the barriers to people with disabilities?

Some are physical (mobility access in bathrooms, telephones that are inaccessible to people with hearing impairments) and some are "in our heads". That is, beliefs, misinterpretations and ineffective responses can hinder people with disabilities. In this podcast, a number of these obstacles are discussed. Sometimes due to fear or disbelief in disabilities that are not visible people will resist getting help for a child who would benefit from it. Additional misconceptions include expecting too little, unrealistically expecting too much, or "treating a person with a disability the same as a non-disabled person" either out of a belief that it is fair or that it will make the person behave as if they do not have their disability. Also, treating everyone with a disability as if they are the same is another misconceived approach. Unsupported claims and hype are attractive to people who are looking for miraculous answers, "natural remedies" or are just not able to distinguish what is evidence-based and what is not.

Posted by Dr. Gaston Weisz at 10:06 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

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