Running Head: Final Project: BROADENING MY PERSPECTIVE

Final Project:
Broadening My Perspective
Jennie Chambliss
University of Georgia

FINAL PROJECT: BROADENING MY PERSPECTIVE

(1) definitions of terms

The two aspects of diversity that I have chosen to focus on are ability and access to
resources. I specifically chose these two focuses because I will be facing them often in my future
career. I want to be an occupational therapist so I will be working with people with a lot of
different disabilities. Furthermore, as I have been shadowing occupational therapists, I have
come to understand that most, if not all activities done in therapy must also be carried through
with at home to gain optimal results. If someone has a lack of access to resources they cannot
carry through everything they are learning. For example, if you are using your fingers to squish
play dough in therapy, but cannot access play dough at home once you have completed therapy,
the lessons will often be futile. These are both topics I could definitely gain perspective from
learning more about, and will both effect me in my future work place.
Disability is defined by dictionary.com as a physical or mental handicap, especially one
that prevents a person from living a full, normal life or from holding a gainful job (Disability,
2015). I chose this specific definition because it focuses on the actual effects that disabilities can
have on someone. I do not think disabilities necessarily prevent a full life, but they definitely
can, and almost always do, prevent a normal life. Furthermore, different disabilities often prevent
holding a job, especially physical and cognitive disabilities. I will later address person-first and
disability-first language. TheArc.org explains that people-first language emphasizes the person,
not the disability. By placing the person first, the disability is no longer the primary, defining
characteristic of an individual, but one of several aspects of the whole person (What is People
First language?, 2015). According to AustismAcceptanceMonth.com Identity-first language
places the disability-related word first in a phrase Identity-first language is also about thinking

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about disability as a type of diversity instead of something to be ashamed of (Identity First

Language, 2015). I was unsure what to define for access to resources so decided to focus more
on the word resources itself. Dictionary.com defines resources as a capability in dealing with a
situation or in meeting difficulties (Resources, 2015). This relates perfectly to how I will be
dealing with access to resources in my future career. Just because someone is able to come to
their rehabilitation therapy does not mean they have the capability to continue dealing with that
situation on their own. Lack of resources is typically due to where one lives, their age, their
family, or their economic status. The most common reason I will come in contact with in the
future will most likely be economic status. For that reason, I will focus on poverty as the primary
reason for lack of resources.
(2) relevant literature and historical events about each aspect
The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted by Congress in 1990 and ensures all the
same rights to any Americans with Disabilities, according to archive.adl.org. To be specific, it
prevents discrimination on the basis of disability. The marginalization of humans with disabilities
did not start to decrease until World War I. Veterans who were injured during the war began
demanding rehabilitation services from the US government. The 1930s saw a huge increase in
technology. Assistive technology began impacting the quality of life for many humans with
disabilities and allowed them to become much more independent. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
prohibited discrimination on the basis of emotional or physical disability (A Brief History of the
Disability Rights Movement, 2005). A huge current debate regarding disabilities is people first
versus disability first language. I read an article entitled Person First and Identity First
Language. This article discusses psychologists struggle with being socially and politically
correct in choosing how to regard people, particularly clients, with disabilities. Psychology has

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historically always encouraged person-first-language. However, today, people with disabilities

are urging for the psychology sphere to move toward disability-first language. They believe it is
important to be proud of your obstacles and not hiding or being ashamed of them (Dunn and
Andrews, 2015). The advocates of identity first language believe that acting ashamed of
disability will continue to make society regard it as something to be ashamed of and look down
upon. TheBodayIsNotAnApology.com defends identity-first language by explaining My
disability, among many other things, is integrated into who I am. There is no way to separate me
from my disability (Lebowitz, 2015). These advocates believe that their disability has helped
shaped the person they are and do not want to act ashamed of it.
The alleviation of poverty is a huge aspect of politics today. In 2009, President Obama
signed the Recovery and Reinvestment act. This Act was enacted to help increase the funding for
low income workers, unemployed and retirees in hopes that it would help fight poverty. In 2010,
forty million people were kept out of poverty due to government assistance, including social
security and food stamps. However, we are not yet out of the woods. In 2012, poverty effected
46.2 million people, which is 15.1% of the US population. Fifteen million of these Americans are
children. Historically, the most impoverished group of Americans was senior citizens, but today
it is children. (Timeline of Federal Actions Affecting Poverty in the United States, 2015).
I read an article entitled Sharpening our Critical Edge: Occupational therapy in the
Context of Marginalized Populations. This article examined the different individuals and
population groups that Occupational Therapists will interact with. Some of these population
groups live in higher poverty areas and therefore have more frequent health problems. This
article calls on Occupational Therapists to be creative and flexible in their solutions to these
problems presented. Individuals who have scarcer resources to continue their therapy sessions at

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home will need more creativity and flexibility from their Occupational Therapists in order to
allow their success to continue.
(3) How our Society Has Changed (Or Not) In Response to Each Topic
Society has grown much more accepting to all forms of disability. We have not only seen
legal and political advances, but societal acceptances. Historically, children were seen as less
valuable when born struggling with a disability. During the sixteenth century, many Christians,
such as Calvin and Luther, believed that having a disability meant possession by evil spirits.
Therefore, they would subject these men, woman and children to mental or physical pain in order
to exorcize the spirits. Furthermore, supporters of social Darwinism opposed state aid to the poor
fearing that this would inhibit the natural rhythm of natural selection. (Past and Present
Perceptions Towards Disability: A Historical Perspective). Today, these attitudes have
dramatically shifted. Science has helped provide us with a better understanding of disabilities
and how we can help the disabled function most comfortably in society. Science has also helped
us understand the cause of disabilities and that it was done by no fault of the disabled, and no
harm will come from giving them aid.
Societys acceptance of poverty has undergone transformation in much more recent years.
According to a WSJ/NBC pole, Americans were twice as likely in 1995 to blame poverty on
laziness than they are today. More people polled from a random sample believed that poverty
was a result of uncontrollable circumstances than of laziness. Not only is this mindset shift
apparent on the individual level, but at a political level. Even though more people of both
political persuasion are overall more likely to believe poverty is a result of their own doing, the
gap between Republicans and Democrats is growing larger. (OConner, 2014). This leads me to
fear that people are choosing their stance on causes of poverty based on what they believe and

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want enforced politically. Nonetheless, privilege has become much more recognizable in society.
People have begun to understand that the way one is raised will have a huge effect on their
success. People are also beginning to understand that lack of resources continues the cycle of
poverty, regardless of ones efforts to succeed.
(4) how both topics are currently presented in the media
The media has historically depicted disabled humans as weak, dependent, objectified and
set apart from society according to DisabilityPlanet.com. This can be seen in many books
including Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol Tiny Tim is identified by his disability and
relies heavily on everyone around him. Since the 1970s, the media has been correcting this due
to complaints. There has been much call for the media to depict disabled people as equals to non
disabled people. Furthermore, there has been a call to a stronger identity to characters than
simply their disability. A study was done by researcher Paul Hunt in the 1990s that lists a few
popular stereotypes used in media to depict characters with disabilities. These stereotypes ranged
from pitiable, sinister, non-sexual and unable to participate in daily life. Needless to say, none of
these stereotypes would be considered positive (Wood, 2012).
Not only does the media not depict poverty in a helpful light, but it barely depicts poverty
at all according to the Huffington Post. A recent study suggests that the three main evening news
shows devoted more time to Michael Jacksons trials than poverty. Furthermore, a google news
search only showed 121,000 results for the search word poverty, and 189,000 for the search
word Kardashian. (Media Poverty Coverage, 2012). Lately, media has been drastically
improving in the way it depicts different races, sexual orientations, abilities, and elderly.
However, poverty has continued to be excluded altogether. Furthermore, according to

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everydayfeminism.com, when poverty is mentioned in the media, it typically stereotypes poor

people as lazy, dependent, and pitiable. (Ridgeway, 2013).
(5) the intersectionality of this topic and health and wellbeing (i.e. social determinants of health)
I read Growing Health Disparities for Persons Who Are Aging With Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities: The Social Work Linchpin to better understand the intersectionality
of disabilities and health and wellbeing. Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities
are living lives somewhat similarly to the general population. According to Robinson and Baxter,
they are living into their 70s or even later than that. Technological advances have helped assist
disabled persons in living relatively normal, comfortable and healthy lives. Nonetheless, health
care can often be more difficult to attain for the disabled population, which may also have an
effect on their quality of life, even if it is not drastically shortening the longitivity of their life.
(Dauenhauer, 2012).
While disability can have an effect on health, health can also have an effect on disability.
The article Longevity and Health: Trends in Functional Limitations and Disability Among Older
Adults in Portugal, 1985-2005 dissects this intersectionality. According to Nogueira, the major
determinants of disability in the study were age, sex, education, income, chronic disease, and
self-perception of health status. Many of these determinants are most likely compounded and
could be coorelation rather than causation (Nogueira, 2013). Nonetheless, this article views the
intersectionality between disability and health in a different manner than Growing Health
Disparities for Persons Who Are Aging With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: The
Social Work Linchpin did. It is difficult to determine whether health status or disability cause the
other, but we do know that they tend to go hand in hand. For instance, the article SPECT findings
in autism spectrum disorders and medically refractory seizures discusses the strong correlation

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of autism spectrum disorder and seizures. However, it cannot be entirely determined whether
ASD causes seizures or if seizures cause ASD (Sasaki, 2015).
I read an article entitled From poverty to poor health: Analysis of socio-economic
pathways influencing health status in rural households of Ghana in order to better understand the
correlation between poverty and health outcomes. According to Adjei, inequalities and social
stratification can have a huge effect on quality of life for individuals in any given society. Adjei
encourages further research to be done examining the effects of socio-economic factors on health
status. This article specifically studies the exact aspects of poverty that result in poor health,
including social relations, social status, and social institutions. This article encourages more
research should be done examining why these specific aspects of poverty effect health (Adjei,
2012).
(6) how you might approach both topics in your future workplace
I am sure that this project, and this class in general, will prove to be very helpful in my
future work place. It is important for me to understand the different stereotypes of disabilities
portrayed in the media so that I can be aware and not further them. For instance, it is important
for me to treat my future patients with disabilities as independent human beings. I can do this
through allowing as much autonomy as I can to patients while still allowing them to reap the
benefits of occupational therapy. For instance, if I am working with a child with Down syndrome
I can allow him to pick the color of play dough he will play with or which scooter he wants to
push along the floor. On the other hand, I will understand the importance of people with
disabilities to feel as though they can live a normal, comfortable life. I can do this through setting
goals that are applicable to daily life, such as brushing teeth. It is important for me to be aware of

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the aspects of my patients life that he or she feels sets them apart or makes them more dependent
and abnormal, and address these in our therapy sessions.
I plan to be very aware of societys often misunderstandings of poverty and why it
occurs. Being aware of this misconception can help me make sure that I am not furthering any
stereotypes. If I have a patients parent tell me that she is unable to afford her child any wraps for
his hurt hand, I need to be conscious of not passing any judgement. Not only do I need to
consciously filter my thoughts, but be creative in finding solutions to these issues. I can make
sure to use toys and tools that could be made at home from everyday objects found at home. If
we are squishing play dough in therapy, I can recommend that my patients go home and squish
crushed paper. I believe there is a creative solution to almost everything and I truly believe I can
find solutions for patients who have a lack of resources at home.
I learned about both of these topics from conducting this project This project caused me
to read and study many different aspects of poverty and disability that I typically would never
think about. My little brother has Down syndrome so I would have assumed that I know almost
everything there is to know about disability and how to best work with someone with disability.
However, this project allowed me to to go so much deeper into disability that I would have ever
thought to learn about on my own and has helped me to broaden my perspective on it. In the
sane way, I have broadened my outlook on many topics of diversity diversity from simply being
a participant in this class. This class taught me something that most classes have not: the
importance of listening. In every other class I have taken, we listen to a lecturer talk about
whatever subjects we are learning about in that class. We are listening in order to memorize and
take an exam. However, for this class we are listening, not only to the teacher, but fellow
students, in order to understand perspectives. During our dialogue discussions we not only

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shared our own viewpoints, but listened to viewpoints of others. I prepared most for this paper by
reading journals, websites, definitions and scholarly articles rather than explain my own
experiences, which shows that we cannot broaden our perspective without listening to the
perspectives of others.

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Works Cited
A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement. (2005). Retrieved December 3, 2015, from
http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/fall_2005/fall_2005_lesson5_his
tory.html
Adjei, P., Buor, D., & Kyei, P. (2012). From poverty to poor health: Analysis of socio-economic
pathways influencing health status in rural households of Ghana. Health Sociology
Review, 830-843.
Dunn, D., & Andrews, E. (2015). Person-First and Identity-First Language. Developing
Psychologists Cultural Competence Using Disability Language. Retrieved November
29, 2015, from http://ugalibs.edu
Identity-First Language. (2015). Retrieved December 3, 2015, from
http://www.autismacceptancemonth.com/resources/101-3/ways-of- thinking-aboutdisability/identity-first-language/
Liebowitz, C. (2015, March 20). I am Disabled: On Identity-First Versus People-First Language.
Retrieved December 1, 2015, from http://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/i-amdisabled-on-identity-first-versus-people-first-language/
Nogueira, D., & Reis, E. (2013). Longevity and Health: Trends in Functional Limitations and
Disability Among Older Adults in Portugal, 19852005. Ageing Int Ageing International,
195-209
O'Conner, P. (2014, June 20). Attitudes Toward Poverty Show Dramatic Change - WSJ/NBC
Poll. Retrieved December 1, 2015, from

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http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/20/attitudes-toward-poverty-show-dramaticchange-wsjnbc-poll/
Resources. (2015). Retrieved December 3, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com/
Ridgeway, S. (2013, September 19). 4 Problems with the Way the Media Depicts Poor People.
Retrieved December 1, 2015, from http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/09/poor-peoplein-the-media/
Robinson, L., Dauenhauer, J., Bishop, K., & Baxter, J. (n.d.). Growing Health Disparities for
Persons Who Are Aging With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: The Social
Work Linchpin. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 175-190.
Sasaki, M. (n.d.). SPECT findings in autism spectrum disorders and medically refractory
seizures. Epilepsy & Behavior, 167-171.
What is People First Language? (2015). Retrieved December 3, 2015, from
http://www.thearc.org/who-we-are/media-center/people-first-languagee
Wood, L. (2012). Media Representation of Disabled People. Retrieved December 1, 2015, from
http://www.disabilityplanet.co.uk/critical-analysis.html
Resources. (2015). Retrieved December 3, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com/

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