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Disability Essay | Essay on Disabled Person, People With Disabilities, Concept of Disability in Media

December 22, 2021 by Prasanna

Disability Essay: The definition of “disability” is not set in stone. It can vary quite a bit depending on how it is being broken down. This means we can group disabilities under some general themes, but sometimes, there are situations that do not fit neatly into these categories. For example, most disabilities are thought of as orthopedic disabilities, that is, disabilities involving the body and its functions.

However, there is also what is called ” cognitive disability.” This is not something people think of as easily, because in most cases the disability is invisible. But although this type of “disability” has no outward appearances, it can and does affect a great many people. As the labels imply, “cognitive disability” refers to conditions or diseases of the brain. The most well known type of cognitive disability is Alzheimer’s disease, which is an irreversible, progressive mental deterioration that usually begins with old age.

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Diverse Nature of Disabilities

As discussed above, disability is a multifaceted and complex state, and may extend to: cognitive function, sensory impairment, physical, self-care limitation, and social functioning impairment. Disabling conditions may be acquired as a result of genetics/chromosomal abnormalities or as a consequence of environmental agents. As noted, the condition may be c (e.g., back pain that requires physical therapy) or irremediable (loss of a limb due to an accident). Coping with disability is hard, especially when you live alone and need to rely on yourself for everything. But the key thing to remember is that disability affects everyone in different ways. It’s very rare that two people will experience the same exact disability due to the diverse nature of disabilities.

Concept of Disability in Media

It’s pretty rare to see disability depicted accurately in the media, to be honest. And even if disability is portrayed accurately, it usually isn’t in a very graphic way. More often than not, the media attempts to tell the story of disabled people without actually portraying disabled people . There is a lot of work that needs to be done for the public to understand disability. For example, most media will never portray a person with a real disability in a leading role.

Are the Jobs and Environments open to Disabled People?

Some of the occupations you are considering are likely conducted in an environment that is restricted or even inaccessible to disabled people. For example, many administrative roles are conducted within a chair-free office setting. This may make it impossible for someone who is mobility impaired, has joint problems, or suffers from arthritis to take up this position.

Moreover, you may be surprised to learn that a number of occupations are physically taxing and the nature of the work puts the worker into vulnerable positions. Such environments are undoubtedly  difficult for individuals with physical disability. For example, a person who is visually impaired or otherwise has difficulty moving around in the workplace may not have the ability to physically reach items safely. This can lead to accidents that can result in injuries or even loss of life.

How do People with Disabilities Live a Full-Filling Life?

You might think that people with disabilities live very full-filling lives, but in reality, often they don’t. It’s quite hard for them to find job opportunities in the workforce. They may also find it difficult to do many simple, day-to-day tasks. Nevertheless, one of the best things is to find joy by strengthening relationships in all aspects of your life – reaching out to others and making an effort to take care of yourself. Volunteering or doing activities that interest you, even if you are disabled is also a good way to keep yourself engaged. Regardless, with proper training and motivation, people with disabilities can live a fulfilling life.

Social isolation is a major problem for many people because a life with disabilities can be quite lonely. Such people should develop a support system to counteract this problem. One solution to this problem is social media – this is due to the fact that social media is an easy way to make new friends because everyone from all over the world has access to the internet. People with neurological symptoms could make use of treatment from a psychiatrist to help reduce anxiety, stress and depression. Early intervention can be effective particularly to children with disabilities and in order to deal with this issue, substantial support should be provided by family members.

A Few Tips for Living With a Disability

The U.S. Census Bureau counts approximately 34-37 million people, or roughly 10% of the population, as living with a disability in the United States as of 2014. These people experience anything from hearing or muscular limitations to paralysis and cognitive challenges. It’s only logical that there is a lot going on in our day-to-day life that we do to cope with these limits and remain happy and successful. If you’re living with a disability yourself, here a few tips that might help a bit:

• Always treat yourself with respect and self-love. While people might not always treat you the way you deserve to be treated, always be kind and understanding towards yourself, because you’re truly half of life’s happiness.
• Make sure your surroundings are safe for you. For example, if stairs are a real challenge for you, make sure your apartment is on the ground floor or at least the first floor.
• Budget your day to strengthen your sense of purpose. For example, if going out and socializing makes you feel good and can be done in a way that doesn’t make you feel too exhausted, try to plan the week ahead in such a way that one of the days is reserved for that purpose. Remember to leave yourself a little energy reserve to rest!
• Remember, people around will be there for you .
• The experience of being alone can also be positive if you do it in a way that is meaningful and enjoyable for you . For example, painting, playing guitar, writing stories, watching a movie, etc.
• Remember that you are not a machine and learn to care better for yourself and become aware of your own limits when it comes to physical, emotional and mental energy.

Conclusion on Disability Essay

Being disabled can affect many aspects of life. Moreover, most places are not easily accessible to those with disabilities – transportation, public amenities, and more. Even employment opportunities are limited, though some institutions will have certain reservations for the disabled in place. Regardless, there are ways to make our world more accessible for those with disabilities. First off, it is important to educate the general population on what they can do to help combat this issue. Raising awareness and educating others is paramount. Those with disabilities should not be “fixed” but rather accommodated.

A good place to start is by teaching schools how to accommodate those with physical disabilities, then encourage children who are differently abled that they can still make a contribution to society. The same applies for workplaces where employers need to reevaluate their cultural perspective so as not to be discriminatory against disabled employees (some laws against workplace discrimination do exist and are published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

FAQ’s on Disability Essay

Question 1. What is a disability?

Answer: Disability means that you have a physical or mental impairment, which changes how your body works. The impairments can affect things like your bones, muscles, brain, sight, hearing, speech, movement or the way you think. When you first find out that you have a disability, it can be an overwhelming experience.

Question 2. How to cope with a disability?

Answer: The following are some tips for how to cope with a disability: 1) Get educated on disabilities and disabilities rights. 2) Seek out support from family, friends, and professionals. 3) Join a self-advocacy group or other social group related to your condition. 4) Save money for the future by saving part of your income and/or getting financial assistance from the government or private organizations. 5) Prepare for emergencies by making lists of emergency contacts and creating an emergency plan with your family members or friends.

Question 3. What are examples of disability?

Answer: The following are examples of disability:

• Conduction Deafness
• Visual Impairments
• Motor Impairments
• Cerebral Palsy
• Polio Disease
• Muscular Dystrophy
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Essay on Respect For Persons With Disability

Students are often asked to write an essay on Respect For Persons With Disability in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Respect For Persons With Disability

Understanding disabilities.

Disability is a term used when a person’s physical or mental abilities are not like most people. This does not mean they are less important. People with disabilities can do many things just like anyone else. They might just do them differently.

Respecting Differences

Respect means treating people with kindness and understanding. It’s important to respect people with disabilities. They have the same feelings and rights as everyone else. They deserve to be treated fairly and equally.

Showing Respect

There are many ways to show respect to people with disabilities. One way is by being patient. Another way is by learning about their disability. This can help you understand their needs better.

Importance of Inclusion

Inclusion means including everyone in activities. It’s important to include people with disabilities in all things. This shows respect and helps them feel accepted. It also helps others learn about different abilities.

Ending Discrimination

250 words essay on respect for persons with disability.

Disability is a condition that can make some activities harder for a person. People with disabilities might need to use a wheelchair or need extra help with learning. But they are just like everyone else and deserve the same respect.

Respect means treating others the way you want to be treated. It’s about accepting people as they are. When we meet someone with a disability, we should not feel sorry for them. Instead, we should respect their abilities and strengths.

Being Kind and Helpful

Kindness is a simple way to show respect. If a person with a disability needs help, we can offer it. But remember, we should always ask first. They may want to do things on their own.

Using Polite Words

We should always use polite words when talking about disabilities. For example, we say ‘people with disabilities’ and not ‘disabled people’. This way, we focus on the person, not the disability.

Learning Together

We can learn a lot from people with disabilities. They often have to find new ways to do things. This can teach us about problem-solving and creativity.

500 Words Essay on Respect For Persons With Disability

Understanding respect.

Respect means to show regard or consideration towards someone or something. It’s a way of treating or thinking about something or someone. If you respect someone, you accept that they are different and valuable in their own way.

Understanding Disability

Disability is a term that we use when a person has certain limits in doing things that most of us can do easily. These limits could be in hearing, seeing, moving, learning, or even in social situations. It’s important to remember that disability is just a different way of living and not a disease.

Respect for Persons with Disability

Why it’s important.

Respect for persons with disability is important for many reasons. Firstly, it helps them feel valued and included. When they are treated with respect, they feel good about themselves and their abilities. They are more likely to be confident and happy.

Secondly, it helps us grow as individuals and as a society. When we show respect to persons with disability, we learn to appreciate diversity and understand that everyone has a role to play in the world. It makes us more compassionate and understanding.

How to Show Respect

Another way is by being patient and understanding. If they take longer to do something, or if they do it differently, we should not make fun or get annoyed. We should understand that they are doing their best.

We can also show respect by including them in our activities. We should invite them to join in games, discussions, and other social activities. This shows that we value their participation and enjoy their company.

Respect for persons with disability is not just about being nice. It’s about understanding and accepting their unique experiences and contributions. It’s about treating them as equals and making sure they feel included and valued. By showing respect, we can help build a more understanding and compassionate society.

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People with disabilities essay

Disability is one of the most important issues in the contemporary society because stigmatization of people with disabilities contributed to the formation of biases and prejudices which put them into the disadvantageous position compared to people, who did not have problems of disability. Such biases and prejudices contributed to the discrimination of people with disabilities which has been eliminated consistently since the emergence of the Civil Rights movement and introduction of legal changes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nevertheless, today, the problem of people with disabilities and their discrimination persists because many biases and prejudices are resilient. In this regard, education is particularly vulnerable to the problem of the integration of students with disabilities into the learning process since the modern education system attempts to provide equal opportunities for all students, eliminating the discrimination of students with disabilities. Moreover, the modern education system confronts another problem, the problem of students with excessive abilities, who also face problems with the integration into the classroom environment and development of positive relations with their peers. In such a way, the concept of disability/ability is fulcrum of the contemporary education system in relation to students interaction and elimination of discrimination of students based on abilities/disabilities.

Disability is the complex notion that involves limited opportunities and special needs of people but it does not mean the inferiority of individuals compared to those, who do not have disability. At the same time, ability is a set of skills, knowledge and opportunities to exercise them to perform specific tasks. In such a situation, the risk of the widening gap between individuals with disabilities and those, who do not have them because disability can limit opportunities for individuals to exercise their knowledge, skills and opportunities to the full extent, while those, who do not have disabilities, can take the full advantage of their skills, knowledge and opportunities (Kudlick, 2005). In this regard, the attitude of the social environment to people with disabilities may be crucial for their social standing and opportunities to stand on the equal ground for others.

One of the major challenges people with disabilities face is the challenge in their professional training and development. Disability may limit learning abilities of individuals that prevent them from obtaining the target education and making a successful career. For example, many students with learning disabilities, such as ASD, have difficulties with learning that prevent them from successful learning. In such a situation, they cannot complete their education just like other students do, while the lack of education limits their career opportunities consistently. On the other hand, many researchers (Mansell, 2003) point out that students with disabilities may be as successful as other students, while some students may be even more successful than the average student in certain subjects.

In such a situation, disability may be a substantial obstacle on the way to the professional development of individuals and to their career. On the other hand, often it is not the disability proper but the prejudice of employers that becomes an obstacle on the way of people with disabilities. However, such discrimination tends to disappear due to legal changes, including the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and current policies aiming at the inclusion of disabled people. In this regard, the discrimination of people with disabilities persists because the power of prejudices and biases is very strong.

At the same time, educators should be aware of special needs of students with disabilities. They should understand that students with disabilities are no different from other students but they have special needs, which educators should match to help them to succeed in their learning and reach a considerable academic progress just like other students do. In fact, students with disabilities are not inferior compared to their peers but they just have special needs. For example, some researchers (Mansell, 2003) admit that even children with serious mental disabilities may be integrated in the learning process successfully on the condition of meeting needs of those students but the problem is that educators are not trained to work with such students. This is why they have difficulties while working with students with disabilities and the integration of students into the learning process and into their peer groups becomes quite difficult.

On the other hand, the modern education focuses on such issues as Knowledge, Enquiry, Empathy, Pluralism, Social Commitment to prevent the problem of discrimination of students with disabilities and to set educators free from their biases and prejudices in relation to students with disabilities. Knowledge is essential for educators to understand needs of students with disabilities. The enquiry is essential for the research of latest advancements in the field of education and exploration of the problem of disability. The empathy is essential for educators to treat students with disabilities, which educators should treat on the equal ground compared to other students. The pluralism is essential for educators to develop the personalized approach to each students, regardless of their abilities and disabilities. The social commitment is essential for educators to treat students with disabilities as an integral part of the school community. The social commitment means that educators should serve to interests of the community and help students with disabilities to integrate into their communities and help communities to accept children with disabilities as equal community members.

At the same time, there is another issue related to abilities, which often remains unnoticed by educators and researchers, which is the issue of excessive abilities. What is meant here is the fact that some students are gifted in certain fields, which make them different from other students and, to a certain extent, put them in the position similar to the position of students with disabilities (Enns, 2013). Excessive abilities lead to the focus of students on the specific subject, which is particularly interesting for them and where they are particularly successful. For example, gifted students may be successful in math that will put them in quite a challenging position. On the one hand, conventional math classes will be boring for them because instructions educators provide for other students may be not even necessary for gifted students, who understand those instructions perfectly and know more than other students, while their math skills may match standards which are normally attributed to higher grades. As a result, such students feel bored with the classroom environment and the learning process because math classes are not interesting for them because they do not contribute to their progress that discourages them from paying much attention to their math class. This trend can be traced in relation to other subjects, which gifted students may be particularly strong in.

On the other hand, gifted students may have difficulties with developing positive interpersonal relations with their peers. In fact, peers may feel the difference of gifted students because of their excessive abilities that may lead to the development of the sense of inferiority-superiority in relationships between the average and gifted students. In addition, gifted students may stay too focused on their favorite subjects or particular interests that also prevent them from developing positive interpersonal relations with other students. In such a way, students with excessive abilities have difficulties with building up positive interpersonal relationships with other students just like students with disabilities.

Thus, the concept of ability/disability turns out to be pivotal for the modern education system and society at large because it influences consistently the development of students and position of individuals with disabilities and excessive abilities. In this regard, disability and excessive ability are two extremes which may raise problems in the personal and professional development of individuals because they face the risk of the development of poor interpersonal relations with their peers. At the same time, both students with disabilities and excessive abilities need the integration into their classroom environment and development of positive interpersonal relationships with their peers.

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People with Disabilities

• Social Sciences

Introduction

Disability is a condition identified as a significant impairment of the usual functions of an individual.  People with disabilities are individuals whose body functioning is not healthy due to various impairments. The condition is conceptualized as being multidimensional given that there might be effects on the organs or the body parts that affect his or her participation in certain areas of life. The fact that the disabled persons do not function has typically made the normal individuals seek to isolate them from public spaces because they feel that they are lesser and different creatures. The practice of discriminating against the disabled persons and denying them easy access to the public places and services has become a significant concern with the interested parties seeking to find out why the disabled persons are facing public exclusion. In a country that has achieved a lot of progress in ensuring equality for the marginalized people in recent years, it is disappointing that those people with disabilities are shunned from having access to public spaces on a daily basis.

Whether it is the poor design of the majority of the public spaces such as toilets and public areas that make the necessary activities harder for the disabled individuals, or the impatience and dismissive attitude displayed by those ordinary people, exclusion comes in various forms for the disabled persons. What makes a public place different from a private area is the fact that it is meant to be accessible for everyone. One can, therefore, introduce the concept of equality although the main question we need to ourselves is why we are unwilling to accommodate the disabled persons in the public spaces without making them feel different or useless. One of my friends is visually impaired, and in most instances, she complains of inaccessibility in the public places when she is alone. For example, the lack of large prints in the restaurant menus, little or no ravels assistance when boarding the trains, lack of lifts in the tube stations as well as books that are not published  to meet the needs of the visually impaired are some of the things that frustrate her whenever she needs to use the public spaces.

It is a shame that people do not care about the capabilities of the disabled persons. For a long time, the disabled people have been labeled as “deviant” or “other.”  Their position in society has been affected by the continuous production and perpetuation of the cultural representations and cultural myths which view them as inferior or abnormal people.  The disabled people, regardless of their impairment are often labeled as developmentally disabled individuals who cannot function on their own. However, none of these assumptions are valid since the disabled people have proved to be strong and independent persons whose only mistake is their inability to perform all the functions or be the same as the non-disabled people. Have we not seen persons with disability excel in business, education and even sports?  Of course, we have even though we choose to ignore this fact to justify the public exclusion accorded to this category.

In the story The Mountain by Eli Claire, the author voices out her frustrations of not being able to be seen as a reasonable person with ambition and dreams.  As it states, “To them, I was not just another hopelessly slow, tenacious high school athlete, but super crip, a brave girl with CP, courageous cripple. It sucked” (Eli 13). The author feels dejected because no one is trying to support her dream of becoming an athlete, just like the other healthy kids. Instead, people are praising her on the audacity she has to showcase her disability in front of them when deep down they are laughing at her for not being able to be like them.

It should, however, be noted that people with disabilities also discriminate against themselves.  I believe that the people considered disabled have developed some sort of disability hierarchy which segregates the disabled based on the type of disability they suffer from. Just like we have racial segregation among people, the disabled individuals, be it those that belong to the LGBTQ community or those with various physical deformities, have also started discriminating against each other in what I can term as deciding which disability is more sophisticated or more generally acceptable to the public.  For instance, the lesbians and gays are yet to accept the transgender and queer persons because they believe that their disability is humanmade whereas theirs is inherent.  I overheard an argument between two lesbians at school whereas one of them told the other that she is not an actual lesbian since she had undergone a gender reassignment surgery.   Susan writes of Filisa Vistima, a transgender woman who committed suicide because the LGBT community that she was supposed to identify with was not willing to accept her. “The Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network announced that if it admitted transsexuals, the SBWN would no longer be a women’s organization” (Susn 4).

Although most people pretend that they are adapting and can freely mingle with the lesbians, gays, transgender, bisexuals, and queers,(LGBTQ) the truth is that the same people view them as abnormal or disabled people because after all, their sexual preferences are not the normal ones dictated by the society. Although this is a bold statement, I derive my opinion from the fact that most individuals publicly support these people, but behind closed doors, they wish that none of their children or other family members adopt into this bad behavior. The above statement brings me to the question as to whether the LGBTQ society can be labeled as people with disabilities or not.

A lot can be done to change how disabled persons can have easy access to public spaces without feeling unwanted or having to be shoved around. Because of that, various legal instruments at the national and international levels aim to make sure that the vulnerable groups of people have easy access to the numerous public spaces on an equal basis just like the others. Just like the concept of inequality is an inbuilt idea, unequal treatment against persons with disabilities is carried out in the form of excluding them from the public space. But why are people not ready to share the open space although the disabled people can handle themselves and can no almost everything that the able persons can do?

I realize that the disabled people have always resisted the ill treatment from the society and they have done so by leading healthy lives, getting an education and joining the desired professions, getting married and having children, battling against the stereotypes and rejecting the normalizing treatments. If they have managed to do all that despite the various challenges, why can’t the normal persons treat them the way they would want to be treated? I believe that the dismissive attitude displayed by people towards the disabled is some act superiority complex involving the two groups. People are so used to being looked down upon, and vice versa that they have made it a habit of despising anyone they feel is below them with the hope of making themselves feel better. For instance, the gays or lesbians feel that they can share a public space with the transgendered persons or the queer ones because they think that they have no right to be included in the LGBTQ community. However, that is just an excuse for such people to vent out their frustrations on the more substantial part of society that has not accepted them.

Business owners in the public domain and other public organizations have failed to honor the pledges of ensuring equality for disabled persons. For instance, I have frequently visited establishments that advertise “accessible services,” in this case, meant for the disabled although they do not have functional bathrooms or fitting rooms. Having such an experience will undoubtedly make one feel like an inconvenience and a social reject that needs to spend most of his or her time isolated or confined to places that actually can ensure easy accessibility for people of their kind.

From the provided readings, disability stems beyond physical impairments, and in this era, anything considered a minority is vulnerable to receiving disability treatment. Therefore, the persons identifying with a specific disability need to come together as a group and fight for their rights as ordinary people with the capacity to have the best careers and best jobs. The plan to accommodate them in public places, however, requires them to stop segregating themselves by having different public places to hang out instead of mingling with the rest of society.

Public toilets are an essential facility for everyone although most of them are designed in a narrow manner preventing the disabled people from entering the toilets let alone use them independently.  Although my school has spacious toilets for the disabled persons, I rarely see such rooms in most of the public shopping complexes I have visited.  On the same note, the need for accessible toilets is not only meant for the disabled, but instead, they can serve pregnant women, the elderly and the children. Therefore, modification of some of these public spaces can be useful to the identified categories.

Changing the public perception of the disabled is also another way of making the public spaces inclusive and accessible to all. Researchers agree that disability is a social construct aimed at ensuring normalcy in the society. So, the labeling is a way of ensuring that the dominant characteristics in the community maintained. Therefore, people can decide to change the disability narrative and advocate for equality and freedom. If people have started accepting the LGBTQ community, then they can also learn to treat disabled persons as ordinary people who deserve respect and love.

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Book Reviews

In 2 essay collections, writers with disabilities tell their own stories.

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More than 1 in 5 people living in the U.S. has a disability, making it the largest minority group in the country.

Despite the civil rights law that makes it illegal to discriminate against a person based on disability status — Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990 — only 40 percent of disabled adults in what the Brookings Institute calls "prime working age," that is 25-54, are employed. That percentage is almost doubled for non-disabled adults of the same age. But even beyond the workforce — which tends to be the prime category according to which we define useful citizenship in the U.S. — the fact is that people with disabilities (or who are disabled — the language is, for some, interchangeable, while others have strong rhetorical and political preferences), experience a whole host of societal stigmas that range from pity to disbelief to mockery to infantilization to fetishization to forced sterilization and more.

But disabled people have always existed, and in two recent essay anthologies, writers with disabilities prove that it is the reactions, attitudes, and systems of our society which are harmful, far more than anything their own bodies throw at them.

About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, edited by Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, collects around 60 essays from the column, which began in 2016, and divides them into eight self-explanatory sections: Justice, Belonging, Working, Navigating, Coping, Love, Family, and Joy. The title, which comes from the 1990s disability rights activist slogan "Nothing about us without us," explains the book's purpose: to give those with disabilities the platform and space to write about their own experiences rather than be written about.

While uniformly brief, the essays vary widely in terms of tone and topic. Some pieces examine particular historical horrors in which disability was equated with inhumanity, like the "The Nazis' First Victims Were the Disabled" by Kenny Fries (the title says it all) or "Where All Bodies Are Exquisite" by Riva Lehrer, in which Lehrer, who was born with spina bifida in 1958, "just as surgeons found a way to close the spina bifida lesion," visits the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. There, she writes:

"I am confronted with a large case full of specimen jars. Each jar contains a late-term fetus, and all of the fetuses have the same disability: Their spinal column failed to fuse all the way around their spinal cord, leaving holes (called lesions) in their spine. [...] I stand in front of these tiny humans and try not to pass out. I have never seen what I looked like on the day I was born."

Later, she adds, "I could easily have ended up as a teaching specimen in a jar. But luck gave me a surgeon."

Other essays express the joys to be found in experiences unfamiliar to non-disabled people, such as the pair of essays by Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison in which the two writers and friends describe the comfort and intimacy between them because of shared — if different — experiences; Brown writes at the end of her piece:

"We're talking about our bodies, and then not about our bodies, about her dog, and my classes, and the zip line we'd like to string between us [... a]nd then we're talking about our bodies again, that sense of being both separate and not separate from the skin we're in. And it hits me all at once that none of this is in translation, none of this is explaining. "

From the cover of Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong Disability Visibility Project hide caption

From the cover of Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong

While there's something of value in each of these essays, partially because they don't toe to a single party line but rather explore the nuances of various disabilities, there's an unfortunate dearth of writers with intellectual disabilities in this collection. I also noticed that certain sections focused more on people who've acquired a disability during their lifetime and thus went through a process of mourning, coming to terms with, or overcoming their new conditions. While it's true — and emphasized more than once — that many of us, as we age, will become disabled, the process of normalization must begin far earlier if we're to become a society that doesn't discriminate against or segregate people with disabilities.

One of the contributors to About Us, disability activist and writer Alice Wong, edited and published another anthology just last year, Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People , through the Disability Visibility Project which publishes and supports disability media and is partnered with StoryCorps. The e-book, which is available in various accessible formats, features 17 physically and/or intellectually disabled writers considering the ways in which resistance and hope intersect. And they do — and must, many of these writers argue — intersect, for without a hope for a better future, there would be no point to such resistance. Attorney and disability justice activist Shain M. Neumeir writes:

"Those us who've chosen a life of advocacy and activism aren't hiding from the world in a bubble as the alt-right and many others accuse us of doing. Anything but. Instead, we've chosen to go back into the fires that forged us, again and again, to pull the rest of us out, and to eventually put the fires out altogether."

You don't go back into a burning building unless you hope to find someone inside that is still alive.

The anthology covers a range of topics: There are clear and necessary explainers — like disability justice advocate and organizer Lydia X. Z. Brown's "Rebel — Don't Be Palatable: Resisting Co-optation and Fighting for the World We Want" — about what disability justice means, how we work towards it, and where such movements must resist both the pressures of systemic attacks (such as the threatened cuts to coverage expanded by the Affordable Care Act) and internal gatekeeping and horizontal oppression (such as a community member being silenced due to an unpopular or uninformed opinion). There are essays that involve the work of teaching towards a better future, such as community lawyer Talila A. Lewis's "the birth of resistance: courageous dreams, powerful nobodies & revolutionary madness" which opens with a creative classroom writing prompt: "The year is 2050. There are no prisons. What does justice look like?" And there are, too, personal meditations on what resistance looks like for people who don't always have the mobility or ability to march in the streets or confront their lawmakers in person, as Ojibwe writer Mari Kurisato explains:

"My resistance comes from who I am as a Native and as an LGBTQIA woman. Instinctively, the first step is reaching out and making connections across social media and MMO [massively multiplayer online] games, the only places where my social anxiety lets me interact with people on any meaningful level."

The authors of these essays mostly have a clear activist bent, and are working, lauded, active people; they are gracious, vivid parts of society. Editor Alice Wong demonstrates her own commitments in the diversity of these writers' lived experiences: they are people of color and Native folk, they encompass the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, they come from different class backgrounds, and their disabilities range widely. They are also incredibly hopeful: Their commitment to disability justice comes despite many being multiply marginalized. Artist and poet Noemi Martinez, who is queer, chronically ill, and a first generation American, writes that "Not all communities are behind me and my varied identities, but I defend, fight, and work for the rights of the members of all my communities." It cannot be easy to fight for those who oppress parts of you, and yet this is part of Martinez's commitment.

While people with disabilities have long been subjected to serve as "inspirations" for the non-disabled, this anthology's purpose is not to succumb to this gaze, even though its authors' drive, creativity, and true commitment to justice and reform is apparent. Instead, these essays are meant to spur disabled and non-disabled people alike into action, to remind us that even if we can't see the end result, it is the fight for equality and better conditions for us all that is worth it. As activist and MFA student Aleksei Valentin writes:

"Inspiration doesn't come first. Even hope doesn't come first. Action comes first. As we act, as we speak, as we resist, we find our inspiration, our hope, that which helps us inspire others and keep moving forward, no matter the setbacks and no matter the defeats."

Ilana Masad is an Israeli American fiction writer, critic and founder/host of the podcast The Other Stories . Her debut novel, All My Mother's Lovers, is forthcoming from Dutton in 2020.

Home         About the Author         Key Documents         Accessibility

• There Oughta’ Be A Law: Discriminatory Short-Circuit of Summer Job
• There Oughta’ Be a Law: The Bob Brunner Story
• A Dozen Things to Know About the ADA
• Who Really Wrote the ADA?
• Landmark Education Rights Precedent: The Gail H. Story
• Cross-Country Wheelchair Trek and Statue of Liberty Accessibility
• Tom Gilhool and Me
• Disability, Pandemic, and Discrimination: People With Disabilities Shafted Again
• Early Years with a Disability
• Family Background and the Gray Period
• Disability Rights Movement
• To the National Council
• Toward Independence and the Vision of an ADA
• Prelude to Drafting the Original ADA Bill
• Drafting and Introduction of the Original ADA Bill
• ADA 1990 & Beyond

DISABILITY, PANDEMIC, AND DISCRIMINATION: PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES SHAFTED AGAIN

This essay identifies a number of ways in which measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic have shafted persons with disabilities, and analyzes how and why people with disabilities were shortchanged. As all Americans and all agencies of government and the private sector do their parts to end the pandemic and get the country back on its feet, they must do so in a way that ensures equal justice and avoids discrimination against people with disabilities. Doing so involves two interrelated components: (1) Recognizing and putting into action certain fundamental principles about fair and humane treatment of people with disabilities; and (2) Operationalizing policies and measures addressing the COVID-19 crisis to reflect the needs and respect the human and legal rights of people with disabilities.

By Robert L. Burgdorf Jr.

March 19, 2021

With special thanks to my daughter Molly Burgdorf, a disability advocate, lawyer, and a woman with a disability, whose generous input and ideas were integral to  the conceptualization and substance of this essay.

On March, 18, 2020, less than a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, the National Council on Disability (NCD) issued this warning:

[P]eople with chronic illnesses and other disabilities have been left behind, denied resources to survive, and as a result, have suffered great losses of life because of lack of emergency preparation that respects every life, and by outright discrimination by medical practitioners who, through ignorance of the law or due to the belief that people with disabilities are less valuable, and therefore less deserving of medical care, than those who are not. Such prejudice has fed into the belief that people with disabilities, especially the most weak and vulnerable, should be put out of their misery. NCD opposes these views and any medical actions that implicitly and explicitly disregard the dignity of the lives of people with disabilities. These beliefs have always been dangerous – but COVID-19 raises NCD’s concerns to an unprecedented level. [1]

Mistreatment, marginalization, and even annihilation of people with disabilities are nothing new.

The history of society’s formal methods for dealing with [people with disabilities] can be summed up in two words: segregation and inequality. Individuals with [disabilities] have faced an almost universal conspiracy to shunt them aside from the mainstream of society and to deny them an equal share of benefits and opportunities available to others. [2]

Since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, public awareness and recognition of the legal and human rights of people with disabilities have been growing. The ADA was widely heralded as ending “second-class citizenship” of people with disabilities. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, such high hopes and positive trends have been undercut by disregard for and maltreatment of people with disabilities in many of the programs, practices, rules, and policies government and private agencies have developed in response to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has injured and killed all kinds of people. As of this writing, some 119,000,000 cases and over 2,600,000 deaths have occurred worldwide, with more than 29,000,000 cases and nearly 530,000 deaths in the United States; and untold numbers of people are suffering ongoing, harmful after-effects of the virus. Unquestionably, some parts of society – including Black people, Latinx people, indigenous people, older adults, poor people, health-care workers, L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people, and prisoners and detainees – have been hit particularly hard.

The virus has also slammed people with disabilities. In February 2021, American broadcast journalist Amy Goodman hosted an episode of her Democracy Now! television and radio program that featured a panel of disability activists describing the brutal consequences of discrimination on the basis of disability in the face of the pandemic. Goodman began the segment by recognizing the “devastating impact” that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people with disabilities, noting that they “are two to three times more likely to die from COVID.” [3]

Yet, too often people with disabilities are inappropriately excluded, ignored, or treated badly in procedures and policies deployed to address the virus. The purpose of this essay is to shed light on and analyze why and how COVID measures have severely shortchanged persons with disabilities.

The following outline summarizes major topics:

I.  COVID-19 Is Ultra Harmful to People with Disabilities

• Because of Increased Medical Vulnerability
• Because of Discrimination and Bias by Medical Personnel
• Based on Other Systemic Inequities that Predated the Pandemic

II.  COVID-19 Measures and Policies Discriminate Against People with Disabilities

• Discrimination in the Allocation of Treatment and Services
• Delay and Failures in Addressing Congregate Settings Issues
• Woefully Inadequate Data Collection
• Absence of Needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Inadequacies in COVID Testing Programs
• Inequities, Confusion, and Frustration in Vaccine Allocation for People with Disabilities
• Devalued Vaccination Status of Children and Adolescents

III.  Recent Developments and Current Status

• Progress in Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Ongoing Flaws and Problems for People with Disabilities in COVID-19 Pandemic Efforts
• Much More Needs to Be Done to Achieve Equal Access to Medical Equipment, Services, Facilities, Treatment, and Vaccinations

IV.  Going Forward from Here

• Fundamental Guiding Principles
• Rectifying COVID-19 Policy and Practice Shortcomings

A. Because of Increased Medical Vulnerability

• Heightened Susceptibility to COVID-19 of People with Disabilities

People with disabilities are at greater risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19. CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has published lists of some medical conditions that cause increased risk for being infected and for severe illness or death from the virus. [4]   As one disability activist aptly observed: “Studies show that people with disabilities who contract the virus are much more likely to die from it. … The science says people with disabilities are disproportionately dying of COVID.” [5]   Moreover, aside from medical conditions, a significant proportion of the population with disabilities are themselves Black, Latinx, indigenous, older, unemployed, poor, homeless, L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+, of higher weight, essential workers, or members of other groups that are at high risk from COVID infection. Having more than one risk factor for contracting the coronavirus and suffering serious consequences from it exponentially multiplies the perils for people with disabilities. It also makes such people prone to what has been termed “intersectional discrimination,” a double-dose of discriminatory treatment based on their overlapping identities or circumstances. [6]

B. Because of Discrimination and Bias by Medical Personnel

• Bias Against People with Disabilities

We people with disabilities are well aware that we often get short shrift in society. In a 1997 report, the National Council on Disability (NCD) observed that “[o]ne of the hallmarks of societal attitudes toward disabilities has been a tendency of people without disabilities to overestimate the negative aspects and underestimate the positive features of the lives of those who have disabilities.” [7]   NCD added that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights described the negative connotations of disability as “extremely extensive”: “To the fact that a [person with a disability] differs from the norm physically or mentally, people often add a value judgment that such a difference is a big and very negative one.” [8]   It is not surprising that some such misguided attitudes and biased thinking regularly infect the health care industry. In the 1997 report, NCD gave a big tip of the hat to medical professionals:

Many people with disabilities have been great beneficiaries of the miracles of modern medicine. Some owe their very lives and others much of their ability to function to the medical profession. Lifesaving treatments, rehabilitative surgical techniques, new medications, and numerous other medical advances have greatly improved chances for survival, the amelioration of limitations, and options for accommodating disabilities.

But NCD proceeded to make critical judgments of medical treatment of patients with disabilities, noting that people with disabilities frequently see firsthand  evidence that doctors are negatively disposed toward them:

Individuals with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities have encountered numerous kinds of fervently pronounced, but inaccurate predictions by members of the medical profession. Some have been told that they or their children would not survive, or would not regain  consciousness, or would not walk, or would not read, or would not be toilet-trained, or could not live independently, or could not perform particular activities, and yet ultimately found these predictions to be wildly inaccurate.

An April 15, 2020, story by NPR journalist Joseph Shapiro, “People with Disabilities Fear Pandemic Will Worsen Medical Biases,” presented numerous examples of outrageous denials of medical treatment to people with disabilities because of doctors’ prejudice against them. [9] “Almost every person with a disability, or their family, can tell a story of a time when they were treated dismissively or even denied the care they needed,” Shapiro observed. He also described complaints filed by disability groups in several states to challenge crisis of care standards and their application to cut care to individuals with disabilities, prompting the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to strike down an Alabama policy that would have allowed doctors to deny ventilators to some adults and children with intellectual disabilities or people with “moderate to severe dementia.” The Office for Civil Rights declared that “any guidelines for triage of care could not put disabled people and the elderly ‘at the end of the line’ for care.”

Small wonder that in a report issued in February 2021 a coalition of disability rights and civil rights organizations, and academic authorities, supported by scientific citations and poignant examples, declared starkly, though far from surprisingly to the disability community, that “ [d]iscrimination based on disability is pervasive in the medical profession. ” [10]

In addition to a large body of other supportive authority, this conclusion is firmly corroborated by the results of a groundbreaking survey of practicing physicians’ perceptions of people with disabilities and their health care, the first of its kind, also published in February of this year. [11]   Authors of the survey made a number of important and sobering observations: for centuries, societies have stigmatized people with disabilities; physicians often share these societal prejudices toward those having disabilities; more than 30 years after the enactment of the ADA, the population with disabilities “continues to experience inequitable health care on many levels”; large proportions of practicing U.S. physicians appear to hold biased or stigmatized perceptions of people with disabilities; the authors were “unaware of prior studies in which physicians expressed this level of bias toward other populations that also experience disparities in care (for example, racial or ethnic minorities or people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender)”; and found it only reasonable that such explicit bias has deleterious effects on care equity for people with disabilities. Nearly one-fifth of survey respondents “strongly” agreed that patients with disabilities are “often treated unfairly in the health care system.” Reacting to the doctors’ attitudes, Dr. Iezzoni, one of the lead authors of the study said, “I was horrified.” The authors also acknowledged the unfortunate fact that medical schools generally do not include disability topics in their curricula.

The existence of pervasive, detrimental discrimination on the basis of disability in medical care has been and is an indisputable reality that makes people with disabilities more at risk from COVID infection, by keeping them from having a fair and equal chance of obtaining protective measures and equipment, medical treatments, timely COVID-19 vaccination, and other benefits and services for avoiding infection; treating the disease effectively; and lessening its short and long-term health consequences.

C.  Based on Other Systemic Inequities that Predated the Pandemic          

• Where People Live and Receive Services

Living in congregate settings increases the risk of infection and death from COVID-19. A high percentage of people in residential treatment and care facilities are elderly people with disabilities. Placement and confinement of people with disabilities in nursing homes, group homes, and other types of congregate living facilities, including psychiatric hospitals and board and care homes, usually means warehousing people with disabilities in settings that have experienced extremely elevated rates of COVID-19 infections, serious complications, and deaths. Too often, these are situations where social distancing is difficult or practically impossible because of shared rooms, shared facilities, and shared staff.

Being forced to live or remain in these types of places to get the services you need has too often become a veritable death sentence due to high infection and death rates. More than 100,000 deaths of residents and staff in long-term care facilities had been reported as of the last week in November 2020 – a number that is certainly an undercount [consider the example of the Attorney General of the state of New York recently reporting that the State Health Department and Governor Cuomo had underreported deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent [12] ], and does not include all the types of congregate settings where people with disabilities live and receive services.

• Increased Exposure to COVID Virus

Due to factors such as dependence on close interaction with personal care assistance, nursing care, and household help providers; more reliance on public or shared transportation; lower socio-economic status; and higher rates of homelessness and unemployment; people with disabilities tend to have more frequent contact with people at high risk of having been infected with COVID-19, often in the absence of adequate protective measures and equipment, and other safeguards.

• Prior Health and Medical Care Disparities

People with disabilities have long faced barriers to accessing health care due to structural, systemic, architectural, and communication obstacles. People with disabilities also have higher rates of the types of health conditions (e.g., obesity, smoking, heart disease, and diabetes) that are risk factors for severe illness and higher rates of death from COVID-19.

• Other Exacerbating Factors

Some other problems for people with disabilities, such as the lack of affordable, accessible housing and nutritious food, that predated the pandemic and can impair a person’s health, have been significantly intensified by COVID-19.

• Availability of Health Care and Need for Mental Health Services

A fundamental and growing problem is insufficient timely access to adequate health care for people infected with COVID, many of whom are experiencing long-term or permanent effects. In an environment where the protections of the Affordable Care Act have been continually under threat, exclusion of people with pre-existing conditions or ceilings on coverage created serious difficulties for a growing segment of the population. Broadly inclusive health care is crucial for all people at risk for contracting COVID-19, and particularly for those persons with disabilities who are in higher peril from the virus. Another critical need is for more mental health services to address mental health consequences of the pandemic, both for those who had a history of mental conditions before the pandemic and those newly affected by a surge in conditions generated in the COVID-19 era.

A. Discrimination in the Allocation of Treatment and Services

• Crisis Standards of Care

To guide the administration of health care services and systems during epidemics and pandemics, when medical resources are typically stretched, most states and health care systems have for many years adopted “Crisis Standards of Care.” These standards address a wide range of administrative policies, practices, and decisions, including (1) broad matters such as staffing, supplies, and facility space options; and (2) more specific practices and issues, such as treatment alternatives and criteria, use of PPE, and vaccine allocation. Too often, COVID-19 crisis standards of care have incorporated or engendered discriminatory courses of action toward individuals with disabilities, prompting the filing of discrimination complaints in a number of states. The COVID-19 crisis standards plans or their implementation have in many instances resulted in medical restrictions that devalue the lives of people with disabilities. Examples include inappropriate rationing and reallocation (overtly or covertly) of medical treatment, ventilators and other medical devices; and the deprivation of other necessary and often life-saving medical care.

Crisis standards of care have often reflected a bias against disabled people and older adults. They typically prioritize care towards patients who are younger and do not have disabilities, excluding or de-prioritizing those who have certain health conditions, those who are presumed unlikely to survive in the intermediate or long term, and those presumed to require greater resources to survive the acute episode of illness. Crisis standards of  care, therefore, may direct medical resources away from those with certain disabilities due to medical bias, which can be conscious or unconscious. [13]

In “Disability Rights as a Necessary Framework for Crisis Standards of Care and the Future of Health Care,” published in The Hastings Center Report on June 29, 2020, 14 scholars sounded an alert about the problem of disability bias in the framing of COVID-19 crisis standards of care, and advocated for a shift toward what they called “disability justice” as an alternative. [14]   The essay began:

The COVID‐19 pandemic has highlighted systemic disadvantages that people with disabilities face in the health care system. While catastrophic health emergencies demand an immediate response that often precludes addressing underlying systemic discrimination, there is a moral duty to shine a light on structural disability bias that may distort how crisis standards of care are put into practice.

The authors argued “for the full recognition of the moral equality of [people with disabilities] in formulating crisis standards of care and in modifying social and institutional practices in light of the inequities that the crisis highlights and exacerbates, [so that] the demand ‘Nothing about us without us’ is truly met.” They characterized their essay as offering “concrete recommendations for reforms before, during, and after a public health emergency,” and were hopeful that the “work of disability rights groups during this crisis [will] help advance the field of bioethics so it continues to develop as a disability-conscious field of inquiry and practice.”

In the “Physicians’ Perceptions” study discussed previously, the authors declared that “qualitative research studies involving interviews with people with disability suggest that physicians often make erroneous assumptions about patients’ values and preferences, limiting their health care options and compromising quality of care,” and provided several examples with citations. [15]   They added:

Some physicians believe that they have superior technical knowledge about disabling conditions, but they can be wrong, taking actions that harm patients. An example is physicians incorrectly believing that all patients with spinal cord injury cannot feel pain below the level of their injury and therefore refusing to provide pain relief for procedures below that level, thus causing these patients sometimes excruciating pain.

The authors of the survey pointed out that the ADA prohibits eligibility criteria that screen out people with disabilities or people with particular disabilities from receiving lifesaving treatment, or crisis standards of care that exclude or give lower priority of care for persons with particular medical conditions, giving examples of such denials that would not pass muster under the ADA. Ultimately, the authorities and scholars who worked on the report provided a clear overview of their insights into the application of crisis standards of care:

[T]he COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing aspects of US health care that severely disadvantage people with disabilities. As states  promulgated crisis standards of care to guide decisions allocating scarce resources, such as tests, intensive care unit beds, and mechanical ventilators, some of these standards explicitly excluded people with disabilities. Concerns that crisis standards of care would discriminate against people with disabilities prompted the HHS Office for Civil Rights to warn on March 28, 2020, that “persons with disabilities should not be denied medical care on the basis of stereotypes, assessments of quality of life, or judgments about a person’s relative ‘worth’ based on the presence or absence of disabilities.” Our study underscores that many physicians perceive worse quality of life for people with disabilities. The high prevalence of negative perceptions of living with disabilities raises questions about constituting the triage teams that make critical resource decisions when crisis standards of care are invoked. Proactively assessing implicit and explicit biases toward disability among physicians involved in decision making concerning crisis standards of care is critically important. [Emphasis added]

It is essential that decisions about treatment allocation must be made fairly, based on individualized determinations using current objective medical evidence, and not based on generalized inaccurate assumptions about a person’s disability, or metrics that are unfairly weighted against people with disabilities.

• Visitation Policies Affecting Family Members and Support Personnel

Consistent with CDC guidance, most states and health care facilities issued policies restricting visitors as a containment effort in response to COVID-19. To benefit fully from health care and treatment programs and services, some people with disabilities need to have personal contact with support personnel, not only as provided by the facility, but often by family members or other support persons, to assist them. Such supporters may need to be present in person to: facilitate effective communication with health care providers and other staff; coordinate and provide essential services or participate in treatment; give informed consent; and otherwise facilitate equal access to care and treatment. Contact with family members, and outside medical professionals, including specialists and therapists may be key ingredients to physical and emotional well-being of some individuals with disabilities. Individualized modifications to visitation policies, along with precautions to contain the spread of infection, are needed, but too many states and health care systems have placed unnecessary obstacles between people with disabilities and the crucial assistance of their necessary supporters. Health care providers are required to make accommodations for visitation where needed for essential services or effective communication when the absence of such accommodation would impede equal access to care and services.

B. Delay and Failures in Addressing Existing Congregate Settings Issues

• Fundamental Need to Eliminate Unnecessary Residential Confinement

Eliminating unnecessary confinement in restrictive residential facilities is a critical, baseline issue for people with disabilities – both before and even more since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. The ADA and court decisions interpreting the law sought to end this type of segregation and recognized a right to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to the person’s needs. Despite the fact that this is what many people with disabilities want, and that it’s often less expensive, people continue to be stuck in congregate settings rather than in the community.

• Necessity of Enhanced Use of Medicaid Funding for Home and Community-Based Services

Addressing unwarranted confinement of people with disabilities in restrictive residential facilities must include substantially more investment in home and community-based services (HCBS) to provide opportunities for Medicaid beneficiaries to receive services in their own homes or community rather than in institutions or other isolated settings. For many, Medicaid is the only source of funding for the services to support their activities of daily living (bathing, dressing eating, toileting, etc.) This country provides an entitlement to receive these services in a nursing home setting (places where rates of COVID and related mortality have soared), but the same entitlement does not automatically apply to community settings. States can choose, but are not required, to cover the costs for people to receive services and supports in their homes or community, rather than in an institutional setting, but they should opt to facilitate such funding for people with disabilities.

• Heading in the Wrong Direction Regarding Institutional Confinement

Instead of accelerating moving people out and finding ways to help diminish confinement in congregate facilities by promoting the development of community-based alternatives, the pandemic has resulted in suspending plans for individuals’ return to the community, preventing transitioning out of institutions. At the same time, in the name of allocating beds to the most critically ill patients, hospitals have discharged many patients to nursing homes.

C. Woefully Inadequate Data Collection

• Deficient Data on the Impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities

There is a paucity of data regarding how the pandemic has affected those with disabilities and their supporters (paid staff, volunteers, and familial supports). Little data are generally available regarding the numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in those groups; and data that have been collected are frequently inaccurate. In one widely publicized incident, the Attorney General of the state of New York recently issued a report stating that the State Health Department and Governor Cuomo had underreported deaths from COVID-19 in nursing home populations by as much as 50 percent. [16]   And such understating of incidence of dire results for those with disabilities is hardly rare. In addition to concerns about undercounting of cases and deaths of people with disabilities, some studies have suggested that all too frequently deaths of people with disabilities are inaccurately attributed to underlying disabilities rather than COVID infection. The overall lack of accurate, comprehensive data on impacts on people with disabilities clearly has had detrimental implications for vaccine allocation and other COVID response efforts and funding.

D. Absence of Needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• PPE Not Provided

Too often people with disabilities and their service providers have not received PPE in circumstances where it is needed to protect such individuals’ safety. There has been a severely inadequate focus on the provision of necessary PPE, both for persons with disabilities and for direct support professionals who provide home and community-based services. This has been fueled by a lack of proper oversight, ignorance of the needs of people with disabilities, and administrative complications and foul-ups.

E. Inadequacies in COVID Testing Programs

• Lack of Priority for COVID Testing of People with Disabilities

In general, COVID-19 testing for people with disabilities and those who provide services to them has not been a priority. As a result, those groups have been under-tested, with the result that contact tracing regarding them has been impaired and often impossible, preventing them from knowing whether they have been exposed to COVID-19 and whether they risk severe illness, and/or infecting their families, friends, and care providers.

• Obstacles to Testing

Barriers have hampered or prevented COVID testing for people with disabilities. These have included architectural, communication, and transportation barriers at testing sites or difficulties in getting to such sites; inaccessible websites, information and scheduling services; documentation requirements (many people with disabilities, including people experiencing homelessness or who have lived in institutions may lack the necessary documents, such as a government-issued photo ID, which can be costly and time-consuming to obtain); and drive-in only testing sites, which can be a barrier or prohibitively expensive for those people with disabilities who do not drive.

F. Inequities, Confusion, and Frustration in Vaccine Allocation for People with Disabilities

• Unclear and Fluctuating Priority for Vaccination of People with Disabilities

As COVID-19 began its rampage around the globe, medical personnel, public health officials, and governmental entities faced an unknown and complex virus. Methods for dealing with it have evolved and changed rapidly as more information, data, and technology have become available. In the United States, the initial lack of centralized governmental policies and standards for treatment, vaccine distribution, and other elements of addressing the pandemic; coupled with the multiplicity of agencies responsible for overseeing, regulating, and implementing preventive and remedial measures; led to a hodgepodge of varying and vacillating policies and standards. Uncertainty and confusion have been widespread in regard to establishing priorities for COVID vaccinations, and particularly as to the prioritization accorded people with disabilities.

• Starting Point – Recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

The CDC has assumed responsibility for making recommendations on the priority in which various groups of people should receive the COVID-19 vaccine. On December 3, 2020, CDC announced that initial supplies of the vaccine should be offered to healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents; it designated this as Phase 1a of the vaccine rollout. On December 22, 2020, CDC issued recommendations covering Phases 1b and 1c, as follows: Phase 1b included frontline essential workers and people aged 75 and older, while Phase 1c included people aged 65 to 74 years, people aged 16 to 74 with underlying medical conditions , and essential workers other than healthcare personnel (already included in 1b). [17]   CDC proposed and promoted the tiered concept of vaccine prioritization, but its views were merely “recommendations.” It fell to the states and other officials to issue more specific and more-or-less binding orders, policies, and regulations governing the actual implementation of COVID-19 prevention, treatment, and vaccine roll-out programs.

• Underlying Medical Conditions vs. Disabilities

To elaborate on what it meant by “underlying medical conditions” that it sometimes seemed to equate with “disabilities,” CDC referred to a list of “People with Certain Medical Conditions,” that it cautioned is “a living document” that is “not exhaustive and only includes conditions with sufficient evidence to draw conclusions,” and “may be updated at any time.” It was intended to cover adults who “are at risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19.” [18]   CDC’s commentary on Certain Medical Conditions lists specific conditions in two categories; the first, of persons “at increased risk of severe illness” from the virus associated with cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), Down Syndrome, heart conditions, immunocompromised state from organ transplant, severe obesity, sickle cell disease, and Type 2 diabetes; the second, of people who “ might be at an increased risk for severe illness,” includes asthma (moderate-to-severe), cerebrovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, hypertension or high blood pressure, immunocompromised state from causes other than organ transplants, neurologic conditions such as dementia, liver disease, pulmonary fibrosis, thalassemia (a blood disorder), and Type 1 diabetes. [19]   Many of the conditions found on CDC’s two lists would qualify as “disabilities” in many contexts, but the lists are neither precise nor exhaustive, leaving a lot of open questions to be filled in by states and health officials charged with directing and implementing COVID-19 treatment and vaccine administration.

• Disabilities and Eligibility for Vaccine Priority

As state and local governments and medical providers began to roll out their distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, they identified categories of targeted recipients and began to specify the priority in which people in each category should receive shots. In doing so, they generally tried, at least initially, to follow the CDC recommendations regarding to the degree of priority for persons with disabilities. This was not easy or fool-proof, as the CDC Certain Medical Conditions lists were in large part prepared with a focus on treatment and illness prevention, and informing individuals with information about the risks they might face from COVID-19; did not seek to include rare conditions; and were, as CDC expressly stated, not attempting to be exhaustive. The lists were a relatively small sampling drawn from among a multitude of disabling conditions. For examples of some disabilities not included in CDC’s examples, see the text associated with endnote 23. To some extent, the CDC lists gave an impression of clarity that they did not fully deliver. And while CDC, most medical authorities, and state officials often gave lip-service to the notion that people with disabilities should be prioritized for COVID vaccination, as they are at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, significant questions remained about what level of priority they should be given and to which people with disabilities priority should be extended . Because such lists are used to include some people and exclude others. it is critical that they be developed with substantial involvement, consultation, input, and oversight of the disability community.

• Misguided Quality of Life Judgments

Much of the disability bias and discrimination discussed previously is centered on faulty – usually negative – predictive assessments of the quality of life of individuals (patients) with disabilities. As NCD wrote in 1997:

In reality, such attitudes and negative predictions of life quality have little to do with the actual life experiences of people with disabilities. People with disabilities commonly report more satisfaction with their lives than others might have expected. Though they commonly encounter obstacles, prejudice, and discrimination, most people with disabilities manage to derive satisfaction and pleasure from their lives.

After conducting a nationwide poll of people with disabilities, Louis Harris and Associates reported that “[d]espite their disadvantaged status and frequent exclusion from activities enjoyed by most Americans, a large majority of disabled Americans are satisfied with their lives”; the Harris organization described this as “a remarkable finding in light of the portrait of hardships revealed in these survey findings.” Even individuals who identified themselves as having very severe disabilities tended to report that they were very or somewhat satisfied with their lives. [20]

The report of the coalition of disability rights and civil rights organizations, and academic authorities, on crisis standards of care and intersectional medical discrimination observed that “[n]on-disabled medical professionals frequently presume that disabled people have a lower quality of life, reflecting a lack of understanding about how people with significant disabilities can live fully, enjoy their lives as much as anyone else, achieve as much or more than others, and  where necessary develop alternative strategies to accomplish goals that others assume are off-limits to them.” [21]

And yet, a striking finding of the study on physicians’ perceptions of people with disabilities was that over 82 percent of participants reported that people with  significant disabilities have worse quality of life than people without disabilities. The authors noted that, not surprisingly, some patients with disabilities “express frustration about physicians’ lack of insight into the quality of their daily lives.” Elaborating on this situation, the authors commented:

More than twenty years ago, researchers investigated how perceptions of the quality of life of people with disabilities can diverge from societal assumptions. These inquiries identified a so-called disability paradox: that many people with significant disability equilibrate to living with functional limitations and enjoy good quality of life. Under the disability paradox, “the general public, physicians and other health care workers perceive that persons with disabilities have an unsatisfying quality of life despite the fact that over 50% of these people report an excellent or good quality of life.”

In the COVID-19 pandemic, however, states are too often making decisions about the level of priority to be assigned to people with disabilities for receiving  vaccinations (and treatment) based on uninformed underestimations of quality of life expectations for such individuals.

• Major Vaccine Prioritization Policies and Practices Reflect Discrimination

A number of disagreements and disputes have arisen in regard to prioritization of persons with disabilities for COVID inoculation. Three significant area of concern have been: states that have not made disability a priority category; the failure of eligibility lists to include all those conditions putting people at high risk of infection by the virus; and inoculation information and appointments websites and vaccination sites that are not accessible and disability user-friendly. [22]   Disability advocates pushed for expansion of the conditions on the priority lists (to add a variety of other conditions, including muscular dystrophy, progressive lung disease and respiratory failure, multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia, and cerebral palsy, to name but a few), as well as for higher priority of people with disabilities in general. [23]   Controversy arose about the fact that people who were not residing in long-term care facilities were not prioritized for vaccination even if they have very severe conditions, while people with identical or less severe conditions were near the front of the line for their shots if they lived in a long-term care facility. Residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities and older adults were prioritized, as is appropriate. But others living in the community were not similarly afforded priority for vaccination even though they are often at higher risk for contracting the virus and have conditions that increase their likelihood of severe disease or death, in part because many receive daily, in-person services and supports that cannot be provided from a distance (coupled with the lack of adequate PPE). Despite objections from the National Council on Disability, nine states have expressly excluded those living at home or in congregate settings other than nursing homes and assisted living facilities (e.g., group homes and psychiatric facilities) from prioritization for the vaccine. [24]   Further, sometimes people with disabilities have a condition that makes them eligible for priority vaccination, but no priority was given to direct support professionals who provide home and community-based services for them. Conversely, in other circumstances, some people with disabilities have not been able to obtain inoculation even though their personal and medical care support personnel have been able to.

• Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD (or I/DD))

Although CDC has posted some information about developmental disabilities, including intellectual disability, to date it has not included these conditions on its list of People with Certain Medical Conditions that are to be entitled to Phase 1c vaccine priority. This has led to consternation and inconsistency as states have developed their vaccine allocation plans and schedules, complicated by the breadth and inclusivity of the terms “developmental disabilities” and “intellectual disability,” each of which occurs across a spectrum. Studies showing that people with IDD who contract coronavirus die at sharply higher rates than others have led to calls for those conditions to be designated for early inoculation. [25]

On December 15, 2020, the National Council on Disability (NCD) called for “vaccine allocation equity for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD),” and recommended: “IDD should be included in the list of high-risk diagnoses used to determine vaccine priority…. [I]ndividuals with IDD face alarmingly higher complication and mortality rates from COVID-19, with mortality rates up to 15 percent…. [P]rioritizing individuals with IDD should be made explicit throughout all relevant guidance and state executive orders.” NCD added that “those who live with or provide care to people with IDD should be included in the same phase of vaccine allocation.” [26]   As of this writing, NCD’s protests have yet to persuade many states to address this problem. [27]

• Demotion by Age-Based Approach and Recent Advances

CDC’s placement of adults with underlying medical conditions in the first phase of its recommended vaccine priority recommendations was a positive recognition of the fact that people with disabilities are at greatly increased risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus and of being severely harmed or killed by it. Most states initially followed CDC’s lead on this matter. In more recent times, however, some states decided that, in the name of getting the vaccines out to more people more quickly, they would reorder the priority list to begin immunizing people based on age – effectively de-prioritizing people with disabilities. Previously, people aged 65 or over already took priority under CDC’s recommendations and were included in Phases 1b (75 plus) or 1c (65 to 74). But under some revised state protocols, people less than 65 years of age who met the state’s lower age-floor, whether they have disabilities or not, can “jump the queue” and get inoculated. On February 9, 2021, the National Council on Disability reported:

29 states – Alabama, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia – and Washington, DC, have all de-prioritized persons with disabilities that fall into that category [having underlying conditions and comorbidities that put them at increased risk from COVID]. [28]

A well-publicized example occurred on January 25, 2021, when Governor Newsom of California announced that the state was switching to an “age-based approach,” meaning that after vaccinating those 65 and over and some essential workers, the state would distribute vaccines based on age rather than high-risk health status, or other criteria such as overcrowded living conditions. [29] This meant that, after completing Phase 1b, California would move to immunize people in the order of their ages, and not on the other factors previously considered, including disability. This approach would basically jettison any priority because of a person’s disability no matter how severe or debilitating.

After considerable outcry from people with disabilities, California officials announced that adults with “certain medical conditions” (disabilities?) that put them at increased risk would be eligible for inoculation, along with people aged 65 or over. Recently, on March 15, 2021, California expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to persons aged 16 to 64 having any of ten conditions from the CDC list of medical conditions that put people at “increased risk of severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19”; people can also get vaccinated in California in the following circumstances:

• COVID-19 infection is likely to result in severe, life-threatening illness or death;
• Getting COVID-19 will limit the person’s ability to receive ongoing care or services vital to well-being and survival; or
• Providing adequate and timely COVID-19 care will be particularly challenging as a result of the disability.

People are permitted to self-attest that they have a listed disability or other serious condition, and do not have to provide documentation. [30] These changes were estimated to expand eligibility to some 4.4 million additional people, though early reports were that implementation was spotty. [31]

Pushback from people with disabilities and their supporters has helped to ameliorate and fine-tune age-based policies in some other states to some degree. While it is in everyone’s best interest to vaccinate as many Americans as soon as possible, it should not be done through measures that disadvantage and risk the health and lives of people with disabilities by moving them lower on the vaccine eligibility list.

• Current Place of People with Disabilities in the COVID Waiting Line

Important information about the status of people with disabilities in the quest for COVID-19 inoculation emerged in the first week of March 2021. On March 1, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), which provides information on health policy matters, issued a substantial and informative “issue brief” report on “COVID-19 Vaccine Access for People with Disabilities.” [32]   After noting that people in nursing homes accounted for a disproportionate share of deaths attributed to COVID-19, the authors contrasted that with the scant data available regarding people with disabilities in other settings:

[L]ess attention has been paid to nonelderly people with disabilities who use long-term services and supports (LTSS) but live outside of nursing homes. This population includes people with a range of disabilities, such as people with autism or Down’s syndrome who live in group homes, people with physical disabilities who receive personal care services at home, and people who are receiving behavioral health treatment in residential facilities. Some nonelderly people with disabilities receive LTSS in a variety of community-based settings such as group homes, adult day health programs, and/or their own homes. Other nonelderly people with disabilities receive LTSS in institutional settings such as intermediate care facilities for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (ICF/IDD) or behavioral health treatment centers for people with mental illness or substance use disorder. Many nonelderly people with disabilities, both in the community and in institutions, rely on Medicaid as the primary payer for the LTSS on which they depend for meeting daily self-care needs.

The document continued:

Nonelderly people with disabilities and the direct care workers who provide their LTSS have similar risk factors for serious illness or death from COVID-19  compared to their counterparts in nursing homes, due to the close contact required to provide assistance with daily personal care tasks, such as eating, dressing, and bathing; the congregate nature of many of these settings; and the highly transmissible nature of the coronavirus. Seniors in nursing homes are explicitly  included in the top priority group in all states’ COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans, but nonelderly people with disabilities who use LTSS may be not prioritized.

A significant finding in the issue brief addressed the absence of adequate data regarding the impact of COVID-19 on persons with disabilities: “ The wide  variety in state reporting makes it difficult to compare between states or have a complete understanding of how people with disabilities have been impacted by the pandemic.” The data available from the limited number of states reporting them indicated that people who receive long-term services and supports in settings other than nursing homes and assisted living facilities have an elevated risk of COVID-19 infection ranging from 19% to 50% – on a par with rates of infection for residents of nursing homes, and well above the 8% overall rate of COVID infection among the U.S. population as a whole. Though less than comprehensive, the available data support research suggesting that congregate settings, particularly larger facilities, are at high risk for COVID outbreaks.

Noting that “people with disabilities rely on the close physical proximity of caregivers for communication and daily needs, which limits their ability to adopt preventive measures such as social distancing,” the Kaiser issue brief cited several studies documenting that people with various types of disabilities had highly elevated rates of COVID infection and fatalities from it. Moreover, the authors found that direct care workers who provide long-term services and supports outside of nursing homes face increased risks from COVID-19, similar to their nursing home counterparts. And yet, “[f]ew state vaccination plans explicitly mention direct care workers who provide LTSS in settings other than nursing homes.”

As to COVID-19 vaccination for persons with disabilities themselves, the Kaiser document presented a disturbing recognition that “[f]ew state vaccination plans explicitly mention people with disabilities.” It elaborated that “[a] few states do specifically prioritize people with disabilities in their vaccinations plans,” and mentioned eight states that provide some form of priority from among a hodgepodge of disability priority categories.

At the end of the Kaiser Family Foundation policy brief, the authors identified three “other policy issues [that] will affect access to vaccines for people with disabilities”:

• People with disabilities who receive services in the community or in non-nursing facility institutions may face accessibility barriers at vaccine distribution sites.
• People with disabilities and their direct care providers may benefit from focused messaging as part of general vaccine outreach and public education efforts.
• [P]olicymakers may want to consider people with disabilities in data collection efforts to help inform and refine current vaccine distribution and access efforts and identify disparities such as those based on race or ethnicity.

G. Devalued Vaccination Status of Children and Adolescents

• Children and Adolescents Generally

CDC recommendations and most states’ COVID vaccination schedules put a very low priority on the vaccination of young people. CDC recommendations basically gave no priority at all except to those at least 18 years old (or in a few circumstances, 16), even those with underlying medical conditions, though some states have applied their own variations. The primary rationales for this limitation are: (1) that children have not been included in studies of effectiveness and safety of COVID vaccination, so they must wait until such testing has been done; and (2) that, in any case, children and adolescents are unlikely to contract COVID-19, and, if they do, are very unlikely to have severe or fatal cases. The idea that children are at little risk from COVID-19 is actually the basis for both rationales, since the decision not to include children in vaccination testing was a policy decision largely fueled by an a priori assumption that there was no urgency in determining the safety and effectiveness of inoculating children, thus inevitably delaying the possibility of earlier administration of vaccines to them. Moreover, the assumption that risk to children is small or negligible was left untested and unverified because relatively little attention was devoted to testing and compiling data regarding the impact of the pandemic on children.

Actually, considerable scientific evidence indicates that these rationales for low priority of children and adolescents for COVID vaccination are not as straightforward and sound as they are popularly considered to be. Information about COVID infections of children provided by CDC at the end of 2020, and in an article by a panel of medical experts published in JAMA Pediatrics provide pertinent insights. In regard to children aged 1 month to 18 years, CDC presented the following information:

While “fewer cases of COVID-19 have been reported in children (age 0-17) compared with adults,” … “some cases of COVID-19 in the United States reported to CDC were among children. The number and rate of cases in children in the United States have been steadily increasing. The true incidence of [COVID-19] infection in children is not known due to lack of widespread testing and the prioritization of testing for adults andthose with severe illness.”

As to infections and transmission among children, “Recent evidence suggests that compared to adults, children likely have similar viral loads in their nasopharynx [upper part of the throat behind the nose, part of the respiratory system], similar secondary infections rates, and can spread the virus to others.”

In regard to Severity of Illness in Children, “While children infected with [the virus] are less likely to develop severe illness compared with adults, children are still at risk of developing severe illness and complications from COVID-19. Weekly COVID-19 hospitalization surveillance data show that the rate of hospitalization among children is low compared with that of adults, but hospitalization rates among children are increasing. About 1 in 3 children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States were admitted to the intensive care unit, similar to the rate among adults.” “A recent systematic review estimated that only 16% of children with [COVID-19] are asymptomatic …” [33]

As to the consequences of COVID-19 infection when contracted by children, CDC declared: “Similar to adults, children with severe COVID-19 may develop respiratory failure, myocarditis, shock, acute renal failure, coagulopathy, and multi-organ system failure. Some children with COVID-19 have developed      other serious problems like intussusception or diabetic ketoacidosis. Children infected with [COVID-19] are also at risk for developing Multisystem  Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).” MIS-C is a serious syndrome characterized by high fever, rash, hypotension, gastrointestinal symptoms, and organ dysfunction. Many of its symptoms strongly resemble a very serious condition known as “Kawasaki disease.” According to a study published in Lancet in December 2020, of eight children between the age of 4 and 14 years diagnosed with COVID-19-related MISC-C, three needed mechanical ventilation, and one died. [34]

The September 25, 2020, JAMA Pediatrics article reported the results of a “systematic review and meta-analysis” of studies bearing on the issue of susceptibility of children and adolescents to COVID-19 compared to adults. [35]   The authors found that “[p]reliminary evidence suggests that children have a lower susceptibility to [COVID-19] infection compared with adults,” but with some significant provisos: “The degree to which children and adolescents are infected by and transmit [the COVID-19 virus] remains unclear,” “the role that children and adolescents play in transmission of this virus remains unclear,” and “[d]ata were insufficient to conclude whether transmission of [COVID-19] is lower than by adults.” One disquieting finding from the data review and analysis was that “children and adolescents younger than 20 years had 44% lower odds of secondary infection with [COVID-19] compared with adults 20 years and older.” Thus, children and adolescents have a 44% risk – not far from half – of the risk faced by those 20 years old and above.

Another article in JAMA Pediatrics , this one published on January 11, 2021, focused on state-reported rates of hospitalizations of children for COVID-19 over  a six-month period. During the study period, the rate of pediatric hospitalizations for coronavirus grew dramatically, from 2 per 100,000 of all COVID hospitalizations to 17.2 by the end of the study. [36]   The authors of the study concluded: “Our results present concerning trends in pediatric hospitalizations.  Adult, and especially geriatric, incidence of COVID-19 continues to dominate the national picture, but pediatric populations may require resources that are not readily available across the country.” One of the study authors observed that before the study “[u]nfortunately, the message of ‘lower risk’ in children was  interpreted as ‘no risk’ by many … [and] testing among children has not been wide-scale and consistent to get a good understanding of prevalence of cases and infection rates among children … Our study shows that children can get sick and hospitalized.” [37]

Illuminating data regarding the impact of COVID on children have been collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association from data available from the individual states through their websites and other publicly available reports. In its Summary of Findings updated as of March 5, 2021, AAP found that nearly 3.17 million (3,168,274) children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, representing 13.1% of all cases in the U.S. [38]   Children were found to comprise 1.3% to 3% of reported COVID hospitalizations. And the numbers are increasing: during the two weeks between February 11 to February 25, 2021, there was a 4% increase in the cumulated number of child COVID-19 cases. In the 11 states that reported on their COVID-19 testing, children tested positive 5% to 30% of the time.

Based upon the data, AAP advocated vigorously for prioritizing the vaccination of children. On February 25, 2021, it sent a formal letter to key COVID-19 officials in the federal government urging the Biden Administration to “use every measure available to achieve authorization of COVID-19 vaccines in children as soon as can be done safely.” [39] Stressing the over 3.1 million cases of children infected with the virus during the pandemic, AAP added that the  numbers were rising, with an increase of over two percentage points since November,” and stressed that “[a]mong children who have acquired COVID-19, 247 have died from the virus ….” In light of such statistics, AAP declared:

There is an urgent need for manufacturers to include children in COVID-19 vaccine trials so that our nation’s youngest citizens can benefit from the vaccine as adults have. The same focus and effort from the administration and manufacturers that was expended to enroll adults in COVID-19 vaccine trials must be replicated to enroll adolescents and younger children as soon as possible. Recent predictions from the administration that data for children under age 12 may not be available until early 2022 highlights the need to redouble our efforts to enroll younger children in COVID-19 clinical trials.

AAP issued a news release announcing its letter to Administration officials, with the subheading “AAP writes to White House leaders: Take urgent action so children are not left out of COVID-19 vaccination.” In the release, AAP President, Dr. Lee Savio Beers, commented that “we are not moving fast enough to ensure our children can benefit from these life-saving vaccines,” adding, “This is hard to fathom given how children have suffered throughout the pandemic in ways both seen and unseen. We cannot allow children to be an afterthought when they have shared so much burden throughout this pandemic.” AAP concluded: “We need to apply the same urgency to vaccinate children as we have for adults.”

The current state of CDC recommendations regarding COVID-19 vaccination of people under 20 years of age, as of this writing, is as follows:

CDC has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents 16 years or older, approved the Moderna vaccine for use in persons 18 years or older, and approved the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine for use for persons more than 18 years of age. [40]

The results of a recent CDC study of COVID-19 infection rates among children clarify that children are being infected at rates much higher than was previously believed, underscoring the need to make vaccines available to children below the current limits of 16 or 18 years, and that COVID cases involving children are being substantially underreported. [41]   The researchers examined blood samples of children in Mississippi between the ages of two months and less than 18 years to identify the presence of COVID antibodies, and compared that with the numbers of reported cases of coronavirus among children younger than 18. They found that, while population-weighted extrapolation of the antibody specimens produced an estimate that over 113,000 children were infected, only about 9,000 COVID-19 cases had been reported during the period covered by the study – a huge disparity! The lead author of the CDC-supported report said that “[w]hile we see that younger children more commonly have milder disease with COVID-19, it turns out that there are lot more kids infected with [the virus] than case numbers indicate. … This study clearly shows that kids can be infected with the virus.” [42]

In fact, it appears, based upon the data from the study, that infection rates of  “persons aged less than 18 were similar to those among persons aged 18-49 years, the age group with the highest seroprevalence during the period.”

• Children and Adolescents with Disabilities

If children in general have been largely an “afterthought,” in prioritizing COVID-19 vaccination, children and adolescents with disabilities have often been a tiny footnote or disregarded entirely. Basically, until very recently, CDC has not called for prioritization of people with underlying medical conditions unless they are at least 16 years old, and many states have followed CDC’s lead. The result is that in most jurisdictions, children with disabilities have not been on the early list for vaccination no matter how severe their conditions are and how vulnerable they are to severe and even fatal COVID infection. Thus, while there has been some recognition that children with disabilities have been and are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and being seriously or even fatally affected by it, that fact has not translated to any precedence in obtaining COVID research or vaccine shots. Quite a few disabilities are more prevalent and more injurious in children and adolescents than in adults, and there is no reason to think, or scientific evidence to support, the idea that underlying medical conditions are always less compromising to children and adolescents than to adults. In short, a blanket adults-only standard for COVID vaccination is unwarranted and highly unfair to children and adolescents with disabilities.

III.    Recent Developments and Current Status

A. progress in dealing with the covid-19 pandemic.

As of the one-year anniversary, on March 11, 2021, of the official declaration that COVID-19 was a pandemic, there were signs that we may be beginning to see some rays of light at the end of the tunnel. At the moment, cases and death rates from the virus in the U.S. have begun, at least temporarily, to level out and even decrease some. Vaccinations are increasing rapidly, especially in this country, where, as of this writing, people are being vaccinated at the rate of 2.4 million per day. 41 million people (12.3%) in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, and 116 million vaccination doses have been administered. Dr. Fauci, among other medical authorities, has said that it’s now safe for vaccinated grandparents to visit their grandchildren, and to hug them, indoors without masks and social distancing.

Largely due to pressure from disability advocates and disability organizations, shortcomings of COVID-19 policies and actions regarding people with disabilities are belatedly garnering a modicum of attention and concern. CDC and some states have finally begun to recognize that people with disabilities should be given higher priority for COVID inoculation. On March 3, 2021, the Washington Post reported that CDC was now recommending that states should consider prioritizing people with disabilities. [43] The article said that in allotting vaccine appointments, ‘[t]he latest CDC guidance urges states to consider the ‘unique needs’ of people with disabilities or cognitive decline and their caretakers ….” Advocates for people with disabilities said the updated guidance is “a step in the right direction but does not go far enough.” “It doesn’t resolve the overall uncertainty and lack of clarity for people with disabilities and their families,” said Peter V. Berns, chief executive officer for the Arc of the United States, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In the same March 3, 2021, issue of the Washington Post containing the story about CDC guidance advising prioritization of people with disabilities, there was an article describing the Biden Administration’s pursuance of a “stepped-up” vaccination process in the hope of getting “every adult in America” vaccinated by the end of May (a goal the Administration subsequently moved ahead to May 1).

Change in the COVID-pandemic landscape is in the air, and things are happening rapidly. On March 11, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law. To speed up the country’s recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing recession, the new law, also referred to as the COVID-19 Stimulus Package, dedicates $1.9 trillion to support individuals, businesses, and states affected by COVID-19. Among a long list of funding programs in the Act, it provides billions of dollars for helping elementary and secondary school students return to the classroom; funding for COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration, COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and genome sequencing; one-year funding for Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS); [44] and temporary increases of subsidies for people purchasing health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.

On the same day that he signed the American Rescue Plan Act, President Biden made a prime- time speech to the American people, in which he said he would direct states to make all Americans 18 and over eligible to get vaccinated by May 1, predicted a possible return to some semblance of normalcy for vaccinated people by the Fourth of July, and announced several measures aimed at speeding up vaccinations across the country.

B. Ongoing Flaws and Problems for People with Disabilities in COVID-19 Pandemic Efforts

Despite important progress and significant advances as the battle against the coronavirus continues, the situation is hardly a rosy one for people with disabilities. Most of the serious problems discussed previously in this essay are continuing; many of them have not even been acknowledged, much less remedied. Disability advocates are continuing to battle for safe and equitable treatment in numerous contexts.

One disquieting note for people with disabilities and many other Americans was chronicled in another article in the Washington Post on March 3, 2021, which reported that some states, led by Texas and Mississippi, shortly thereafter followed by Arkansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Virginia and several others, were abandoning some or all of their coronavirus restrictions. [45]   These changes, which permit those states’ residents to stop wearing masks; dine at restaurants without capacity limits; and go to bars, and sports and entertainment venues, and other gatherings that had previously been closed or restricted, raise serious concerns. The Post reported that “[t]he rush to reopen has alarmed federal health officials who believe it could threaten important progress in fighting the virus at a fragile time and open the door to another surge this spring.” There is some evidence that such surges in COVID-19 infection have already begun in some states that relaxed their restrictions.

Also problematic and disappointing is President Biden’s focus on “every adult in America” for vaccination – what about the children and particularly children with disabilities? And children in other categories that render them at greater risk from coronavirus?

The tenor of the current good news/bad news phase of the COVID-19 era is perhaps captured by several recent news events in the state of Maryland. On March 2, 2021, Governor Larry Hogan announced that, in the interest of speeding up COVID-19 inoculations, Maryland was opening up three new mass vaccination sites, and that he was threatening to take unused vaccine doses away from local health departments that did not administer all their coronavirus doses within one week and give them to other vaccine administerers. [46]   These actions were in keeping with the strong push for maximizing vaccinations as soon as possible led by the Biden Administration and gaining traction in many parts of the country. A week later, on March 9, 2021, Governor Hogan announced that he was easing many coronavirus restrictions in the state, including lifting capacity limits at restaurants and opening large indoor and outdoor venues to 50% capacity – declaring prior rules null and void – while keeping in effect the state’s mask mandate. The announcement reportedly caught local officials and public health authorities unawares, leaving many Maryland jurisdictions scrambling to consult with their attorneys to assess the impact of the Governor’s edict on their local public health rules. One public health professor’s initial reaction to the unexpected announcement was, “Wow!”; she added that “[t]here is going to be risk in reopening so quickly, especially when the vast majority of Marylanders [90%] are still unvaccinated.” [47]

On the same day as Governor Hogan’s announcement of Maryland’s COVID reopening, The Arc of the United States issued a news release declaring that on the day before (March 8), The Arc of Maryland filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, alleging that Baltimore City and five Maryland counties were discriminating against people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) by denying them opportunities to access COVID-19 vaccinations, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. [48]   In the case, styled The Arc Maryland v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore Maryland , The Arc Maryland, represented by The Arc of the United States, Disability Rights Maryland, and a private law firm, alleged that “[p]eople with I/DD face heightened risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19,” and that mortality rates among people with I/DD are much higher than people without I/DD. The complaint further alleged that the defendant jurisdictions had omitted people with I/DD from their vaccine eligibility lists and from the jurisdictions’ website services associated with getting vaccinated – preregistration, registration, and telephone contact information. As a result, according to the complaint: “People with I/DD are not aware that they are eligible for the vaccine; are unable to schedule appointments, register, pre-register, or complete interest forms for Defendants’ vaccines; and are delayed or denied access to critical health care services.” [49]

The president of the board of The Arc Maryland declared that “[i]t is frustrating to have our state recognize people with IDD to be in the 1B priority group for the vaccine, only for people with IDD to be denied equitable access to the vaccine from the counties in which they live. We hope this action will result in immediate change for the benefit of all.” [50]   The litigation director of Disability Rights Maryland added:

We need these localities to take immediate corrective action to fix their information; to fix forms that exclude individuals with disabilities from claiming eligibility and seeking vaccine appointments; to tell health department staff and others that people with disabilities are eligible and to assist them with obtaining the vaccine. The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed over thirty years ago with a purpose of ending historic inequities in health care. We need immediate action to protect lives. [51]

C. Much More Needs to Be Done to Achieve Equal Access to Medical Equipment, Services, Facilities, Treatment, and Vaccinations

While some things in the battle against COVID-19 would seem to be looking up, we still have a long way to go. In most states, COVID-19 vaccinations have not been, and are not being, provided to anyone under age 18, and it was only on March 16 that the Moderna drug company announced it was going to begin testing the use of its vaccine in children under 18, including infants under six months; another study of children ages 12 to 17 is already underway, with results that might be available beginning this summer (after which, if successful, the vaccine would still have to await official authorization before it could be administered) to those less than 18 years old. [52] Alarmingly, the Moderna announcement specified that the testing would only be done on “healthy children,” presumably meaning that it would not be able to provide data about the safety of vaccinating children with disabilities.

And even the notion that it’s okay for vaccinated grandparents to cuddle unvaccinated grandchildren is far from as clear as it seems. A March 18, 2021,  article in the Washington Post , “A Visit to Grandma’s? Not Quite Yet: With Variants Circulating and Guidance Limited, Fear Persists after Shots,” [53] sounded a cautionary note: “It is still unclear whether vaccinated people can transmit the coronavirus, and new guidelines released … from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not clearly delineate what is and is not safe for them to do.” As one 80-year-old grandmother observed, the new guidelines “make me more confused than not. It seemed to say one thing in one place, and then you read down further, it negated what you had read.” The article added:

After the pandemic began, many Americans, especially the oldest and most vulnerable, clung to the belief that a vaccine would return them to pre-coronavirus life. But after a year of surges, variants and conflicting or revised opinions from medical authorities, many are questioning – and arguing with their loved ones about – whether the vaccine will be their golden ticket back to the wider world.

Many people who had the requisite vaccine shots are still very leery of unmasked, indoor visits with unvaccinated people. The article elaborated: “[T]he promise of the current vaccines has been clouded by the rise of new variants that may elude them. And with four-fifths of Americans yet to get a first shot, vaccinated people have a hard time knowing how to protect themselves and their family members.”

The CDC guidance restricted permission to meet with (and hug) only those unvaccinated people who are at low risk of severe COVID. The implications of this limitation for meeting with people, especially children with disabilities, given that the CDC has been very hazy as to which disabilities entail high risk of severe COVID infection and that the states have been all over the board about the link between severe COVID susceptibility and disabilities, leaves people in the dark about what is safe. Is it or is it not acceptable to get together indoors without masks and hug, and perhaps smooch, your grandchildren who have asthma, quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or some other disabling condition? Should grandparents and other relatives not living in the same household feel entitled to close visits with their relations, including young children who have disabilities that might render them highly susceptible to harsh consequences of COVID? Given that very, very few children have been vaccinated for COVID-19 (nor has testing been done to determine the safety of  the vaccines for them), and that we do not yet know for sure if vaccinated people can pass the virus to others, isn’t there good reason to be wary of encouraging close contact without the safeguards and masks we have otherwise been requiring? Is the go-ahead-and-hug-now approach justified by scientific data or merely by nostalgic, wishful-thinking that children aren’t really at risk from the virus, and vaccinated people aren’t really very likely to spread the disease – neither of which is validated by presently available scientific evidence? Why endanger our loved ones with disabilities at this point before we have given them priority for vaccine protection? If such questions are answerable at the present time, they have not yet been answered with clarity and consistency by medical authorities or anyone else.

And who gets left holding the bag in the meantime? People with disabilities and their families.

Disability and legal rights advocates have made some important progress since the beginning of the pandemic, but the fact that these fights have been necessary on issue after issue, and in state after state, and that many of them still need to be fought, demonstrates that we’re still far from “elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities,” the stated purpose of the ADA . More data, research, and progress is needed in almost every aspect and phase of defeating the COVID-19 virus in a manner that achieves safety, fairness, and equity toward people with disabilities.

This essay has identified a number of ways in which measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic have shafted persons with disabilities, and analyzed how and why people with disabilities were shortchanged. As all Americans and all agencies of government and the private sector do their parts to end the pandemic and get the country back on its feet, they need to do so in a way that ensures equal justice and avoids discrimination against people with disabilities. Doing so will involve two interrelated components: (1) Recognizing and putting into action certain fundamental principles about fair and humane treatment of people with disabilities; and (2) Operationalizing policies and measures addressing the COVID-19 crisis to reflect the needs and respect the human and legal rights of people with disabilities.

A. Fundamental Guiding Principles

• People with disabilities’ lives are of equal value as other peoples’ lives, and they should be treated as full and equal members of society, with equally valuable rights, dreams, and freedoms.
• It is essential that people with disabilities be part of the planning, development, and implementation of policies, programs, and rules affecting them. As people with disabilities often insist, “Nothing about us without us.”
• People should never be warehoused on the basis of disability. Now more than ever, we can see that it is not only discriminatory and unfair, it’s dangerous. As the Supreme Court has declared, People with Disabilities Receiving Services in Residential Facilities Must Be Served in the Most Integrated Setting Appropriate to the Needs of the Individual.
• To the maximum extent possible, individuals with disabilities shall be allowed to live independently: to exercise freedom of choice; to live where and how they choose; to live within the community in the neighborhood they choose; and to decide their own pattern of life.
• Health care should be available to all. It is essential for people with disabilities.
• Policies, programs, and rules affecting people with disabilities must be based on evidence and verifiable data, not on misperceptions, biases, or uninformed assumptions about disability.
• Prohibitions of discrimination against people with disabilities in the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act are fully applicable to public accommodations and state and local government entities, which include, along with a wide range of other businesses and services, medical care providers, public health agencies, and pharmacies and other prescription drug vendors. And these prohibitions are legally enforceable.

B. Rectifying COVID-19 Policy and Practice Shortcomings

• People with disabilities, both adults and children, are at increased risk from COVID-19 infection. Because of their higher medical vulnerability, they need to be accorded more attention, and priority in all facets of addressing the COVID pandemic.
• The existence of pervasive, detrimental bias and discrimination on the basis of disability in medical care has been and is an indisputable reality that makes people with disabilities more at risk from COVID infection. Preventing people with disabilities from having a fair and equal chance of obtaining protective measures and equipment, medical treatments, timely COVID-19 vaccination, and other benefits and services for avoiding infection; and not treating the disease effectively, thereby lessening its short and long-term health consequences, put people with disabilities at unnecessary risk.
• It is essential that decisions about treatment and vaccine allocation must be made fairly, based on individualized determinations using current objective medical evidence, and not based on generalized inaccurate assumptions about a person’s disability, or metrics that are unfairly weighted against people with disabilities.
• To improve medical misperceptions of people with disabilities and their lives, physicians and other medical personnel need more training and information about disability and first-hand experience with people with disabilities; medical and nursing schools, and related educational institutions and programs should include disability topics and familiarization as substantial parts of their curricula. Moreover, they should make earnest and sustained efforts to recruit students with disabilities and to hire people with disabilities in medical care positions. The article “Physicians’ Perceptions of People with Disability and their Health Care” included a finding that “[a]ll levels of medical education should include more training about disability, including disability cultural competence and etiquette. Training that provides greater empathy about patients’ daily lives, such as house calls or standardized patients who have disability, might offer important insights.” [54]
• The lists of “People with Certain Medical Conditions,” that were developed by CDC and applied by the states, and ultimately became a category of people given some priority for COVID-19, were incomplete, confusing, and unfair to people with various disabling conditions. Health authorities should refine and expand the lists of medical conditions that make people more susceptible to, and more at risk of severe harm or death from, the coronavirus, making them more inclusive, clear, and disability-informed.
• Determining eligibility and priority of people with disabilities for vaccination, treatment, and testing should not be made in a restrictive, technical manner. Some states are now taking people’s assertions of disability at face value, without demanding burdensome, or any, documentation. Giving people claiming to have disabilities the benefit of the doubt in lieu of unwieldy scrutiny would not seriously interfere with our nation’s goal of getting everybody inoculated as soon as possible.
• More awareness of and sensitivity to disability. and a bit of creativity, could have enabled health authorities to devise more manageable ways to identify and confirm individuals’ disabilities. The issue of establishing disability involves some complexity, including sensitivity about self-identification and “invisible disabilities,” but it might have been addressed more effectively with some relatively simple ideas, along with soliciting and following the advice and input of people with disabilities and disability organizations. Perhaps, for example, people could be allowed to establish their disabilities by producing a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) number, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), an Individualized Rehabilitation Plan under the federal Rehabilitation Act, documentation that they have Disabled Veterans status, or perhaps even a disability parking sticker. And the documents listed here are certainly not all-inclusive. Such approaches based on long-standing government-based designations should be considered as soon as possible.
• Very little testing and study of people with disabilities have been done to determine the prevalence, riskiness, and progression of COVID-19. Particularly lacking is solid scientific information regarding children with disabilities. Data from such research and tracking is sorely needed to ensure optimal protection for persons with disabilities, and should be made an urgent priority.
• Although standards are beginning to evolve rapidly, current COVID-19 vaccination eligibility in most jurisdictions, and under CDC recommendations, is limited to people aged 18 or over, or 16 in a few circumstances. Studies of the safety and effectiveness of inoculating younger children is only in the beginning stage. Lack of urgency for vaccinating adolescents, children, toddlers, and infants has been explained on facile assumptions of a lack of risk of infection and serious harm for younger people, not fully justified by available data. The blanket adults-only policies are unfair and perilous for the nation’s children, and particularly risky for children with disabilities. Vaccination of everyone under 18 needs to become a most urgent priority as soon as possible.
• Often unnoticed by many people without disabilities are barriers to equal participation by people with disabilities in accessing to COVID-19 medical treatment, vaccinations, and research, posed by inaccessible websites and facilities. People seeking to use online resources to obtain information, identify treatment and vaccination options, schedule appointments, etc., are stymied when COVID-19-related websites are not in compliance with accessibility standards, are not user-friendly, or are otherwise inaccessible to users with various disabilities. Likewise, people with disabilities trying to obtain treatment, vaccination shots, testing, or other services at a hospital, doctor’s office, clinic, other medical service facility, pharmacy, and the like, find that they cannot get into the facility or get served there because of architectural or communications barriers. Full and equal access must be a baseline prerequisite for all COVID-19 services and programs.
• The necessity for some people to have direct support assistance has not been adequately recognized and accommodated in relation to COVID-19 treatment and vaccination requirements. Some people with disabilities have a condition that makes them eligible for priority vaccination, but no priority was given to direct support personnel who provide home and community-based services for them. Conversely, in other circumstances, some people with disabilities have not been able to obtain inoculation even though their personal and medical care support personnel have been able to. Whether they reside in nursing homes, other kinds of congregate living facilities, or in the community, people should be permitted to have and be accommodated in having, their necessary personal and medical care support assistance, and their support personnel should be eligible for priority vaccination.
• Overall data collection regarding people with disabilities and their susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and its severe consequences, the safety and other consequences of their being inoculated, and of the medical and personal treatment they have received, has been paltry. And research studies in regard to children with disabilities and COVID treatment and vaccination have been few. Given the complexities of and serious consequences at stake with COVID infection in people with disabilities, it is of the utmost importance to have more and better research and collection of other types of data on the interplay between the coronavirus and children and adolescents with disabilities.
• Consultation and involvement of people with disabilities in the development of crisis care standards, vaccine prioritization, and other policies, programs, and guidance dealing with the COVID-19 crisis has been very much “too little, too late.” For people with disabilities, it is absolutely necessary and should be standard operating procedure and an expected facet of all policies, programs, and transactions for addressing the pandemic, that there should be “Nothing about us without us.” Accordingly, people with disabilities must be part of the planning, development, and implementation of all prevention, treatment, immunization, and support policies, protocols, and delivery systems for addressing the virus and its consequences.

C. Conclusion

As people with disabilities are very aware, they have had a hard way to go during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through no fault of their own, on average they have faced more risk than people without disabilities of contracting COVID-19, and, if they do, of having severe symptoms, of being hospitalized, of having to be put on a ventilator, and of dying from the disease. In addition to dangers from the virus itself, and the disruptions to normal life it has entailed, many people with disabilities have been subjected to egregious forms of discrimination, described in this essay, that have heightened the hardships and risks they face. Rectification of these injustices is overdue and essential. In the apt words of the Lauren Young, litigation director of Disability Rights Maryland: “ The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed over thirty years ago with a purpose of ending historic inequities in health care. We need immediate action to protect lives.” [55]

Many thanks to my trusty editor and wonderful life partner, Andi Farbman.

[1] National Council on Disability, “COVID-19 Letter to HHS Office for Civil Rights” (March 18, 2020), found at https://ncd.gov/publications/2020/ncd-covid-19-letter-hhs-ocr

[2] The passage is derived from Robert Burgdorf, The Legal Rights of Handicapped Persons,  (1980) p. 51. It has been widely quoted in whole or in part.

In first introducing the Americans with Disabilities Act in the Senate on April 28, 1988, Senator Lowell Weicker cited the quoted language on the first page of his introductory Floor Statement .

[3] DEMOCRACY NOW, February 9, 2021, Disabled Advocates Demand Better Vaccine Access as They Face Greater Risks of Dying from COVID-19, at https://www.democracynow.org/

[4] CDC, People with Certain Medical Conditions , updated Feb. 3, 2021, found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html

[5] Tim Jin, “Op-Ed: Why is California’s age-based COVID-19 vaccine policy overlooking disabled people like me?” Los Angeles Times (Jan. 29, 2021), at https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-29/covid-vaccine-disabled-people-priority

[6] Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, DREDF, The Arc, Center for Public Representation, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Justice in Aging, CUNY School of Law, National Disability Rights Network, Natalie M. Chin, & Jasmine Harris, “Examining How Crisis Standards of Care May Lead to Intersectional Medical Discrimination Against COVID-19 Patients” (Feb. 2021), at http://www.bazelon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FINAL-Intersectional-Guide-Crisis-Care-PDF.pdf

[7] National Council on Disability, Assisted Suicide: A Disability Perspective (March 24, 1997), at  https://ncd.gov/

[8] Id., at https://ncd.gov/publications/ , quoting U.S. Comm’n on Civil Rights, Accommodating the Spectrum of Individual Abilities  26 (1983).

[9] Joseph Shapiro, “People with Disabilities Fear Pandemic Will Worsen Medical Biases” (Apr. 15, 2020) found at https://www.npr.org/

[10] Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, DREDF, The Arc, Center for Public Representation, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Justice in Aging, CUNY School of Law, National Disability Rights Network, Natalie M. Chin, & Jasmine Harris, “Examining How Crisis Standards of Care May Lead to Intersectional Medical Discrimination Against COVID-19 Patients” (Feb. 2021), p. 4, found at http://www.bazelon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FINAL-Intersectional-Guide-Crisis-Care-PDF.pdf

[11] Lisa I. Iezzoni, Sowmya R. Rao, Julie Ressalam, Dragana Bolcic-Jankovic, Nicole D. Agaronnik, Karen Donelan, Tara Lagu, and Eric G. Campbell, “Physicians’ Perceptions of People with Disability and their Health Care,” Health Affairs, vol. 40, no. 2 (Feb. 1, 2021), found at https://www.healthaffairs.org/

[12] Corky Siemaszco, “New York Gov. Cuomo Facing Calls to Apologize for Undercounting COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths,” NBC News (Feb. 16, 2021), found at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-york-gov-cuomo-facing-calls-apologize-undercounting-covid-19-n1258053

[13] Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, DREDF, The Arc, Center for Public Representation, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Justice in Aging, CUNY School of Law, National Disability Rights Network, Natalie M. Chin, & Jasmine Harris, “Examining How Crisis Standards of Care May Lead to Intersectional Medical Discrimination Against COVID-19 Patients” (Feb. 2021), at p. 6, found at http://www.bazelon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FINAL-Intersectional-Guide-Crisis-Care-PDF.pdf

[14] Laura Guidry‐Grimes, Katie Savin, Joseph A. Stramondo, et al., “Disability Rights as a Necessary Framework for Crisis Standards of Care and the Future of Health Care,” The Hastings Center Report (June 29, 2020), found at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/

[15] Lisa I. Iezzoni, Sowmya R. Rao, Julie Ressalam, Dragana Bolcic-Jankovic, Nicole D. Agaronnik, Karen Donelan, Tara Lagu, and Eric G. Campbell, “Physicians’ Perceptions of People with Disability and their Health Care,” Health Affairs, vol. 40, no. 2 (Feb. 1, 2021), found at https://www.healthaffairs.org/

[16] Corky Siemaszco, “New York Gov. Cuomo Facing Calls to Apologize for Undercounting COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths,” NBC News (Feb. 16, 2021), found at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-york-gov-cuomo-facing-calls-apologize-undercounting-covid-19-n1258053

[17] CDC, CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Recommendations , updated Feb. 19, 2021, found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations.html (emphasis added).

[18] CDC, People with Certain Medical Conditions , updated Feb. 3, 2021, found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html

[19] Id. The lists also include the activity of smoking and the condition of pregnancy that would not usually be considered to be disabilities in and of themselves.

[20] National Council on Disability, Assisted Suicide: A Disability Perspective (March 24, 1997), at https://ncd.gov/publications/1997/03241997#4b4

[21] Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, DREDF, The Arc, Center for Public Representation, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Justice in Aging, CUNY School of Law, National Disability Rights Network, Natalie M. Chin, & Jasmine Harris, “Examining How Crisis Standards of Care May Lead to Intersectional Medical Discrimination Against COVID-19 Patients” (Feb. 2021), at pp. 4-5, found at http://www.bazelon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FINAL-Intersectional-Guide-Crisis-Care-PDF.pdf

[22] Cecilia Nowell, “This Women-Made Tool Could Help to Get More Disabled People Vaccinated: States Aren’t Prioritizing the Disabled Community, Advocates Say,” The Lily (Feb. 25, 2021), found at https://www.thelily.com/this-women-made-tool-could-help-get-more-disabled-people-vaccinated/

[23] Liz Bowen, Whose Underlying Conditions Count for Priority in Getting Vaccine? Scientific American (February 6, 2021), at https://www.scientificamerican.com/ ; DEMOCRACY NOW, February 9, 2021, Disabled Advocates Demand Better Vaccine Access as They Face Greater Risks of Dying from COVID-19, at https://www.democracynow.org/

[24] National Council on Disability, NCD Letter to NGA re: Vaccine Allocation (Feb. 9, 2021) at https://ncd.gov/newsroom/2021/ncd-makes-recommendations-national-governors-association-covid-19-vaccination-equity

[25] Michael Diament, People with Developmental Disabilities at Highest Risk of Death from COVID-19, Study Indicates , Disability Scoop (November 16, 2020); Michael Diament, COVID-19 Vaccine Should Go to Those with Developmental Disabilities First, Advocates Say, Disability Scoop (December 7, 2020), at https://www.disabilityscoop.com/ ; Roni Caryn Rabin, Developmental Disabilities Heighten Risk of COVID Death . by Roni  Caryn Rabin . , The New York Times, November 11, 2020, at https://www.nytimes.com/ ; Scott Landes, Margaret Turk, Margaret Formica, Katherine McDonald, & J. Dalton Stevens, COVID-19 Outcomes among People with Intellectual and Developmental Disability Living in Residential Group Homes in New York State, Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection (October 13, 2020), at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ ; Stetson Miller, Experts: Those with Intellectual, Developmental Disabilities 3 Times more Likely to Die from COVID-19 , Baltimore (WJZ), January 12, 2021, at https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/

[26] National Council on Disability, NCD Recommends COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Equity for Individuals with I/DD (Dec. 15, 2020), found at https://ncd.gov/newsroom/2020/ncd-recommends-covid-19-vaccine-allocation-equity-individuals-idd

[27] American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), The Implications of State COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plans for People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (December 2020) , at https://www.ancor.org/

[28] National Council on Disability, NCD Letter to NGA re: Vaccine Allocation (Feb. 9, 2021) at https://ncd.gov/newsroom/2021/ncd-makes-recommendations-national-governors-association-covid-19-vaccination-equity (emphasis added).

[29] Sonia Sharp, Californians with Disabilities Are Outraged over Vaccine De-Prioritization , Los Angeles Times (February 2, 2021), at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-02/disabled-californians-outraged-vaccine-de-prioritization ; Elliot Kukla, Where’s the Vaccine for Ableism? , New York Times, Feb. 4, 2021, at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/opinion/covid-vaccine-ableism.html ; Sammy Caiola, “As California Makes Age a Bigger Factor in When You Get Vaccinated, People with Disabilities Are Concerned,” CAPRADIO, (Jan. 28. 2021) at https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/01/28/as-california-makes-age-a-bigger-factor-in-when-you-get-vaccinated-people-with-disabilities-are-concerned/

[30] Nouran Salahieh, Lauren Lyster, & Megan Telles, “Californians with Certain Health Conditions, Disabilities Can Now Sign Up for COVID-19 Vaccine, KTLA (Mar. 15, 2021), found at https://ktla.com/news/california/californians-with-certain-health-conditions-disabilities-can-now-sign-up-for-covid-19-vaccine/+

[31] Catherine Ho & Matthias Gafni, “Bay Area Counties Open Vaccines to All Adults with Disabilities and Health Conditions, But Access Is Spotty,” San Francisco Chronicle (March 15, 2021), found at https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Bay-Area-counties-open-vaccines-to-all-adults-16027731.php

[32] MaryBeth Musumeci and Priya Chidambaram, “COVID-19 Vaccine Access for People with Disabilities, Kaiser Family Foundation (March 1, 2021), found at https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/covid-19-vaccine-access-for-people-with-disabilities/

[33] CDC, “Information for Pediatric Healthcare Providers” (updated Dec. 30, 2020), found at https://www.cdc.gov/

[34] Suriya Rehman, Tariq Majeed, Mohammad Azam Ansari, and Ebtesam A. Al-Suhaimi, “Syndrome Resembling Kawasaki Disease in COVID-19 Asymptomatic Children,” Journal of Infection and Public Health (Dec. 2020) Vol 13 no. 12, pp. 1830–1832, found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ , citing Riphagen S., Gomez X., Gonzalez-Martinez C., Wilkinson N., Theocharis P. Hyperinflammatory shock in children during COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet (London, England)  2020, vol. 395(no. 10237): pp. 1607–1608, found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

[35] Russell M. Viner, Oliver T. Mytton, Chris Bonell, et al, “Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adolescents Compared with Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” JAMA Pediatrics (September 25, 2020), vol. 175, no. 2, 143-156, found at https://jamanetwork.com/

[36] Zachary Levin, Kimberly Choyke, Archelle Georgiou, et al., “Trends in Pediatric Hospitalizations for Coronavirus Disease 2019,” JAMA Pediatrics (published online January 11, 2021, found at https://jamanetwork.com/

[37] Ken Downey Jr., “Rate of Pediatric COVID-19 19 Hospitalizations Has Increased,” Healio (Jan. 11, 2021), (quoting Professor   Pinar Karaca-Mandic), found at https://www.healio.com/news/

[38] American Academy of Pediatrics, Children and COVID-19: State Level Data Report (updated Mar. 5, 2021) found at https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/

[39] American Academy of Pediatrics, Letter to Jeffrey Zients, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. David Kessler, and Dr. Janet Woodcock (Feb. 25, 2021), found at https://downloads.aap.org/

[40] See, AAP, COVID-19: Frequently Asked Questions About COVID-19 Vaccine (updated as of March 2, 2021), found at https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/covid-19-vaccine-frequently-asked-questions/

[41] Charlotte V. Hobbs, Jan Drobeniuc, Theresa Kittle, et al.. “Estimated SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence Among Persons Aged <18 Years — Mississippi, May–September 2020,” CDC, MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:312–315 (Mar. 5, 2021), found at https://www.cdc.gov/

[42] Sam Cohen, “CDC Study: COVID-19 More Prevalent in Children Than Originally Thought,” News5 Cleveland (Mar. 4, 2021) found at https://www.news5cleveland.com/

[43] Lena H. Sun, “CDC: States Should Prioritize People with Disabilities to Receive Vaccine Access,” The Washington Post , March 3, 2021, at p. A6; online under the title “CDC: States should prioritize people with disabilities as they broaden vaccine access,” at https://www.washingtonpost.com/

[44] States can receive a 10% increase in their Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for federal matching funds. States will be required to implement or expand one or more activities to enhance HCBS. This should result in a total of almost $12.7 billion of dedicated funding to strengthen and expand access to Medicaid HCBS.

[45] William Wan, Brittany Shammas, Ashley Parker, and Laura Meckler, “Biden Puts Accelerated Timeline on Shot Supply,” The Washington Post , March 3, 2021, at p. A1; continued on page A6 under the subtitle “Worries of Setback Grow as States Loosen Their Restrictions.”

[46] Lola Fadulu, Erin Cox, and Rebecca Tan, “Maryland to Prioritize Vaccines for Health Departments Quickly Administering Doses,” The Washington Post (Mar. 2, 2021), found at https://www.washingtonpost.com/

[47] Alex Mann and Bryn Stole, “Maryland COVID Reopening: State to Lift Limits at Restaurants, Stores; Large Venues to Allow 50% Capacity,” the Baltimore Sun (Mar. 9, 2021) (quoting Dr. Leana Wen of George Washington University), found at https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-hogan-coronavirus-update-20210309-eqevuamwdba7dg34pzsy5trwea-story.html

[48] The Arc of the United States, “Vaccine Discrimination: Disability Advocates File Federal Lawsuit Alleging 6 Maryland Jurisdictions Discriminate in Vaccine Process” (March 9, 2021), found at https://thearc.org/vaccine-discrimination-disability-advocacy-groups-file-federal-lawsuit-alleging-6-maryland-jurisdictions-discriminate-in-vaccine-process/

[49] Complaint in The Arc Maryland v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore Maryland , case no. 1:22-cv-00593-CLR (filed Mar. 8, 2021) at pp. 3-4.

[50] The Arc of the United States, “Vaccine Discrimination: Disability Advocates File Federal Lawsuit Alleging 6 Maryland Jurisdictions Discriminate in Vaccine Process” (March 9, 2021) (quoting Ray Marshall) found at https://thearc.org/vaccine-discrimination-disability-advocacy-groups-file-federal-lawsuit-alleging-6-maryland-jurisdictions-discriminate-in-vaccine-process/

[51] Id., quoting Lauren Young.

[52] Denise Grady, “Moderna Begins Testing COVID Vaccine in Babies and Children,” New York Times (Mar. 16, 2021) found at https://www.nytimes.com/   2021/03/16/health/moderna-covid-vaccine-children.html

[53] Tara Bahrampour & Samantha Schmidt, “A Visit to Grandma’s? Not Quite Yet: With Variants Circulating and Guidance Limited, Fear Persists after Shots,” Washington Post , p. B1 (Mar. 18, 2021).

[54] Lisa I. Iezzoni, Sowmya R. Rao, Julie Ressalam, Dragana Bolcic-Jankovic, Nicole D. Agaronnik, Karen Donelan, Tara Lagu, and Eric G. Campbell, “Physicians’ Perceptions of People with Disability and their Health Care,” Health Affairs, vol. 40, no. 2 (Feb. 1, 2021) (footnotes omitted), found at https://www.healthaffairs.org/

[55] The Arc of the United States, “Vaccine Discrimination: Disability Advocates File Federal Lawsuit Alleging 6 Maryland Jurisdictions Discriminate in Vaccine Process” (March 9, 2021), (quoting Lauren Young), found at https://thearc.org/vaccine-discrimination-disability-advocacy-groups-file-federal-lawsuit-alleging-6-maryland-jurisdictions-discriminate-in-vaccine-process/

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160 Disabilities Topics for Research Papers & Essays

Looking for interesting disability topics for a research paper or project? This field is hot, controversial, and definitely worth studying!

🏆 Best Disability Topics for Research Papers

👍 disability essay topics, 📑 research questions about disabilities, 🎓 good research topics about disabilities.

The disability study field includes the issues of physical, mental, and learning disabilities, as well as the problem of discrimination. In this article, we’ve gathered great disability essay topics & research questions, as well as disability topics to talk about. We hope that our collection will inspire you.

• Case Study of a Child with Intellectual Disability It is crucial to integrate the input of a learning coach into the school curriculum to encourage the participation of Meagan’s parents in his educational endeavors.
• Poems with Disabilities by Jim Ferris This is good evidence for the argument of the need to eliminate the issue of ableism. Language evolves gradually, and countering the issue of ableism is a long-term goal.
• Managing Students With Disabilities Instructional issues that are encountered in education are those arising due to the inability of the students to acquire, maintain, and relate the skills that are learned in class to other settings within and outside […]
• Computer-Based Technologies That Assist People With Disabilities The visually impaired To assist the visually impaired to use computers, there are Braille computer keyboards and Braille display to enable them to enter information and read it. Most of these devices are very expensive […]
• Children With Learning Disabilities The following research questions will be used in achieving the objectives: What is the role of learning disabilities in affecting the ability of the students to learn?
• The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities Policy The paper outlines the proper policy and procedure of incident reporting and investigation and thus, provides how to become an agent for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities and satisfy individuals receiving services.
• Sociocultural Barriers for People With Disabilities On the other hand, stigmatization, stereotyping and prejudice have been highlighted as the barriers to social inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
• Children With Disabilities in Education By the end of the experiment the student will demonstrate his ability to understand the information, to discuss it, and to reflect his ideas in writing.
• Classroom Design for Children With Disabilities Furthermore, children with disabilities require individual attention from the teacher just like the other children, and if the classroom is congested it would be difficult for the teacher to reach such learners.
• Women, Development and Disabilities The mission of the organization is to enhance the voice of women in society and influence other organizations that advocate for women rights.
• Culturally Responsive Teaching of Students With Disabilities Cultural Responsive teaching is a teaching technique used to identify and address cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural and language needs of students with developmental needs as a way of providing them with assistance in all […]
• Ableism: Bias Against People With Disabilities People concerned with rights advocacy ought to ensure a facilitated awareness of the distressing impacts of ableism through the inclusion of the subject in private and public discussions.
• Learning Disabilities: Differentiating ADHD and EBD As for the most appropriate setting, it is possible to seat the child near the teacher. It is possible to provide instructions with the help of visual aids.
• The Problems of Children With Disabilities and Possible Ways of Solution It is very important for disabled people to be on the same level with others in the conditions that compensate the deviations in the development and constraints of the abilities in learning.
• Current Trends and Issues in Educating Students With Disabilities Following the existence of cases of racial and ethnic bias across the United States educational system, the government has seen the importance to intervene in improving education in the U.S.
• Defining Disabilities in Modern World Defining disability has not been easy due to the various opinions related to the understanding of the concept. Disability has significant impact on the society due to the relationships that exists between the individual and […]
• People With Disabilities in the Frida Movie After the accident, her father bought her a canvas that she would use for painting because she loved art and was an artist, helping her cope with her disability.
• Safety Evacuation for People with Disabilities First, before a disaster occurs, the government should be aware of the number of individuals in the scenario and keep track of them to verify the figures are correct.
• Individuals With Disabilities: Prejudice and Discrimination I researched that people with persistent medical or physical disorders, such as cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis, who have speech, articulation, or communication impairments, for example, are sometimes seen as having an intellectual deficiency. Corey […]
• Special Olympics and Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities Together with partners, the Special Olympics aspires to improve the health outcomes for people with physical and mental disabilities to close the gap with the healthy population who are more advantaged in terms of access […]
• Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities’ Staff Training Specifically, the introduction of the assessment modules for the evaluation of the staff members’ compliance with the set requirements will be enacted.
• The Quality of the Working Environment for Persons With Disabilities The progressive introduction of new practices more tolerant of the disabled will be carried out at every stage of the work cycle and in every segment of the corporation as a connected infrastructure.
• Developmental Disabilities: Best Practice and Support Family therapy and the creation of support groups seem to be an effective method for children with disabilities and their environment.
• Bronx Developmental Disabilities Council: Organization Assessment During events, council, and committee meetings, the organization provides printed materials with information on disability and the prevention of social distancing of people with disabilities.
• Assistive Technologies for Individuals with Disabilities A rehabilitation consultant will be able to recommend this equipment to people who are acutely worried about the inability to use a computer and the Internet to ensure a comfortable life.
• Smart Farms Hiring People with Disabilities Although Smart Farms is a non-profit organization and benefits from donations, the workers play their role in income generation by working on the farms and sales.
• Americans with Disabilities Act and Nursing Practice Acts such as the Americans with Disabilities Act affect not only the political and legal environment in a country but also the rights and responsibilities of nurses.
• Life of Individuals Dealing with Disabilities The child’s image hitting the t-ball also showcased a powerful issue, that disabled individuals should be treated similarly to other people and given equal opportunities to give them the chance to perform optimally.
• Partnership for People with Disabilities’ Mission The mission of this organization is to partner with stakeholders both in the intellectual and developmental disability community and other interested groups at Virginia Commonwealth University. The organization was founded in 1985 to better people’s […]
• The Experience of Parents of Children With Disabilities Enhancing support for the mental well-being of parents of children with a disability: developing a resource based on the perspectives of parents and professionals.
• Healthcare Disparities in People With Disabilities In addition to health care disparities, such as poor access to care, including preventive one, and dependency, people with disabilities also face higher morbidity and lack of insurance.
• Employment for People With Disabilities Accommodation is also considered to be a restructuring of work and the attraction of other personnel to help in adaptation – as it should have happened with Adele.
• Laws Protecting the Rights of People With Disabilities The aim of this essay is to research the law that protects the rights of people with disabilities in the context of sporting events.
• People With Disabilities in Society I think that these people are powerful and inspiring, as they prove to the world that it is possible to live life to the fullest with a disability.
• People With Disabilities and Social Work Moreover, there is a tendency towards the rise in the number of such people because of the deterioration of the situation and the growing number of environmental concerns.
• Alternate Assessments for Students With Learning Disabilities The problem is that many school districts experience difficulties with proposing adequate formative and summative assessments for those students who require special attention.
• People with Disabilities’ Problem of Employment Although truck driving can be a stressful job, it is not evident if it is true, and thus, it is important for John to experience the job-related himself and determine whether he can handle it. […]
• Lawsuits Regarding College Students With Disabilities Abuse is one of the factors considered to have discouraged physically challenged students from pursuing their academic careers.
• Living with Disabilities in the Nondisabled World A variety of laws, initiatives, and regulations are currently implemented to ensure simpler and less costly access to information resources and the functionality of a device.
• Living with Disabilities from an Insider’s Perspective Additionally, Armendariz was able to use a prosthetic arm to assist with her disability which she recalled as being helpful before it led to severe negativity from her peers at the time.
• United Arab Emirates Schools: Students With Learning Disabilities The current UAE public school environment does not allow for the provision of the necessary skills due to the lack of a proper teaching strategy.
• Workplace and People With Disabilities The purpose of the research is to make coherent and accurate observations in regards to the usefulness of the given method in improving the overall attitudes of people and organizations toward people with disabilities.
• Career Counseling for People With Disabilities To sufficiently research, the issue of career counseling for individuals with disabilities in the academic press, a list of journals that offer such information was developed.
• Genetic Modification and Implicit Bias Against People With Disabilities There is also a factor of disabilities that are life-threatening to a child, or illnesses that may be able to be fatal within the first few years of life.
• Impact of Social Darwinism on the Perception of Human Disabilities In addition, connecting behavior such as the likeliness of criminality to genetics is incorrect and damaging not only to the individual but to a community and society as a whole.
• Music Therapy for Children With Learning Disabilities This review includes the evidence supporting music therapy as an effective strategy for promoting auditory, communication, and socio-emotional progression in children with ASD.
• Healthcare Professionals: Individuals With Developmental Disabilities The presentation provide an overview of relevant health related issues in individuals with developmental disabilities and how it relates to the group of professionals assigned.
• Protection for Persons With Disabilities and Their Service Animals Additionally, it must be trained to give assistance to a person with disability. Service animals that can be selected to assist persons with disability must be either a dog or a miniature horse.
• Death Penalty: Juveniles and Mental Disabilities Consequently, the Eight Amendment should dismiss the death penalty for this category and state laws must implement recommendations of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Psychological Association, and the American Bar Association that […]
• The Prevalence, Effects and Challenges of Developmental Disabilities While the increase in the number of people with developmental disabilities is attributed to the rising numbers of the aging population, disabilities may arise in childhood and affect the entire lives of people.
• Community Disability Awareness Program: Elderly Women With Disabilities A measurable outcome in the program’s success will be a decline in the rate of crime related to elderly women with disabilities.
• The Understanding of Needs of People With Learning Disabilities Despite several problems in the overall design of the strategy that can be used to improve the nursing services for PLD, Drozd and Clinch make a very valid point by stressing the significance of a […]
• Addressing the Needs of People With Learning Disabilities As a student aiming at becoming a Nurse Practitioner, I am currently focusing on the exploration of the options for managing the work of the nursing staff, as well as seeking the opportunities for improving […]
• Elderly Women with Disabilities: Problems and Needs Despite the economic crisis, the cost of medical care has also increased due to the rise in the number of lawsuits filed against the physicians of the state.
• Relationship Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being Among Greek People With Physical Disabilities In the light of this lack of knowledge, the present study attempts to explore the degree of relationship satisfaction in connection with the way handicapped people deal with the challenges of romantic involvement, as well […]
• Communication and People With Disabilities The bathrooms were close to the food court; moreover, there were special handle bars which helped to transfer to the commode and, at this, the height of the commode was almost the same as the […]
• Music Therapy as a Related Service for Students With Disabilities From a neuroscientific perspective, how would music intervention improve classroom behaviors and academic outcomes of students with ADHD as a way to inform policy-makers of the importance of music therapy as a related service?
• Problem Behaviors in Intellectual Disabilities Community The proposed quality designed study will evaluate the behavior of people with intellectual disabilities over a certain period of time and consequently conclude the primary triggers that influence ID people to demonstrate behavioral issues, including […]
• Law for People With Disabilities in California The family, the immediate environment of a person with disabilities, is the main link in the system of his or her care, socialization, the satisfaction of needs, support, and career guidance.
• The Resilience Experiences of People With Disabilities The focus of the study was on the participants’ lived experiences, as well as their attitudes towards certain aspects, so the use of interviews as a data collection method is justified.
• Literature Circles for Students With Learning Disabilities On the other hand, the affected individuals contend that the categorization should be removed to pave the way for the integration of assistances where all needs are attended without classification regardless of the student’s physical […]
• Students With Disabilities: Research Analysis In the process of undertaking this research and practical alignment, there is a misalignment in the inclusion of students with disabilities in the GE class.
• School Counselors for Students With Disabilities When the goals are set out, and the professional sphere is chosen, the counselor becomes responsible for the student’s preparation and reception of essential job skills as well as for the communication with the post-school […]
• Adaptive Behavior Skills and Intellectual Disabilities Four assessment tools are important for identifying adaptive behavior and skills: the Adaptive Behavior Scale, the Scale of Independent Behavior, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale.
• The Specific Needs of Students With Physical Disabilities The research problem that will be the focus of the planned paper relates to the specific needs of students with physical disabilities or behavioral issues in general classrooms.
• Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities The United Nations Convention on the Rights of people with disabilities proposes a raft of measures to be undertaken by states to promote the wellbeing of individuals with disabilities.
• Job for Individuals With Physical Disabilities For instance, when a new technology is about to be installed, it will be rational for a number of workers based on departments to be selected and taken through how to use the innovation, such […]
• Therapeutic Vests for Children With Disabilities The purpose of this review is to examine the available literature on the effectiveness of using therapeutic vests, weighted vests, and pressure vests on children with Autism spectrum disorders, Attention deficit disorder, Pervasive Development Disorder, […]
• An Audit of the Accessibility of the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar to Individuals With Physical Disabilities It should be noted that structural presentation of the paper is considered to be one of the most important elements of the paper because it allows following the logical thought of the research paper.
• Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders The students are also being taken through research-based and special education programs and the determination of these disorders is done cooperatively between teachers and specialists like psychologists.
• Children With Disabilities: Supporting Student Behavior The comfortable atmosphere will help the children to attend the class and also provide a good way to mingle with the children with disabilities.
• Plan of the Kickball Game That Involves the Students With the Disabilities While simulating the situation where one is in charge of the PE class, one needs to remember that disability is never inability, thus the students with the disabilities can participate in any games as well […]
• Genetic Testing Under Americans With Disabilities Act There is nothing surprising in the fact that the genetically tested employees counted the testing as a violation of their human rights, and The Americans with Disabilities Act was adopted in 1990.
• Teaching Language to Students With Severe Disabilities The objective of this study is to find the different approaches that can be used in teaching phonics and the whole language to students with varied severe disabilities.
• Daily Living Skills Training for Individuals With Learning Disabilities Teaching individuals with physical and mental disabilities the life skills needed to compensate for their disadvantages are considered to be the key factor to ensuring a relatively safe, functional, and happy life for those individuals.
• Teaching Adaptive Behavior Skills to Children Suffering From Intellectual Disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia This theoretical framework will contribute to the validation of the perspectives used by the teachers to construct their system of beliefs regarding the process of teaching ABS to students with ID.
• Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace Intellectual disability puts a strain on an individual’s ability to have a social life and communicate with other human beings due to the fact that their capability of adapting is limited to a certain extent.
• Lifespan Development and Learning Disabilities in Childhood Parents in this situation would most likely select the authoritative parenting style to manage children because they are left to make their own choices under a guided framework.
• Natural Supports for Individuals With Disabilities Natural supports can be defined as personal connections and associations that improve the quality of a person’s life; these primarily include family relationships and friendships and constitute “the first line of supports, followed by informal […]
• Children With Disabilities and Parental Mistreatment The information in the article is helpful for parents of children with disabilities and other parents since it assists them in appreciating the significance of each parent’s education in lessening the incidence of child disability.
• Government Grants for People With Disabilities The paper will be based on the conditions of disabled people and the federal or state grants that they could receive in order to facilitate changes in their health and work.
• Teaching Children With Multiple Disabilities The teacher should also assist such a child in maintaining a perceptual continuum than learners who are not handicapped. On the same note, the teacher should not give the amount of work similar to children […]
• Constructivism Theory for Adolescents with Disabilities The key component of the theory is people’s interaction with the environment. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory is effective in developing the social and academic skills of an adolescent with learning and behavior disabilities.
• Veterans With Disabilities: Integration and Employment In this paper, the researcher looks at the main barriers to employment and integration back to the society that the veterans face, and the manner in which the existing policies can be amended to help […]
• Students With Intellectual Disabilities and Their Independence Some of these programs in the US include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which provides grants for research, technology, and training for disabled individuals, as well as the Secondary Education Act of 2002, […]
• Psychological Testing of Intellectual Disabilities Speaking of its psychometric properties, the PCL-5 is a valid and reliable self-report measure for the assessment and quantifying symptoms of PTSD.
• Young Adult Children With Intellectual Disabilities Like in the study, I would also use pilot testing of the questionnaire to ascertain its validity and reliability in measuring the intended variables. The descriptions of the concepts and terms in this study are […]
• Employees With Disabilities and Their Workplace Behavior In H3, the authors found that employees with disabilities remained loyal and committed to work and were satisfied with their job.
• Parenting Children With Learning Disabilities A number of parents also feel worthless since they get an impression that the respective learning disabilities portrayed in their children are due to their own genetic malformations.
• Caregivers’ Perceptions of People With Intellectual Disabilities The proposed study will present new approaches and practices that can be used to support the health needs of many patients with mental disabilities.
• People With Disabilities and Their Employment Issues The major similarity between the perceptions of older people and individuals with disabilities is based on the belief that they are slow and could slow down the other workers and the idea that the managers […]
• Students With Learning Disabilities and Assessment The education of students with learning disabilities poses great difficulty for the majority of parents and educators. It may not be self-evident that the learning problems of students are attributable to learning disabilities.
• Mental Disabilities: Characteristics and Causes TBIs are caused by an impact of the head against a blunt object or from its penetration by a sharp object; it often results from vehicle accidents. Autism is a developmental disorder that influences the […]
• Patients With Learning Disabilities: Quality Care Although the current study is not aimed at detecting the differences in the efficacy of the intervention based on the gender of the participants, the outcomes of the research may create prerequisites for a follow-up […]
• Emotional and Behavioural Disabilities in Schools Furthermore, there is equal doubt about whether the professionals in the sphere of education give no significance to the term of emotional and behavioural disability itself.
• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren With Disabilities In the case of their absence, these grandparents worry about the well-being of their disabled grandchildren and the influence they have on other children.
• Employment Equity Act: Aboriginals and Disabilities Persons If the Employment Equity Act is applied appropriately, the Act will guarantee that people in the labour force are given the opportunity of the equivalent admission to job openings along with identical management in the […]
• People With Disabilities: Local and a Federal Law’ Regulation To be more exact, the current standards need to be shaped so that the policy in question should not affect the social perception of people with physical or mental disabilities.
• Students With Learning Disabilities: Needs and Problems According to Chloe, there are three aspects associated with this complex issue, and they are the problem of appropriate parents and professionals’ intervention, the problem of identifying resources, and the problem of government’s funding.
• Students With Disabilities: Characteristics and Strategies Disability Categories Example Strategy English Learner Students 1 Autism is the developmental disability which influences the aspects of social interaction and different types of communication. The child with this disability can demonstrate various restricted and stereotypic patterns of behavior. The student with autism cannot focus attention on the teacher’s words, demonstrates the unusual gestures and […]
• Instructional Plan in Writing for Learners With Disabilities The purpose of this essay is to provide an instructional plan for learners with disabilities in writing. Writing skills require learners to account for the task, the aim of writing and audience.
• People with Disabilities: The Systemic Ableism Whereas the absence of disability in the fashion world is based on the dominant view of what is considered beautiful, the absence of disabled in politics can be explained with the lack of access to […]
• Developmental Disabilities and Lifelong Learning Some of the common transitional programs for children with developmental disabilities would include things such as books, learning manuals, and software programs intended to assist the children in adjusting to the new programs or settings.
• Action Plan for Patrons With Disabilities For instance, the writer of the essay suggests that in terms of facility planning, it is vital for the library to invest in wiring its facilities with audio induction loop.
• Remediation in Students with Disabilities Since this strategy is essentially crucial to the curriculum, this proposal will portray the importance of conducting a profound research that seeks to determine the effectiveness of remediation in reading.
• Improving Reading Performance of Students With Learning Disabilities The purpose of the present research is to assess the efficiency of utilizing Reading Racetracks to improve the reading of words found on the K-2 list key phrases adopted in the school district.
• Americans With Disabilities Act With all due respect to the efforts of the U.S.government to come up with a framework, which would allow for a faster and a more efficient integration of the disabled into the society, the fact […]
• GM’s Committal to People With Disabilities The company aims to create awareness about PWDs by providing support and information to employees with disabilities and other PWDs outside the GM community.
• Physical Disabilities and Assistive Technology For example, learners with visual impairments can use text-to-speech programs. Learners with physical disabilities can be gathered for with the help of assistive technology devices such as adaptive keyboard and screen reading software for learners […]
• Sensory Disabilities and Age of Onset This can happen, for instance, when learning the subject that call for lots of diagrams, figures and illustrations to be applied, which may also give a challenge to the visually impaired students.
• High Incidence Disabilities and Pedagogical Strategies for Learning Disabilities In the context of disability, it is important to mention that this model is beneficial to students with learning disabilities as it involves teaching them how to approach tasks and use knowledge to complete learning […]
• Families With Members Who Experience Disabilities Early childhood services which offer professionalized care services to parents help them meet the needs of the special children so that parents are able to balance their strengths, resources and challenges in the family.
• Recreational Activities for People with Disabilities Even the number of customized recreational equipments should be increased so as to enable the people with disabilities to choose from.
• Support Inclusion and Effective Practices for Students With Disabilities The purpose of this article is positioning that the ambition towards support inclusion and effective practices for students with disabilities have to be the groundwork for inclusive postsecondary education.
• Peer Buddy Program: Students with Disabilities in High School This research paper seeks to establish the purpose, importance, and rationale of the study of peer buddy program on students with disabilities in high school, in both social and academic grounds.
• An Action Plan for Serving Individuals With Disabilities – Library and Information Science First is the total cost of the whole project, the architectural design of the library building and whether it can accommodate the new developments and the current issues affecting accessibility with regards to the disabled.
• Internal Campaign Planning for Inclusion of Persons With Disabilities The key mandate of the act was to protect the employment rights of persons with disabilities. Secondly, newsletters can be developed so as to raise awareness on the importance of diversity and inclusion.
• Human Rights of People With Intellectual Disabilities Since disability is not inability, human rights’ advocates argue that perception of people with disabilities as disabled is discriminative and therefore call for their recognition as a minority people with unique abilities that do not […]
• Adolescents with Learning and Behaviour Disabilities: Graduation and Employment Difficulties One of the causes of high school dropout of this group of students is the feeling of being out of place.
• The Problem of Reading of Children With Learning Disabilities The difference in phonological awareness and reading between groups of children with SSDs and a language matched comparison group Reading fluency is a key tool of assessment the reading disability among children.
• People With Disabilities The code consists of sixteen articles that define the terms associated with disability in Saudi Arabia, the role of the government in the welfare of disabled children, administration of the bodies concerned with disabled person, […]
• People With Disabilities and Abuse of People With Disabilities and Criminal Justice In addition, there is need to train police, lawyers and other persons in the criminal justice system on how to interact with persons with disabilities.
• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) There is a commission in the US that fights for the rights of people with disabilities when it comes to employment.
• Terminology and Etiquette Discussion Regarding Persons With Disabilities The media refer to people with disability as to persons with special needs, which reveals the inappropriate use of terminologies to refer to them.
• People With Disabilities and the Hotel Industry According to this act, the needs of people with disabilities should be satisfied in relation to the fixed rules in order to provide the necessary conditions for these persons and follow the principle of the […]
• The Right Attitude Towards Disabled People First, it can be questioned whether any form of physical or mental disability can be referred to as something that deserves to be ‘celebrated’, as the promoters of political correctness want us to believe.
• Inclusion for Students With Severe Disabilities Modification and accommodation are the methods used to manipulate education system to make it favourable for these students. Modification and Accommodation are the methods used to manipulate the system to make it favourable for students […]
• The Impact of a Fitness Intervention on People with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities This is one of the issues that should be singled out. This is one of the issues that should be considered.
• Autism and Educational Process Owing to these adverse effects that can stem from autism and the shear prevalence of the condition in the country’s population, a lot of research effort has been dedicated to the early diagnosis and treatment […]
• General Curriculum for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Learners The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities have access to the general education curriculum and the extent to which such access is related to […]
• US Should Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities The UN has recognized the importance of the disabled person’s rights and freedoms and has come up with the UN convention on the Rights of People with disabilities, CRPD and has urged member states to […]
• Students With Disabilities in Higher Education Institutions Accommodations for students depend on the disability type that the student has, and whether the disability allows the student to get an accommodation in the institution.
• The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act However, the gradual increase in the number of individuals with learning disabilities led to the disapproval of this method. As a result of this separation and early identification school performances tend to improve and the […]
• Peer Buddy Programs for Students With Disabilities In the essay, the author will provide recommendations with regard to how the peer buddy program can be successfully implemented in schools in the future. The aim is to enhance the success of the peer […]
• Preschool Teachers’ Actions for Integrating Children With Disabilities Of special interest was whether the gravity of a child’s educational requirements and the teacher’s knowledge about the disability condition were linked to teacher’s responses towards incorporating such children in their classrooms.
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Education: Essay

Stereotypes about people with disabilities.

by Laurie Block, Disability History Museum Staff

ON THE IMAGE OF DISABILITY The life that a person with a disabling condition can look forward to today is very often, though certainly not always, radically different from what it might have been just 20 years ago. The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 extended to people with disabilities the civil-rights protections which have been extended to blacks, women, and minorities. It opens a broad front of new possibilities for people with disabilities, although -- like other major civil rights legislative initiatives -- it will take many years for the consequences to reveal themselves. And yet when someone learns today that she will have a disability or a condition understood as disabling, when a parent-to-be learns that his child will have a physical or cognitive impairment, when television reports that a public figure has become disabled, certain specters are likely to arise -- emotionally freighted, irrational, even mutually contradictory -- of what the life of a person with a disability must be like. STEREOTYPES AND CONSTRUCTIONS: Until recently, attitudes toward individuals and groups, embodied in popular culture images, would have been called stereotypes. This word suggests that the image or the attitude is unconsidered, naive, the by-product of ignorance or unfamiliarity. Stereotypes are also by definition unchanging; when a stereotype has been exposed as inadequate or false to experience, it can be transcended and left behind. The "myths of disability" which we bring to encounters with physical and mental difference are beyond stereotypes. Such deep-rooted conceptions are what sociologists now call constructions. Popular culture images both reflect and affect attitudes. Representations of disability will often reflect contemporaneous ideas in medicine, science, religion, or social management, but those ideas may themselves be affected by the assumptions inherent in popular images and fictional narratives. A film story of a courageous doctor helping a lame child to walk might reflect current medical approaches to disability; the film story broadcasts those attitudes and helps to impress them on families, care-givers, and people with disabilities as well as the general public. But doctors were also themselves seeing such stories; they formed part of the evidence by which doctors determined their own status and the status of their patients with disabilities. Six common constructions, or ways of understanding and picturing disability, have been widely shared by medical professionals, educators, public health workers, blue and white collar workers, novelists, publicists, philanthropists, and by many of those who themselves have disabilities. They have been chosen for examination in Beyond Affliction: The Disability History Project because they have been powerful organizers of experience for many people over long periods. They are polar pairs, each pair expressing the same assumptions in negative and positive modes. They are rarely found in a pure iconic state. Even mutually contradictory conceptions often overlap, or appear combined in the same historical or fictional figure, creating ambiguous but powerful images that haunt the culture for decades. Like myth and folklore (of which they are partly made) these constructions undergo transformations. They transcend geographical boundaries. They persist across generations. They go underground, and reappear, unacknowledged, in apparently rational and value-free analyses and plans. They still have power today to alter and affect the lives of individuals with disabilities as well as the lives of their family members and care providers. People with disabilities themselves have at various times used and resisted the categories they were placed in for their own empowerment: to make, insofar as they could, their own way and their own lives. 1. People with disabilities are different from fully human people; they are partial or limited people, in an "other" and lesser category. As easily identifiable "others" they become metaphors for the experience of alienation. 2. The successful "handicapped" person is superhuman, triumphing over adversity in a way which serves as an example to others; the impairment gives disabled persons a chance to exhibit virtues they didn't know they had, and teach the rest of us patience and courage. 3. The burden of disability is unending; life with a disabled person is a life of constant sorrow, and the able-bodied stand under a continual obligation to help them. People with disabilities and their families -- the "noble sacrificers" -- are the most perfect objects of charity; their function is to inspire benevolence in others, to awaken feelings of kindness and generosity. 4. A disability is a sickness, something to be fixed, an abnormality to be corrected or cured. Tragic disabilities are those with no possibility of cure, or where attempts at cure fail. 5. People with disabilities are a menace to others, to themselves, to society. This is especially true of people with mental disability. People with disabilities are consumed by an incessant, inevitable rage and anger at their loss and at those who are not disabled. Those with mental disabilities lack the moral sense that would restrain them from hurting others or themselves. 6. People with disabilities, especially cognitive impairments, are holy innocents endowed with special grace, with the function of inspiring others to value life. The person with a disability will be compensated for his/her lack by greater abilities and strengths in other areas -- abilities that are sometimes beyond the ordinary. These pictures of disability are not mistaken in any simple way; in fact each of them contains kernels of experiential truth about encounters between the able-bodied and those with disabilities. But when tacit theories and assumptions such as these underlie public policy and social relations, they tend to limit the full humanity of those who are affected by them. How to cite this essay in a Chicago Manual of Style footnote: Laurie Block, “Stereotypes about People with Disabilities,” Disability History Museum, http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/edu/essay.html?id=24 (accessed date).

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The Dignity of Disabled Lives

The burden of being perceived as different persists. The solution to this problem is community.

By Andrew Solomon

Mr. Solomon is a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and the author of “ Far From the Tree ,” which has been made into a documentary film .

This essay is adapted from the author’s foreword to the new book “ About Us: Essays From The New York Times Disability Series .”

The eugenic movement spearheaded by Francis Galton in England in the late Victorian period reached a culmination in the view that if you got rid of the misfits, you could breed a pure, advantaged race. The reach of the movement was reflected in the American campaigns to sterilize disabled people, supported in a 1927 Supreme Court decision in which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Drawing on these sources, Hitler began his campaigns of genocide by gassing the disabled, presuming not only that they were polluting the larger population, but also that they were a group no one would miss. Genetic determinism presumed that the weak and disadvantaged passed along their weakness and disadvantage, and that a systematic campaign of eliminating all but the best and strongest could improve the lot of humanity.

There are two entwined arguments here, one about who makes disabled children, and the other about the worth of the lives of those disabled children. What sort of parents have children with disabilities? Every sort of parent. Nondisabled parents produce disabled children with startling regularity — and disabled people produce nondisabled children time and again. So that part of the argument is specious, at least when applied so specifically as Galton, Holmes and Hitler contemplated. More relevant to us today is the modern argument that whether disability is passed along generationally or not, it has inherent worth, and the loss of it from our society would be a troubling depletion of human diversity. That is a more radical, philosophical challenge.

Disabled lives are lives, and are charged with inherent dignity. Most people with disabilities don’t wish they had never been born; most people with disabilities contribute to the world they inhabit; most people with disabilities both give more to and get more from life than their nondisabled peers may be inclined to guess. Some have rich lives despite their disability, but others would say they have rich lives at least in part because of their disability.

In 1968, the ethicist Joseph Fletcher wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, that esteemed journal of liberal thought, that there was “no reason to feel guilty about putting a Down’s syndrome baby away, whether it’s ‘put away’ in the sense of hidden in a sanatorium or in a more responsible lethal sense. It is sad, yes. Dreadful. But it carries no guilt. True guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down’s is not a person.”

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Choosing Words for Talking About Disability

In daily life, how should we talk about disability? What words should we use to refer to people with disabilities? Is saying "the disabled" or "disabled people" acceptable, for example? Questions like these are important, particularly because disability represents a form of diversity, similar to one's gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion and so on. Knowing how to sensitively refer to members of diverse groups is also important. Let's begin by defining some terms.

First, what does disability itself mean? A disability is a condition or quality linked to a particular person. A disability is present when activities usually performed by people (such as walking, talking, reading or learning) are in some way restricted. Thus, someone with congenital blindness has a disability, as does someone who must use a wheelchair for mobility purposes. Other disabilities are not necessarily apparent, for example, acquired brain injury or chronic depression.

In everyday life, some people use the term handicap  or refer to people with disabilities as the handicapped. The first term — handicap — refers to an obstacle imposed on people by some constraint in the environment. Older buildings that lack ramps for wheelchair access, for example, present a handicap for people who use wheelchairs. In this case, a wheelchair user is handicapped — her mobility through use of her wheelchair is disrupted — by the missing ramp. However, she actually is not handicapped herself; rather, the handicapping element is in the environment, not within her. Now that we know the distinction between disability and handicap, how do we refer people who have disabilities?

When referring to disability, the American Psychological Association (APA) urges that it is often best to "put the person first." In practice, this means that instead of referring to a "disabled person," use "person with a disability." Why? The reasoning goes like this: Phrases like "disabled person" or "amputee" focus on a condition more than the person who is affected by it. Using phrases like "person with a disability" and "individual with an amputation" emphasizes the person and not his or her condition.

Within its " Publication Manual ," APA also urges writers as well as speakers to avoid using any language that refers to disability in a deleterious or pejorative manner. A phrase like "stroke victim," for example, is not innocuous, as it suggests that a person succumbed or was passive. Similarly, placing people with disabilities on a pedestal ("You are so brave to keep trying despite your disability! You are a real hero!") is not a good idea, either. Such undue praise can marginalize, isolate, or unduly glorify what is a medical fact or quality that is but one part of the individual's experience. Use of either positive or negative labels inevitably over-emphasizes one aspect — disability — of a person's life. Doing so hinders understanding and can even trivialize other, more important qualities possessed by the individual.

Is there any alternative to person-first language? There is, and it is known as identity-first language.

Not all members of the disability community think person-first language is the best choice. Some writers and scholars from the field known as disability studies, as well as advocates and activists from disability culture, prefer what is known as identity-first language for disability. Identity-first language promotes use of phrases like "amputee," "diabetic" and "disabled person" (but not "victim" or similar negative words) where disability identity comes first. The argument is straightforward: use of these honest, candid and less euphemistic terms and phrases enables groups and the individuals within them to "claim" their disabilities with pride. This claiming can be about disability more generally or with regards to a particular disability. By doing so, a disabled individual intentionally chooses an identity rather than allowing others — even well meaning others, such as family, friends and medical professionals — to do so for them.

Taking an identity-first approach promotes autonomy among and for people with disabilities. Indeed, adopting an identity-first  approach instead of a person-first approach is a way to counter the criticism that the latter can occasionally imply that there is something inherently negative about disability. The add-on phrase "with a disability," for example, effectively dissociates the disability from the person. Disabled people who choose identity-first language claim and celebrate, rather than distance themselves, from their disabilities.

Some groups within the disability community, which is arguably the largest minority group in the U.S., have already established their language preferences. For example, the National Federation for the Blind has long advocated for identity-first  language, preferring "blind person" over the person-first  constructions like "individual with blindness" or "person who is blind." Members of Deaf culture want their label to be capitalized with a "D," which is a means for establishing unity and community.

But what if you are not sure what to call people with disabilities or how to refer to them? How should nondisabled people refer to disabled persons?

Language for disability can pose a challenge, especially because no one wants to offend another person or to appear to be insensitive. Remember that both approaches are designed to respect disabled persons, so both are fine choices. One reasonable possibility is to use person-first and identity-first language interchangeably unless or until you know that in a given situation one is clearly preferred. It turns out that the best choice is simply to call people what they prefer to be called. Bear in mind, of course, that some challenges remain. For instance, one person who has dwarfism might like to be referred to as a "dwarf," whereas another might prefer to be called a "person with dwarfism." When in doubt, then, the wisest and kindest choice is simply to ask people about their preferences.

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.

Dunn, D. S. (2015). The social psychology of disability. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Dunn, D. S., & Andrews, E. (2015). Person-first and identity-first language: Developing psychologists' cultural competence using disability language. American Psychologist ® , 70, 255-264.

Dana S. Dunn , a professor of psychology at Moravian College, in Bethlehem, Penn. is a former member of the APA's Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology (CDIP). He earned his BA in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Penn. and received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia. Dunn is the author or editor of 29 books and over 150 journal articles, chapters and book reviews. His scholarship examines teaching, learning and liberal education, as well as the social psychology of disability. In 2013, Dunn received the American Psychological Foundation's Charles L. Brewer Award for Distinguished Teaching of Psychology. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Oxford Bibliographies (OB): Psychology and a member of Board of the Foundation for Rehabilitation Psychology. Dunn also blogs regularly for Psychology Today' s " Head of the Class ."

Erin E. Andrews , former co-chair of APA's Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology is board certified in rehabilitation psychology and currently serves as the supervisory psychologist at the Austin Veterans Affairs (VA) Outpatient Clinic, the largest freestanding VA outpatient clinic in the United States. Andrews is the director of psychology training for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. She earned her BS in psychology from Michigan State University, and her PsyD in clinical psychology from Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio. Her scholarship is focused on disability issues in psychology, including social justice in reproduction and parenting, disability as diversity and the prevalence disability in the field of psychology. Andrews has presented and published nationally on a wide range of disability topics. She received the 2013 APA Div. 22 Early Career Practice Award, and the 2015 James Besyner Early Career Award from the Association of VA Psychology Leaders.

Disability Resources and Publications

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Contact the Office on Disability Issues in Psychology

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195 Disability Topics & Research Questions to Discuss

Disability is a sensitive topic, often involving heated debates. There are many types of disabilities you can write about, including physical, developmental, learning, intellectual, and mental disability. StudyCorgi has prepared plenty of engaging disability topics for research papers. Interesting essay examples about disabilities are also waiting for you below!

🔥 7 Disability Topics for Research Papers

🏆 best disability essay topics, ❓ research questions on disability, 👍 good disability research topics & essay examples, ♿ disability topics for research papers, 💡 interesting disability topics to discuss, 🔎 learning disabilities research topics, 🌶️ hot disability ideas to write about.

• Supporting Students With Disabilities
• Inclusive Education for Students With Disabilities
• Characteristics of Students With Disabilities
• Representations of Disability, the Example of “Forrest Gump” Film
• Disabilities in O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• Socio-Cultural Barriers for People With Disabilities in the Rural Community
• Disability in the Workplace
• The Role of Psychology in Othering of Disability This article will define and theorize the concept of “discernment” and also question the role of psychology in social interaction of people with disabilities.
• Needs of Individuals with Disability No one chooses to be disabled. This paper aims to understand the current situation of individuals with disability, and the various ways through which their needs are met.
• Communication With People With Disabilities This paper discusses the importance of proper communication with people with disabilities, emphasizes the need to avoid putting them in awkward positions.
• Caregiving for Children With Disabilities Some people are born with particular physical or mental impairments, which often prevent them from leading a life on their own without the help of their carers.
• Employment of People with Disabilities in the UAE This issue will be analyzed within the situation in the UAE. There will be an overview of the leading country’s problems and governments’ actions toward improving the situation.
• Ability, Disability, and Erasure Ableism can be individual, observed in the discrimination of disabled in medicine, education, and collective, illustrated by the support specific policies regarding such people.
• Inquiry in the Field of Education: Critical and Historical Analysis of Inclusion of Students with Disabilities The needs of students with disabilities can, therefore, be best attended to by the virtue of placing them in a separate learning environment.
• Social Inequalities for People With Disabilities Individuals with disabilities face many social problems – some are very visible, and others are hard to notice for people without disabilities.
• Ethnicity in the Context of Invisible Disabilities The paper states that ethnicity in the context of sociological currents in America is a complex issue that has to do with invisible disabilities.
• Living With Disability: Medical and Social Models Application The paper discusses possible negative and positive impacts that are likely to arise from the utilisation of each model in terms of a person living with a disability and their care.
• Exclusion of Students with Learning Disabilities The term ‘exclusion’ is used in different contexts to accentuate possible racial, social, and class exclusion of learning disabilities students.
• Chronic Poverty and Disability in the UK The country exhibits absolute poverty and many other social issues associated with under-developed states. The issue is resolvable through policy changes.
• The Future of Disability and Inclusion This essay reflects on the future of inclusion at home, in schools, in the community, and in the media for persons with a disability in the US.
• Crime against Persons With Disabilities In conclusion, it is evident that disabled populations remain extremely vulnerable to mental, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as violence.
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) The paper discusses the key points addressed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that teachers should take into consideration.
• Domestic Violence with Disabilities Domestic violence is a kind of act that happens when a member of the family or ex partner tries to harm the other by dominating them physically or psychologically.
• Learning Disabilities in Middle Childhood Learning disability refers to a specific disorder of academic learning that affects a particular task at school and lowers the child’s educational performance.
• Disabilities and Additional Support Needs The purpose of this paper is to discuss the difference between basic and additional support needs and talk about autism, dyslexia, and family issues.
• Older People and People with Disabilities: Social Protection Programs Older people and people with disabilities are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in society. They face loss of sources of income, weakness, discrimination and violence.
• Children With Disabilities: Biases, Judgments, and Preconceptions There are a lot of biases and preconceptions about children with disabilities, for example, children tend to distance themselves from such children.
• Individuals With Emotional Disabilities Emotional disabilities vary and influence the quality of human life. This condition is characterized by differences in emotional responses to events, people, or actions.
• Special Education and Learning Disabilities The problem of learning disabilities and education is more complicated than it seems and can be better understood by studying historical changes and interpersonal relationships.
• Disability Services in Higher Education Facilities Assistance personnel, professional care team and accommodation are the support services that should be granted by institutions of higher learning.
• Disability Support in Canada The present paper will explore The Ontario Disability Support Program and discuss its effect on women and on Canadian society.
• Socialization of People with Disabilities in the Workplace The report provides a detailed examination of disability in the workplace with a view of various stratagems that modern organizations can adopt to ensure appreciation of disability inclusion.
• Disability From a Holistic Perspective The paper considers disability from a holistic perspective. It provides information on the relationship between disabled persons and their families.
• People With Disabilities: Ten Beliefs It is of paramount relevance to understanding the key fundamental principles, which are designed to ensure comprehensive and all-encompassing inclusivity for people with disabilities.
• Public Transportation: An Investigation of Barriers For People With Disabilities Public transportation is often called mass transit or urban transport, including town buses, light railways, passenger trains, trolleybuses, underground transit, and ships.
• Can Civilian Disability Pensions Overcome the Poverty Issue?
• What Are the Types of Disabilities?
• What Conditions Are Considered a Disability?
• Does Disability Insurance Receipt Discourage Work?
• What Are the Top Ten Physical Disabilities?
• Does Disability Pay More Than Social Security?
• Does Disability Status Modify the Association Between Psychosocial Job Quality and Mental Health?
• Is Anxiety Considered a Disability?
• Does Parental Disability Matter to Child Education?
• What Is the Most Common Disability in the World?
• At What Age Does Disability Turn to Social Security?
• How Do You Prove Mental Disability?
• How Can States Help Workers Keep Their Jobs After Injury, Illness, or Disability?
• Is Disability Support a Good Job?
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• Why Are People With Disability Not Employable?
• How Many Disability Beneficiaries Forgo Cash Benefits Because of Work?
• What Drives Inflows Into Disability?
• What Are the 5 Barriers for Persons With Disability?
• What Happens When the Definition of Disability Changes?
• What Are the Roles of a Disability Worker?
• What Are the Qualities That a Disability Support Worker Needs to Be Effective?
• Who Qualifies for Disability in the US?
• Is There Disability Benefits in America?
• How Much Can You Work on Disability?
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• What Is Considered to Be a Permanent Disability?
• What Are the Four Major Types of Disabilities?
• What Is the Hardest State to Get Disability In?
• How Do You Survive While Waiting for Disability Approval?
• Challenging Behavior of Persons With Intellectual Disabilities Persons with intellectual disabilities find it difficult to learn and manage the skills of everyday living. Intellectual disability can be classified as severe or profound.
• Disability and Society, the Theory of Marginality, the Minority Group Model Apart from the fact that marginalization amineralizationionise is directly linked and deprives disabled people of their rights, they also have the same solution.
• Accessibility of Sports Facilities for People with Disabilities People with reduced mobility suffer from access to sports facilities. The lack of deep mobility hinders the social integration of people with disabilities.
• The Concept of Disability Awareness Discrimination against disabled individuals is not only a violation of federal and state laws but also is extremely unethical and inconsiderate.
• Managing Students with Developmental Disabilities The term ‘special need’ is used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to refer to persons who require help to deal with disability.
• Learning Disabilities and Intervention Methods This study discusses the learning disability, its general characteristics, specific manifestations, and useful intervention methods.
• People with Disability: Issues, Perception and Laws According to the provisions of the Americans with Disability Act, it is illegal for businesses and organizations to practice discrimination based on disabilities.
• Learning Disabilities and Their Identification Learning disabilities can range in severity, but early screenings can help children and their parents understand whether the child has a learning disability or not.
• Social Problems of People with Disabilities People living with disabilities go through several challenges in life because society is yet to appreciate their presence.
• Speech Disorders in Children: Causes and Characteristics The paper answers the questions about learning disabilities: speech disorder, communication disorder, language disorder and their effects on language development and education.
• The Role of the Registered Nurse in Intellectual Disability The RNID uses quality care metrics, person-centered communication and physical assessment to play an integral role in the provision of quality care.
• Duties of Learning Disability Nurses The paper discusses the work of a Learning Disability nurse. In this profession, the nurse must see the bigger picture and put all matters into consideration.
• Principles for Students With Learning Disabilities This study will review information about the existing reading intervention strategies based on the universal design of learning principles for individuals with learning disabilities.
• Issue Relevant to Learners With High Incidence Disabilities The aim of this study is to provide insight into the issue(s) relevant to learners with high-incidence disabilities.
• Disability in Australia: Income Security and Employment The paper discusses how the Australian welfare state has affected people’s living with disability in terms of income security and employment.
• Students with Disabilities in Classrooms The acknowledgment and development of diversity in communities are one of the primary benefits of inclusive education.
• Blaming for Behavioral Disabilities Conduct disorders are characterized by persistent and profound behavioral habits that drive children to act inflexibly and uniformly in diverse conditions.
• The Impact of Flashcards to Elementary Students With Learning Disabilities The paper examines the impact of combining flashcards and reading racetracks as tools for teaching key subjects to elementary students with learning disabilities.
• Stereotypical Beliefs About People With Disabilities The paper explores common stereotypes about people with disabilities that prevent them from receiving care. The efforts are hampered by stereotypes.
• The American Medical Association and Disability Justice The American Medical Association’s plan to address racial justice and health equity must include disability justice to achieve accurate equity.
• Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in General Education Classes Since the beginning of the 21st century, possible options for the general education curriculum have included inclusion classrooms, which is known as inclusion.
• A Care Setting for a Patient With Learning Disability In the paper, Gibb’s reflective cycle will be applied to describe nurse experience in providing care for a patient with a learning disability.
• Dysfunctions, Disabilities, and Handicaps: Implications and Analysis The terms dysfunction, disability, and handicap are all related to the functioning of an individual, but they are distinct concepts.
• Supporting Children With Learning Disabilities Generally, a learning disability (LD) is a situation that prevents the ability of the student to effectively understand some crucial aspects of schoolwork.
• The Social Model of Disability: Equality vs. Equity In modern society, the social model of disability is most closely associated with such terms as equality and equity.
• Classification of Menopause as a Disability Classifying menopause as a disability causes negative impacts on women, whereby they receive prejudice in the workplace.
• The Law of Florida on Persons With Disabilities With an in-depth look at the matter, the question of whether Florida law ought to change to cater to such issues can be debated, and an amicable solution can be reached.
• United Nations Convention on Rights of People Living With Disabilities The United Nations (UN) convention calls on all social care professionals to recognize disability as a rising human rights issue.
• Cognitive Therapy for a Client with a Physical Disability The main goal of cognitive therapy is to modify an individual’s cognitive processing to change how that person evaluates and interacts with the world.
• Sitcoms and People with Disabilities The sitcoms help to present ways of analyzing culture through humor, which benefit the image of people with disability.
• Definition of Disability Culture The culture of disability is understood to be a set of patterns of behavior, beliefs, and objects of culture that are characteristic of people with disabilities.
• Disability in the “How to Dance in Ohio” Film How to Dance in Ohio is a documentary film directed by Alexandra Shiva. The film tells how girls with autism struggle with society’s difficulties in making it to their school prom.
• Bullying of Learners with Disabilities The problem of bullying remains one of the predicaments learners with disabilities encounter in their learning environments.
• People With Disabilities: Lockdown-Related Disparities This paper focuses on examining disparities that people with disabilities had to experience during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic because of lockdown policies.
• Euthanasia: Physician-Assisted Suicide, Disability, and Paternalism Involuntary euthanasia, on the other hand, means that such a person would prefer to live but has a condition that would cause their death eventually.
• The impact of assistive technologies on the daily lives of people with disabilities.
• Strategies for workplace inclusion of employees with disabilities.
• Inclusive education practices for students with disabilities.
• The influence of disability on mental health.
• The impact of disability representation in media on public attitudes.
• The unique needs of older adults with disabilities.
• Coping strategies of parents raising children with disabilities.
• Addressing the stigma and negative societal attitudes toward disability.
• Ways to ensure safety for vulnerable populations during emergencies.
• Barriers to healthcare faced by individuals with disabilities.
• Employment Center for People with Disabilities: Project Plan The three phases for creating the project are structured and include all the necessary steps for realizing the idea and making the recreational facility.
• The Americans with Disabilities Act Violations A complainant sued AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. for violating Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Nutritional Necessities of Individuals with Disabilities This article highlights the nutritional necessities of all adults, children, and youths with intellectual and developmental disabilities with special care needs.
• Disability Concepts, Perception and Values There exists a difference in perception and values between the societal, personal, and professional concepts of disability.
• Disability: Social Origin and the Role of Aging, Gender, and Race The paper explores the sources on the topic to identify how their authors regard disability in general and aging as its type in particular through gender as well as racial lenses.
• Psychopathology Through the Lenses of Distress and Disability This paper addresses psychopathology through the lenses of distress and disability while focusing on the crime event of El Paso, The Night Stalker.
• The Americans with Disabilities Act Provisions In this paper, the preceding provisions and titles of the ADA will be summarized while presenting insights into the employment progress for people with disabilities.
• Disabilities: The Intersectional Character Disregarding the intersectional character of disabilities leads to the situation when some individuals appear to be more burdened by disability than others.
• Relational Solutions Inc.’s Accommodating Employees with Disabilities As the case study under analysis demonstrates, the failure to address the needs of staff members with health disparities affects the performance levels of a company.
• The American Disability Act in a Labor Law Case ADA stands for American Disability Act and provides civil rights protections to those with disabilities in the same way as race and religion are protected.
• Lifelong Disability, Chronic Illnesses, Comorbid Conditions and Aging As individuals develop and age, irritation begins because of a few natural and physiological variables, as constant aggravation harms cells of the cerebrum, heart, etc.
• Disability Income Insurance: Benefits and Drawbacks Disability income insurance is a supplemental policy that protects policyholders from losing their income if they cannot work due to illness or an accident.
• Intersection of Disability Justice, Race, and Gender This paper presents an annotated bibliography on the intersection of disability justice, race, and gender, analyzing intersections of disability justice.
• Physical Disability in the United States According to Bonaccio et al. (2020), many social organizations in the USA are trying to defend the equality of people with disabilities.
• Nonethnic Minorities: People With Disabilities and Queer Community A crucial topic connected with the treatment of people with disabilities and LGBTQ communities is vital and needs to be discussed.
• Evaluation of Clients with Intellectual Disabilities One of the evaluation challenges is associated with measuring the outcomes of micro-level interventions in elderly clients with dementia and deteriorating intellectual abilities.
• Disability Discrimination in the Workplace This essay expounds on the job design nature applied by criminal justice agencies. It also explains how the agencies use ADA to accommodate disabled persons.
• Residential Carers’ Burnout in the Intellectual Disability Services An annotated bibliography of seven articles to demonstrate the transdisciplinary nature of methodology to alleviate residential carers’ burnout in the intellectual disability services.
• Xylitol-Containing Chewing Gum for Caries Prevention in Studies with Disabilities: A Randomized Trial. Scientific Method The study compared treatment with xylitol chewing gum and oral health education within the intervention group with only oral education within the control group.
• Women and People with Disabilities in the Workplace Both women and disabled people are often disenfranchised by their workplace, having no ability to exercise influence over the practices applicable to them.
• Individual’s Response to Disability The formation of acceptance of disability is influenced by many factors, including psychological and social. Factors influence the formation of a negative or positive response.
• Living with Disability in Contemporary Society This paper will set out to discuss the possible barriers that prevent social inclusion for people with disabilities in the community.
• Disability in the Elderly and Instrumental Activity of Daily Living Acute illness conditions or deteriorating situations amongst the aged can lead to an enhanced worsening of their functional abilities.
• Learning Disabilities of American Children Speech and language are the components of communication, and although these two concepts are somewhat different, they usually overlap.
• Obesity in People with Intellectual Disabilities’: The Article Review Mashall, McConkey, and Moore, in the ‘Obesity in People with Intellectual Disabilities’ article, seek to assess obese and overweight individuals.
• Disabilities Education Amendment Acts The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendment and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act are highly significant parts of the USA legislation.
• “Acculturation and Attitudes Towards Disability for Arab Americans” by Zidan and Chan The article “Acculturation and Attitudes towards Disability for Arab Americans” focuses on managing the needs of Arab citizens in the American context.
• Disability: Alien That Solves Every Problems As a rule, the development of disability is not related to the personal desire of the individual, so the emergence of incapacity is an unfair and unjustified natural phenomenon.
• Description of Learning Disabilities and Learning Strategies Learning strategies are immeasurably effective as they help to present information for eligible students in the most suitable way.
• Intellectual Disability Problem Analysis This report presents a detailed analysis of ID, the progress made so far regarding the disease, and some of the best initiatives to support more people with the condition.
• Inclusive Educational Classrooms for Students With Learning Disabilities The study aims to determine if a solution strategy improves the progress of junior high students with learning disabilities participating in inclusive educational classrooms.
• Social-Behavioral Skills of Elementary Students with Physical Disabilities Results of the research demonstrated that although the students with physical disabilities performed the results below the grade, they provided a good level of skills.
• Including Students With Severe Disabilities The author evaluates the benefits of school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS), as it addresses the involvement of students with severe disabilities.
• Students With Learning Disabilities: Educational Strategy The purpose of the research is to define the factors which indicate students with learning disabilities have academic skills deficits in mathematics.
• Credit Life and Credit Disability Insurance Credit insurance and credit disability insurance are services provided by several insurance companies. Credit life makes an effort to cover the remaining loan when one dies.
• Strategies for identifying learning disabilities in school-aged children.
• The difference between dyscalculia and mathematical learning difficulties.
• The connection between learning disabilities and executive functioning.
• The role of technology in supporting students with learning disabilities.
• The impact of visual processing disorder on writing skills.
• Ways to prepare students with learning disabilities for post-secondary education.
• Teacher attitudes’ effect on the academic success of students with learning disabilities.
• The role of parental involvement in the school success of children with dyslexia.
• Culturally responsive interventions for students with learning disabilities.
• Motor skills interventions for students with dysgraphia.
• “The Handicapped” by Bourne as a General Framework for Dealing With Representations of Disability The article “The Handicapped” by Bourne may be considered the basis of the research because it offers the original point of view of the person who knows how to be a handicapped man.
• Teaching Students with Mild Disabilities: Instructional Technique Many children nowadays are born with disabilities, annually, it is necessary to make these children involved in the programs, which can help them learn at least the core skills.
• Health Liberties of People With Disabilities The work considers the ethical dilemma, that focuses on people with disabilities and their liberties associated with their health condition.
• Disability and Information Technology Education This paper proposes to study how the disabled can be taught ICT and the benefits of introducing ICT education to the disabled.
• Psychological Testing in the Service of Disability Determination In objective personality tests, the term “objective” refers to the method that is being used for scoring the responses of people rather than being applied to responses themselves.
• Self-Determination of Students with Disabilities This essay revolves around the concept of self-determination and key players such as special educators or teachers and students with disabilities.
• The Assessment of Children with Reading Disabilities The primary aim of this study is to compare the outcomes of using the sensitive fluency measure and the word reading measure in the assessment of reading disability among children.
• School Experience for Students with Disabilities The emotionally disturbed students in a safe environment tend to learn more and develop other secure relationships that help them stay in school.
• Human Developmental Disabilities in Students This paper highlights different health conditions exhibited by students in the United States of America and various parts of the world.
• Disability Services Administrators: Communication Skills Professionals working in the field of disabilities development should strive to develop desirable communication skills. This achievement will make it easier for them to provide support.
• Effective Strategies for Students With Learning Disabilities The strategy for teaching disabled students is more involving and calls for careful planning and offering adequate support.
• People With Disabilities: Health-Care Disparities The work with those people who have developmental disabilities is associated with a range of challenges because of certain health disparities, as well as health-care ones.
• Genetics of Developmental Disabilities The aim of the essay is to explore the genetic causes of DDs, especially dyslexia, and the effectiveness of DNA modification in the treatment of these disorders.
• Curriculum Organization: Perceptions of Disability Blindness is a disability that has no equal. ‘The eyes are the windows to the soul’ is a popular analogy that is used to capture the importance that eyes play in our lives.
• The American Association of Health Disability The discussion uses the case of the American Association of Health Disability to understand how such agencies can empower many people from diverse backgrounds.
• Transition Planning Process for Students With Disabilities The purpose of the article is to show the significance of the self-determination transition planning procedure for intellectually and physically challenged students.
• New Technologies for the Students with Disabilities The leaders in the schools uphold the belief that having the regular students and the disabled children learning together helps the disabled children attain confidence in competing.
• General Curriculum for Students with Severe Disabilities This paper discusses access to the general curriculum for students with severe disabilities in terms of the definition of access to general curriculum and the methods.
• Disability and Evidence-Based Healthcare This essay examines the types, domains, benefits, shortcomings, and challenges of evidence-based healthcare practices in disability management.
• Care for People with Various Disabilities: Learning Plan The proper care delivery to people with various kinds of disabilities is one of the priorities for all medical organizations and community services across the country.
• Participation of Students with Severe Disabilities The discrimination and isolation of the students with intellectual disabilities is a great social problem because it has significant impacts on the overall educational performance.
• Inclusion and Disability in Education The essay explains the purpose of inclusive education, compares inclusion to “mainstreaming?” and distinguishes “medical model” and “social model” of understanding disability.
• Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Benefits The Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefits (OASDI) is one of the Social Security programs that every American is entitled to as their social right.
• US Medical Leave, Discrimination, Disability Acts Employment laws are enacted for, they offer protection to employees and employers. Understanding and complying with the laws does offer societal benefits.
• Related Services for Students with Disabilities In general, the concept of related services presupposes those approaches that are used to meet the needs of students with disabilities.
• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act This essay discusses The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as a social policy that can create social changes and have some impact on different people.
• Learning Disabilities in Organizations This paper describes an organization affected by issues of learning disabilities. It defines its system archetypes and presents an action plan to address the issues.
• General Education Curriculum for Children with Disabilities The author addresses certain issues that she considers importance in the understanding of the education curriculum in different countries especially among the less privileged members of the society.
• Exploring Multiculturalism in Counseling In their article, Woo et al. aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the content of the American Counseling Association in regard to disability issues.
• Instruction Development for Students with Cognitive Disability The article describes several evidence-based practices that have been used over the years in trying to build more effective educational system for students with cognitive disability.
• Transition of Adolescents with Severe Disabilities This paper assesses the transition-related strength of students with severe disabilities from the perspective of the educators, parents and the youth. It is based on various ratings for students.
• Math Anxiety and the Effect It Has on Children with a Learning Disability The paper discusses if young people have math anxiety from elementary school or it develops later as they grow. It gradually analyses all aspects related to this problem among children.
• Specific Needs Understanding: Individuals With Disabilities This work explain the definition of disability, attitudes towards individuals with specific needs, the social, cultural and individual perception of illness and other.

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StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 195 Disability Topics & Research Questions to Discuss. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/disability-essay-topics/

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StudyCorgi . "195 Disability Topics & Research Questions to Discuss." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/disability-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "195 Disability Topics & Research Questions to Discuss." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/disability-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Disability were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on June 21, 2024 .

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Other Diseases & Conditions — Disability

Disability Essay Examples

Navigate the complexities and diverse narratives surrounding disability with our extensive collection of disability essay samples. These essays offer a wide range of perspectives on disability, highlighting the challenges, triumphs, and societal implications associated with physical and mental disabilities. Whether you're seeking to deepen your understanding, gather evidence for an argument, or find inspiration for your own disability essay, our collection serves as a valuable resource for any student engaged in this important discourse.

Understanding Disability

Disability encompasses a broad spectrum of conditions that impact individuals' daily lives and abilities. Essays on disability cover various themes, including accessibility, discrimination , legislation, and personal experiences of living with a disability. By exploring these essays, students can gain insights into the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities, the societal barriers they face, and the ongoing efforts towards inclusion and equality. These essays encourage a deeper reflection on how society perceives and accommodates disability, challenging stereotypes and advocating for change.

Highlights from Our Essay Collection

Our disability essay samples address a multitude of topics, ensuring that students can find essays that resonate with their specific area of interest or research focus. From analytical pieces on policy and rights to reflective essays on personal growth and resilience, our collection provides a rich source of information and perspectives. Each essay not only enriches your research but also helps in crafting compelling narratives that bring to light the realities of living with a disability.

Leveraging Our Essays for Your Academic Success

• Idea Generation: Use our essays as a springboard for developing your own unique thesis or research question on disability.
• Research Aid: Employ these essays to identify key issues, trends, and scholarly debates surrounding disability.
• Structural Guide: Analyze the structure and argumentation strategies used in our essays to enhance the organization and persuasiveness of your own writing.
• Citing Sources: Observe how our essays incorporate and cite evidence, providing a model for academic integrity and proper referencing in your work.

The exploration of disability through academic writing is an opportunity to engage with critical issues affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Our collection of disability essay samples is designed to support students in navigating this complex topic, offering a foundation for informed, empathetic, and impactful essays. By delving into our essays, you can contribute to a more inclusive and understanding discourse on disability.

Begin your journey through the multifaceted world of disability by exploring our disability essay samples today. Allow these essays to inspire and guide you as you contribute your voice to the vital conversation on disability and inclusion.

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