It’s a CATCH-22!
Needing services and using the services:
1) Not having your own voice
2) Having your needs always met as a dependent for life
3) Being pitied with despair
4) Not having your own way of doing things accomplished with self-determination
5) Always being spoken to as a child
Not having/using services:
1) Being told you have to do everything on your own
2) Not having certain minimal services you need
3) Being told you don’t have a disability or you are not Autistic, etc.
4) struggling keeping up with everyday life skills
5) being told you are so-called ‘normal’ or just like everyone else
Either way it is a struggle for a Disabled person to live their life needing or not needing services. So, when is society going to understand disability? Society needs to give people who need the services the necessary things to ensure self-determination for success. Services are very important for my peers and I.
The social model of disability goes unnoticed because many people in the world look at the medical model as the key component in helping the disability community. Yet, the medical model of disability does not allow others to work with self-determination because medical professionals treat the disability rather than the person. They try behaviorist methods and medicine without having the person work on their own terms toward success. Society seems to not expect a Disabled person to live the way a Able person or Non-Disabled person can.
Every one has every right to be involved in their treatment plans whether they have a documented disability or not. Everybody has their own mind, their own body, and their own soul which gives them the strength to live their life. Many times due to many of society’s many people who we interact with, have dealt with abuses, neglect, and/or bullying which hurt self-esteem. In my opinion, this could be the reason why the medical model is continuously used to treat the disorder/disability rather than the person. The medical model also adapted thinking where everyone labels each other with something. This is called Eugenics.
Once society accepts disability, society will understand how to react to it and engage with those who have a disability much better.
Let’s start learning and finally accepting disability in Humanity!
OUT, J