Perceptions of Disabilities

Abstract

Throughout the history of the United States, the communities of people with disabilities have faced inequality and discrimination, which root from misconceptions and stigmas within its culture. These often lead to a divide and contribute to the unintentional/intentional discrimination of these groups socially, culturally, and economically. In recent years at UW-Stout, there have been steps made towards changes in favor of the disabled community on campus and their human rights, but there are still stigmas present that marginalize the community of people with disabilities. Our group noted that many of the issues present are not only going unaddressed, but unnoticed. For this ethnography, we wanted to dive into this question of why these issues have been so difficult to change and are so frequently unseen. We asked people on both sides of the issue, those with disabilities and those without disabilities, so we could gain a better understanding of why and where these issues are stemming from. Our goal is to get the outsiders’ perspective on the insiders' experiences, with the hope that we can find the root of where a lot of the issues are coming from.