DISABLED

 

 

Disabled People are persons with physical or mental incapacities. Common physical disabilities include blindness, deafness and paralysis, while common mental disabilities include autism and the effects of Down's syndrome. Disabilities generally vary in severity. One person with Down's syndrome, for instance, may be very limited in terms of activities available, while another person only relatively mildly affected may be able to hold down a job and be much more self reliant.

 

Social Problems For Disabled People

Disabled people sometimes have difficulty doing things other able-bodied people may take for granted, such as traveling on public transport, climbing stairs or even using some household appliances. However, the greatest challenge that disabled people have had to face has been society's misperception that they are a “breed apart”. Historically they have been pitied, ignored, vilified—even hidden away in institutions.

Until the second half of the 20^th century, it was rare that society recognized that, apart from the specific impairment, disabled people have the same abilities, needs and interests as the rest of the population. Nevertheless discrimination continued to exist in certain important areas. Some employers were reluctant to take on or promote disabled people; some landlords refused to rent to them; and courts sometimes deprived them of basic rights, including custody of their children. In recent decades, this situation has undergone some positive changes through adjustments in legislation and public attitudes. Also people with disabilities have lobbied for their rights as full citizens and productive individuals.

 

In implementing their rights disabled people have worked to establish several important principles. One is that they be evaluated on the basis of individual merit, not on stereotyped assumptions about disabilities. Another is that society must make certain changes to enable them to participate more easily in business and social activities; one example is wheelchair access to public transport, building entrances and theatres. A third principle is that, to the extent appropriate for each individual, disabled people should be integrated with people who are not disabled.

 

The movement for rights of disabled people has incurred opposition, however, usually based on the prohibitive cost of the changes sought. In addition, the lack of certain facilities that would make the integration of disabled people into public life easier is sometimes itself used as an excuse for able-bodied people to ignore the issue.

 

Cancellation of Scottish Council for Spastics

 

Blindness is complete or almost complete absence of the sense of sight. It may be caused by any obstacle to the rays of light on their way to the optic nerve or by disease of the optic nerve or tract, or of that part of the brain connected with vision. It may be permanent or transient, complete or partial, or in effect only in low-light conditions.

 

Not until the close of the 18^th century was any organized effort made to provide blind people with education, books, rehabilitation or training in an appropriate occupational field. The first school for blind people was founded in Paris in 1785 by the French educator Valentin Haüy; known as the Institution Nationale, it is still in existence. In 1806 Haüy established a school for blind people in Russia and aided in the establishment of a similar school in Berlin. These schools proved so successful that by 1811 similar institutions were established throughout Europe. The first printing in raised letters on paper was introduced by Haüy in 1784. He used the italic style of type, embossing the paper with large and small letters set in movable type by his pupils; other styles of type were tried later. Because of the large size of type required, however, the books produced were bulky and expensive. In 1821 a French army captain Charles Barbier invented a system of point type a code based on groups of dots. Louis Braille adapted Barbier's system using groups of one to six dots. A conference of workers for blind people held in London in 1932 to standardize point systems adopted an alphabet known as Standard English Braille, which is the original Braille alphabet with a few modifications. The Braille system is now used throughout the English-speaking world and has been adapted to most other languages including Chinese. Braille also devised a system of point characters for musical notation.

 

Deaf blind people, with or without the ability to speak, must be dealt with individually; their rehabilitation usually requires special home teachers and always depends on personal understanding and patience.

 

Physical Aids

Specially trained guide dogs have proved successful in aiding some blind people. During World War II, the US Army Signal Corps developed an electronic eye that enabled a blind person to perceive obstacles in his or her path. Since then, more refined electronic devices have been developed. In practice, the majority of blind people today achieve relative mobility and independence simply by the use of canes.

 

 

Louis braille 1809 – 1852  

French teacher of the blind. He himself was blind from the age of three and in 1818 went as a foundling to the National Institute for the Young Blind in Paris. Soon showing marked ability in both science and music, he became famous in Paris as an organist and cellist. In 1828 Braille began teaching the blind in the institute and in the following year he conceived the idea of modifying the Barbier “point writing” system, used for coded army messages to enable the blind to read. Point writing consists of embossed dots and dashes on cardboard; the Braille system derived from it is used successfully today in slightly modified form in many countries.

 

Braille System is method of printing books for use by the blind consisting of a system of raised dots embossed in paper by hand or machine and read by touch. Each letter, number and punctuation mark is indicated by the number and arrangement of one to six dots in a cell or letter space, two dots wide and three dots high. Musical notation also can be transcribed into Braille. The characters are embossed from the back of the paper working in reverse direction and are read from the face of the paper in normal reading direction. The blind can transcribe Braille on a slate by using a stylus or on a Braillewriter by striking keys.

 

 

Deafness is most simply defined as an inability to hear. This definition however gives no real impression of how deafness affects function in society for the hearing-impaired person. The condition affects all age groups, and its consequences range from minor to severe. Profoundly deaf people have a hearing loss so severe that they cannot benefit from mechanical amplification, whereas hard-of-hearing people often can benefit, to varying degrees, from the use of such amplification.

 

Deafness in general can be caused by illness or accident or it may be inherited. Continuous or frequent exposure to sound levels above 85 dB such as that produced by loud rock music can cause a progressive and eventually severe sensorineural hearing loss. A hearing aid may not help a person with a sensorineural loss.

Until the Middle Ages most people believed that deaf people were incapable of learning language or of being educated in any way. By the 16^th century however a few philosophers and educators began to reconsider the condition of deaf people. A Spanish Benedictine monk Pedro de Ponce is considered the first teacher of deaf students and in 1620 Juan Paulo Bonet another Spaniard wrote the first book on educating deaf people. The book contained a manual alphabet similar to the one used today.

 

During the 18^th century schools were established for deaf children in France by Abbé Charles Michel de l'Épée and in Germany by the educator Samuel Heinicke. The conflict that exists to this day as to whether deaf children should be educated by oral (lip-reading and speech) or manual (signs and finger spelling) methods dates from this time. The Abbé de l'Épée was a manualist and Heinicke an oralist; each knew of and studied the other's methods.