Wheelchair Resources – Disability and Discrimination

Individuals that are coping with a disability face a multitude of challenges in their everyday lives. Depending upon the severity and type of disability, the challenges can range from accessibility issues to workplace adaptability problems. However, one of the most troubling problems is that of discrimination of the disabled.

Over the course of time, disabled individuals have faced direct and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination in the form of employers not wanting to hire disabled individuals. The other form of discrimination is more subtle, but just as bad, is indirect discrimination where because of accessibility issues or similar environmental constraints, disabled workers are unable to do the same job as the non-disabled.

To combat the problem of discrimination among disabled individuals, the government has provided legal assistance int he form of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as other similar legislations. These legal actions have helped allow disabled workers have the same rights as the non-disabled. To learn more about the problems facing disabled workers, here are some helpful websites:

Workplace

The workplace has been a big source of difficulties for disabled individuals. The same workplace environment may not be a problem for non-disabled individuals as they are for vision impaired, hearing impaired or workers with mobility issues. To make the workplace usable for the disabled, employers have had to make the equipment and facility be able to accommodate disabled workers.

Accommodations

There are many ways that buildings, offices and other public and non-public facilities have been changed to accommodate the needs of handicapped individuals. These accommodations have ranged from having doors that allow access by wheelchair, machines such as ATMs that have letters in Braille for the vision impaired, and sound enhancements for the hearing impaired. These accommodations have been made to allow disabled individuals to enjoy all services available.

Accessibility

The problem of accessibility has been a big problem for handicapped individuals. For example, wheelchair bound individuals going into a bank were not able to reach the teller counters. Problems such as this led for the push to make buildings and offices more accessible to all people. Therefore, creations such as a drop down counter to allow people with wheelchairs the opportunity to conduct banking business, have made it easier to access services.

Legal Protection

To ensure that all people are treated the same, the government has enacted legislation that provides protection for disabled individuals and that discrimination does not occur. The laws currently in place range from workplace laws to health laws to housing rules and regulations. While the problems of the disabled and handicapped have not disappeared, they have been reduced over the past few decades, and will only make it easier for future generation of disabled individuals.

Resources

While this gude is helpful in providing information on disabled and discrimination issues, there are many more helpful sites available. Here are a few helpful general information sites to visit:

Discrimination among disabled individuals has become less of a problem in recent years. With the implementation of the Americans with Disability Act, the Rehabilitation Act, Fair Housing Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and many other vital laws and regulations, the disabled have had more rights and opportunities than ever before. While the situation for disabled individuals has improved, it is not perfect, and gains will continued to be made to attain the ultimate goal of removing discrimination of disabled.


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