Disability through the Prism of the Equality Act - Essay Example

The Equality Act of By of Institute The Equality Act Introduction When the Equality Act was passed in 2010, the aim was to protect a number of characteristics. Among the characteristics, that the equality act sough to protect includes those based on age, disability, gender, marriage, race, religion and belief (Hunt, 2013, p. 695). It also sought to protect individuals discriminated against based on the sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, as well as discrimination by association. Discrimination by association by association is indirect as one is discriminated against because of what the person’s child, sibling or partner may be, for instance, gay. For the purposes of this paper, disability shall be analysed through the prism of the Equality Act 2010. Challenges of disability shall be discussed based on the experiences of day-to-day involvements of persons with disability. Disability is not inability; therefore, disabled persons should be treated fairly in all areas of social, economic and political pursuits (Citizens Advice Bureau, 2015, p. 1). Definition of Disability Under the Equality Act 2010, one is taken to be disabled if the person has “a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect” on that person’s ability to carry out his normal activities (Gov.Uk, 2010, p. 1). For the purpose of implementation of the Act, the problem of definition needed to be addressed. The problem of ‘substantial” and “long-term”, as used in the Equality Act 2010, were defined as follow. Substantial was defined to imply that the disability caused one longer than average to complete tasks that previously took a shorter time to complete (Government Equality Office, 2010, p. 4). For the purposes of determining disability, “long-term” was defined to mean that the condition progressed for more than 12 months (Gov.Uk, 2010, p. 1). All terms of the Equality Act 2010 as far as disability is concerned are pegged on the above major definitions as the guiding principles for the various forms of disabilities covered by the act. Categories Covered as within the Boundaries of the Definition of Disability Given the nature of the Equality Act 2010, the law had to specify what categories of persons are covered by the act. This was necessary in order to prevent any possible lawsuits by persons who in their understanding may have believed that they are disabled whereas they are not. In anticipation of such an eventuality, the Equality Act 2010 specified the following. In the determination of disability, alcohol addiction, nicotine addiction or general addiction to any other substance that does not arise from the medical administration of prescribed drugs does not qualify as a disability. A person’s tendency for arson, stealing, physical and sexual abuse does not qualify is not regarded as a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. The same applies to tattoos and piercings. The Act outlines that a disabled person is shall be one who is certified as blind, has severe sight impairment or partially sighted as determined by an ophthalmologist (Disability Regulations 2010, Part 2). Other persons deemed to be disabled shall be classified so under the examination of a qualified medical personnel. The Nature of Disability and Theory for Discrimination and Oppression against the Disabled Despite the several humanitarian efforts that are put in place, the contemporary systems still fail to take responsibility for acting on the concerns of people with disabilities. This is to say that although there are several bodies that manage the rights of the disabled people, such efforts are engulfed in various challenges associated with enforcing fair treatment of persons with disabilities. Many social systems still exclude people with physical impairments. They tend to sideline them from undertaking mainstream activities in the society. To that extent, understanding the contemptuous treatment that disabled people are persistently subjected to is very critical. Culture is one of the reasons why people with disabilities are mistreated, oppressed or discriminated against. In a conventional sense, an oppressive culture is characterized by the tendency to act unfairly against or divide humankind into various categories. This implies that it is a common phenomenon to be discriminated against if one finds himself/herself among people who do not have the same cultural background. The discriminations and the oppressions that people with disabilities are subjected to can be explained in similar contexts. According to Goodley (2010, p. 87), people with disabilities are subjected to various forms of mistreatments which differed from one community to another. For example, among the Nomadic tribes the disabled people were considered less important in the society since they were not capable of making any significant contribution to the betterment of the society. In such communities, people are regarded in terms of their ability to contribute to the wealth of the tribe or provide food. During migration in search of better lands and pasture for the livestock, people with disabilities in such communities were often left behind to die. Just like the Nomad communities, the modern day societies construct lines of divisions, which impede people with disabilities to certain privileges that are being enjoyed by the mainstream members of the society. The societal systems are entrapped in the same discriminatory constraints. For instance, institutional discrimination against people living with disabilities is rampant within various societies. The inherence of such demeaning practices of people with disabilities has seen persons with disabilities being segregated out of any form of special provision. Under the Equality Act 2010, every disabled person is protected. For instance, they are protected against discrimination in terms of employment, schooling and other areas. Over the years, persons with disability have been discriminated against when it comes to recruitment in the available job opportunities. Goodley (2010, p. 91) argues that in the present education systems students with disabilities are likely to be marked out in terms of medical challenges rather than educational criteria. They are also given low consideration in such systems compared to non-disabled students. The consequence is that the disabled students develop skills that are inferior in comparison to those of their counterparts without disabilities. Under the Equality Act, such discrimination has been outlawed. For instance, a teacher should not should at a learner for not paying attention when the lack of attention has been occasioned by the observable or known disability of the student. Such treatments demonstrate how various cultures eliminate worth of individuals while in pursuit of profitability at work. These are the constraints that the capitalism of the present day societies might entail despite there being a law to protect this strand: the disabled. It shadows how the disabled people are viewed within capitalistic social settings. In many workplaces, employers perceive the disabled people as liabilities. Many do not see their worth. This implies that they are considered a problem or some sort of burden that employers would have to contend with after they have hired (Jones & Latreille, 2011, p. 4163). However, these do not dispute the fact that unethical profit motivated social settings cannot accommodate disabled people in their systems. The problem is very rampant in capitalist societies since they are perceived as less productive. For this reason, disabled people are often discriminated since they are perceived as less valuable as far as productivity is concerned. This does not mean that this is a challenge only experienced in capitalist societies, but that it is more rampant there than anywhere else. In essence, both the oppression and discrimination against persons with disabilities is an illumination of how the contemporary systems have pegged everything on productivity. In addition, the economic hardships that are currently being experienced globally only worsen how disabled people are treated under the world system. The disabled are considered as a liability to productivity rather than assets. Lack of respect for humanity is also one of the aspects that significantly contribute to the mistreatment of disabled persons. People with disabilities have historically been subjected to strong political seclusion and negativity based on accounts of the worth in the society. They are seen as incapable of delivering when compared to persons without disability. It is arguably true that the implications of such historical mistreatments of the disabled people have been passed down to modern day societies over the decades from one generation to the next. For instance, the German Nazis, under the ruthless leadership of Hitler, institutionalized persons with disabilities. Institutionalization refers to the segregation or a complete cut-off of people with disabilities from the mainstream population. Hitler’s regime extremely abused persons with disabilities beginning with the mentally challenged persons. Other authors have observed that before Hitler began executing his target, which constituted of the lesbians, gays, Jews and the Gypsies. His soldiers began killing the disabled people as his medical team experimented with them to perfect their skills. Negative Attitude Towards Disabled People All these arguments point out to the existence of prejudice against the disabled. A number of authors have argued that it is widely believed that undermining people with disabilities is the major driving force behind the discrimination of persons with disabilities. The most astonishing aspect of this argument is that the existence of the disability prejudice is in most cases denied among various legal, political and social systems. This has been responsible for persistent discriminatory and oppressive acts against disabled people. In essence, prejudice against the disabled is either the cause or the consequence of the negative attitude that societies tend to have towards persons with disabilities. Generally, attitude refers to a combination of values, feelings, dispositions and beliefs that determine the way we perceive other people within our communities. This also includes how we think about the situations in our environments. The attitudes that people show towards other people or situations around them is significantly shaped by the experiences they have undergone or undergo in their in their societies. In this instance, the attitudes of people toward persons with disability in their societies are shaped by cultures, which look down upon people with disabilities. Such societal attitudes are in many cases inherited down the generation from the previous generation. It is for such reasons that the Equality Act 2010 was passed to streamline a number of items, amongst them this strand of disability . Before the onset of the twentieth century, people living with disabilities were regarded as the deviant, defective and unhealthy. For these reasons, people with disabilities were often treated with contempt and pity. Not many people wanted to associate with them. The dominant attitude in several communities during this era regarding disabled people was that such people were not able to take part in any economic ventures that are being undertaken by the mainstream society. Neither were they able to stand in defence of the community in case of an attack. As such, for them to survive, they had to rely on aids offered by the charitable individuals and their families. In the modern times, many of them have continued to rely on charitable organizations and groups as they miss opportunities for employment. According to Marks (2014, p. 112) there have been significant legislative efforts to create and enforce legislative changes to combat disability prejudice over the last two decades. However, despite such efforts the negative attitudes towards people with disabilities are still common in various spheres of modern societies. The majority of adults staying in the United Kingdom believe that people living with disabilities in Britain face disability prejudice. Marks (2014, p. 127) argues that people with disabilities are still being undermined in the society. He believes that this can largely be attributed to lack of understanding concerning the disabilities. The majority of people do not know how to handle the needs of people with disabilities. This also affects the communities of the disabled people. This implies that some groups of disabled people do not understand that their needs. Most of the groups affected include those with mental illnesses, behavioural deformations and learning disabilities. Disabled persons at workplaces are affected by the negative attitudes expressed towards them and lack of understanding of their needs. Many workplaces, for instance, do not have ramps where persons with disabilities can use. Some have not adapted their doorbells to be within reach of persons with disability as indicated in Disability Regulations 2010 (Part 3 on Auxiliary Aids and Services). Staniland (2009, p. 36) observe that there are groups of people in the societies who think of the disabled people as the major causes of discomfort or obstacles in the societies. Some, communities also consider disabled people as awkward and in most cases would not like to be associated with them. The disability prejudice is still widely spread among the UK populations. According to Staniland (2009, p. 58), a significant amount of the UK population believes that there is little or much prejudice towards people with disabilities. Whereas many people openly express negativity towards people with disabilities; others are likely to suggest that disabled people are less important to the societies compared to those without disabilities. Research conducted by Staniland (2009, p. 51) shows that people with disabilities are discriminated against in learning institutions due to such dominance of disability prejudice. Similar situations are observed in other aspects of the society as well. For instance, when people with disabilities occupy authoritative positions such as managerial positions at workplaces or representing other people in the national assemblies, they are often regarded as less competent than their colleagues without mental or physical deformations. The disability prejudice affects the disabled people equally across the various categories. This implies that the people with disabilities, both the young and the aged, masculine or feminine feel the pinch of disability prejudice on the same scale. The demeaning acts of disability prejudice are often expressed in terms of discrimination and oppression. However, the most overwhelming part of the entire experience of people living with disabilities is usually felt when they experience the prejudice for the first time. The various challenges that the disabled people encounter in their early venture into their social lives may sometimes be too much for them to bear. Due to that, some may resolve not to interact with the public. Nobody likes it when people around them pity them all the time. This is the exact feeling that people with disabilities have to confront in the early moments of their social life. They are viewed as less fortunate people who cannot exist without the support of other people. The most affected age included teenagers and emerging adults. This is because at these particular stages, disabled people are transitioning from the state that they were dependent on their parents, guardians or caregivers to the points that they have to depend on themselves. From these perspectives, it is easy to observe that the attitudes often stigmatize people with disabilities that the public usually have towards them. The stigma that disabled people are forced to endure usually triggers off some behaviours intended to help them cope with the conditions they are facing in the public eye (Sims & Cabrita, 2014, p. 18). In this case, they may become insecure. This implies that they may develop a sense of fear when facing their peers in the public domain. They may also accept the views of the public that they cannot survive on their own. As a result, they become dependent on other people. In other extreme cases, they may become hostile. The degree of discrimination against people with disabilities varies with related factors of disability. Denny and Earle (2006, p. 76) explain that there are various disability-related factors that are implicated in the literature. Such factors influence the attitude of the mainstream population towards people with disabilities. They include factors such as the functionality of disabled people. In this case, the complexity of the form of disability plays a critical role in determining how the public perceives the person with a disability. Those with more complex disabilities are exposed to higher chances of being discriminated against compared to those with mild complexities. Secondly, the severity of the disability is also a major determining factor of disability prejudice. The disabled people whose cases are more severe are discriminated against while those with less severe disabilities are likely to receive favourable treatments. Furthermore, some disabilities are seen as contagious. The more disability is perceived as contagious, the more those bearing such conditions are discriminated against and segregated in the public domain. Using this Awareness to Challenge and Address Social Inequalities Associated with Disabilities It is evident that disability prejudice is widely spread across various communities around the globe. Dealing with discrimination against persons with disabilities begins with acceptance of the disabled into the mainstream societies and acknowledging the fact that they are discriminated against in various spheres of life. This establishes the required foundation for the frameworks of dealing with the challenges. Creating such awareness is very crucial and can be used to educate the public to change their attitude towards people with disabilities. Although there are significant bodies dealing with human rights, for instance, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), such efforts often lack reinforcements in reality. The UNCRPD advocates for the freedom of the disabled people and dictate that such people should be given the right to enjoy similar human right as ordinary people. However, their efficacy in dealing with disability prejudice is in most cases confined to theoretical contexts. This implies that though international bodies such as UNCRPD are structured for the betterment of the welfare of people with disabilities, more often than not they remain less effective protocols on their own. Most of the times, they find it hard to penetrate cultural barriers. This awareness provides an overview of the attitudes of a significant segment of UK population towards people with disabilities, as well as other societies around the globe. Therefore, it can be used to steer the efforts of creating awareness on the importance of living in harmony and accepting the participation of all members of the society in every aspect of social life. This can as well be used to change the attitude of family members towards their loved ones with disabilities. For instance, they can be taught that the disabled do not require to be pitied, but be guided on how to execute doable tasks. This awareness has also highlighted the harmful effects of disability prejudice. For this reason, it can be used to combat such negativity, as well as the stereotypes and other harmful practices associated with disabilities. It can be used to empower the efforts the public authorities in enacting the Equality Act 2010 and to advance the creation of equal opportunities for the disabled. This article also emphasizes the importance of developing mechanisms that will enhance the development of positive attitude towards persons with disabilities right from the early ages of life to adulthood. Dealing with negative attitudes towards people with disabilities involves all the stakeholders. Both the disabled and the normal persons must join hands and walk towards the same goal. In this case, this awareness will aid the creation of awareness in a twofold manner: both on the side of the disabled and of the normal persons. Children with disabilities can be taught that they are precious and that they should not look down upon themselves. Normal students can also be taught the significance of treating their colleagues with compassion. Subsequently, this is likely to raise a generation of people that promote homogeneity in the societies irrespective of the physical, mental or any other form of disabilities among them. In light of Equality Act 2010, the society should use the act as a guide to proper handling of persons with disability. Bibliography Citizens Advice Bureau, 2015. Equality Act 2010 - discrimination and your rights. Retrieved from http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/discrimination_w/discrimination_about_discrimina tion_e/equality_act_2010_discrimination_and_your_rights.htm Denny, E. & Earle, S., 2006.Sociology for Nurses, Cambridge: UK, Polity Publishers. Disability Regulations, 2010. Part 2: Determination of Disability. Retrieved from http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2128/part/2/made Goodley, D. (2010). Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction, London, SAGE Publishers. Gov.UK, 2010. Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010 Government Equalities Office, 2010. Equality Act 2010:What Do I need to Know? A Summary Guide to Your Rights. 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