Skip to main content

Enabling the Disabled

Today in our neuro class, we watched Aimee Mullin's Ted Talk. She spoke about people's different perceptions of the word "disabled," and how it can affect the mindset of individuals with disabilities. She began her talk by listing the different synonyms for the word "disabled" from a thesaurus. This part of the talk is what struck me most. Harsh, unforgiving words such as "useless" were used in the thesaurus, followed by antonyms including "whole." I could not believe that this is how the idea of being disabled was described. As Ms. Mullins stated in her talk, using words or casting ideas about disability such as these could be causing a major threat to the potential of those with a disability. If these individuals also believe they are broken and useless, what hope could they see in their futures? I think that society has come a long way in opening their eyes to the idea of disabilities; however, we still have a long way to go. Advances in medicine, adaptive equipment, and technology give individuals a chance at living a fulfilling lifestyle. I look forward to learning about different neurological disorders in this class so that I too can one day help individuals with all types of disorders live the most meaningful life possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pat Summitt's Battle with Dementia

Pat Summitt is well-known for being an exceptional basketball coach for the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, as well as being a coach for the women's USA olympic team. In 2010, Pat began showing subtle signs of dementia, but she ignored the signs for another year. In 2011, she was diagnosed at age 59 with early-onset dementia. She went to Mayo Clinic when she began experiencing symptoms including showing up to a game while leaving her car running and calling the wrong terms during the game. She also reported signs such as feeling disoriented when waking up in the morning. She reported that numbers were especially difficult to understand and deal with at this point. After her diagnosis, Pat was determined to continue coaching at UTK; however, after about a year she was encouraged to retire from her position as head coach. She then started the Pat Summitt Foundation to raise money and awareness for research about early-onset dementia. During the middle stages of de...
Post a Comment
Read more

Main Takeaway from Foundations of OT Course

Coming into this program, I obviously thought I knew exactly what occupational therapy is. Well, about a week into our Foundations of Occupational Therapy course, I realized that this was not the case. Occupational therapy can be such a vague field, and even as an OT/S, I found myself stumbling on words trying to come up with a simple way to define the profession. As our last assignment for the course, we were asked to create a conceptual diagram summarizing what we think OT is and how we can display it for others who might not know. Now that we have reached the end of this course, I feel like I know so much more about OT and am even more thrilled that I am in this program and entering into such a well-rounded profession. This field is truly so unique. As a future occupational therapist, I will be able to help others be more satisfied with life because I will be focusing all of my time with them on aspects of life that they actually find meaningful. I look forward to advocating for occ...
1 comment
Read more