Final Exam Disability Studies

 Directions: Answer the following ten essay questions thoroughly and base your answers on researched information (cite your references) and information discussed in class. Do not state an opinion without bolstering it with facts, elaborating, and defining terms. Please edit your work for grammar and spelling errors, and number each question. (Each question is 10 points).

1. Research the answer to the following question: Describe the change of attitudes towards persons with disabilities from the founding of this country to the present. How were these attitudes expressed in terms of the care given to them and the agencies set up to help them?

 2. Looking back 25-30 years, what significant social policy and legal steps have been taken to improve the lives of persons with disabilities? (Include disability as a social movement, the ADA, and educational policies.)

3.  Discuss the current failings of our current social policy. (Consider the effects of the recession, a conservative political climate, and enforcement of laws presently in place.)

4. The Affirmative Action program was designed to equalize employment opportunities for minorities, an acknowledgement that discrimination existed against minorities. A quota system was established mandating that employers had to hire a certain number of minorities, thus instituting preferential hiring practices to equalize opportunities for the disadvantaged.

Question: Assume that you are a maker of social policy who is asked to determine whether people with disabilities should have the same benefits of preferential hiring and also determine whether veterans with disabilities should be given hiring preference over civilians with disabilities. Provide arguments for your decision.

 5. Are disability rights laws a guarantee of civil rights for the disabled? Explain.

 6. How do books, movies, and TV shows, and other media instruct us to think about disability? i.e., how do they shape our attitudes? (This answer requires research and specific examples.)

  7. Define the concept of “normalization” as it pertains to disability. How has this concept affected the treatment of disabilities?

8.  Differentiate between the definitions of “empathy”, “pity”, and “condescension”. Discuss each emotion with respect to persons with disabilities. Discuss both societal attitudes and as well as your own.

 9. “It is said that disability makes non-disabled people anxious “. What cultural attitudes allow stigmas with respect to persons with disabilities to flourish?

10. The pandemic has profoundly affected many aspects of our society. Research its effects on a number of levels (attitudinal, social policy, psychological, etc.) from the perspective of persons with disabilities. How, specifically is it affecting them?