Empathy

Is there any empathy in people with Disability in Australia?

Human being has always judged a person with disability. However, there are different types of people who discriminate in different ways. There are those who feel sorry and treat them with differences, they don’t only treat them different they also talk to them different and look at them different, due to lack of education and empathy towards them that they do not realize they are exactly like anyone else. I will briefly examine the definition of disability, the inequality, discrimination and the lack of empathy in Australian society towards people with disability.

Disability is a lack of ability relative to a person. Disability may involve physical impairment such as sensory impairment, cognitive or intellectual impairment, mental disorder , or various types of chronic disease. A disability may occur during a person's lifetime or may be present from birth. (Encyclopedia of disability, general ed. Gary L. Albrecht, Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.] : SAGE Publ., 2005)

Why are people so scared of a person with disability? Maybe it is what parents have taught their children to don’t talk to strangers or maybe it is the lack of education in regards to people with disability. This discriminatory attitude causes pain to people with disabilities must have an end. The best way is by educating our society and combat the ignorance (Darcy, 2003).

The lack of empathy in the work force

A majority of people with disability in Australia are isolated from the society; they are faced with many kind of discrimination in public. The discrimination and inequality are affecting millions of Australians “In 1998, 3.6 million people in Australia had a disability that equals to a twenty percent of the total population” (disability in Australia pg 18). This twenty percent have restrictions in core activities, employments and schooling (Davis, 1995).

People who have physical or mental disabilities are capable of being productive and dedicated workers, but some employers wrongly discriminate against employees because of their disabilities. Discrimination is illegal though, employers cannot refuse to hire a person with a disability, provided their disability wouldn’t make the work dangerous, and there are numerous controls on place to punish employers who unfairly discriminate (Gerard and Christopher, 2005).

Most of employers do not have any empathy in regards people with disability due to the needs of disabled employees and the costs to implement such needs. Although the difficulties of accommodating the needs of disabled employees are minor, some people fail to understand that.

Disability in Australia has improved with the legislation of equal opportunity and anti-discrimination. However, it’s a slow changing process that includes the government preoccupation of welfare state policies. People with disabilities are most likely to be unemployed and if they cannot find employment it will complicated to pay the expensive costs of being disable (Darcy, 2003).

An important event that shows discriminative attitudes against people with disability was the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Many people didn’t even notice that disable athletes were present in the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The Paralympics is an event that is held after the Olympics. This shows that people with disabilities are always at the end and treated as second class citizen (Gerard and Christopher, 2005).

People with disability have suffered and are suffering from discrimination and inequality just because they don’t look like everybody else. There are claims that the Australian immigration policy doesn’t allow people with disability to enter Australia because of the high cost associated with it, (Disability in Australia pg 168). This claim indicates the government’s discrimination of who they give an Australian visa.

Australian government should have better equipment in the workforce for people with disability. Also society needs to be better educated and be empathetic in regards to people with disability. Educating kids in schools will result in a less ignorant society in regard to this topic and Australia will have less inequality and discrimination against people with disability. Changing our kid’s mentality will create a better future for people with disability.



Bibliography

G, Gerard and N, Christopher, 2005, Disability in Australia, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW.
S, Darcy, 2003, Disability and Society, vol 118.
LJ, Davis, 1995, Enforcing normality disability, deafness and the body, London, p.8.