Effects of Discrimination on Individuals With Disabilities

Discrimination has many different effects on individuals with disabilities. According to testimony before the House Subcommittees on Select Education and Employment Opportunities, the discriminatory nature of policies and practices that exclude and segregate disabled people has been obscured by the unchallenged equation of disability with incapacity and by the gloss of ''good intentions.'' The innate biological and physical ''inferiority'' of disability is considered self-evident. This ''self-evident'' proposition has served to justify the exclusion and segregation of disabled people from all aspects of life. The social consequences that have attached to the disabled often bear no relationship to the physical or mental limitations imposed by the disability. For example, being paralyzed has meant far more than being unable to walk--it has meant being excluded from public schools, being denied employment opportunities, and being deemed an ''unfit'' parent.