Largest Minority Group

An essential part of understanding the world around us is gaining knowledge of the people who consume it, which in this case, means the disabled community.

Something I have discovered within recent years is that many times anything disability-related is mentioned, a level of hesitancy, skepticism, and discomfort is then experienced. This most commonly derives from a lack of dialogue surrounding these areas, or in other words, our world has simply not been educated on disabilities and the disability community. Much of this lack of understanding stems from the historical social construction of disability. This causes definitions of disabilities to be built either upon medicalized perceptions or upon social barriers from society, essentially steering away from viewing disabilities as individual people and communities themself. Unfortunately, these definitions and perceptions still greatly exist in the world today, and before any sort of change can be accomplished, these topics must first be acknowledged and discussed.

I want to start out by mentioning two facts that I have discovered through my education that I find both greatly astonishing and perspective-changing.

1. The disability community is the largest minority group in the world.

2. The disability community is the ONLY minority group that ANYONE can become a part of at ANY point in their life.

Crazy, right?! If you feel surprised, it most likely comes as such a shock because this is not commonly talked about. Isn’t that odd? The largest minority group in the world yet is talked about the least! We don’t talk about anything disability-related in schools, in the workplace, and probably not even at our own dinner tables.

Changes in dialogue are critical for changes in behavior. We MUST change the dialogue of our discussions. When it comes down to it, change begins in our environments and through what we are taught, and the lessons learned from our communities then carry on over into our everyday lives, which can then, in turn, influence others and how they think and view the world, as well.

"Changes in dialogue are critical for changes in behavior."

This all leads me to my next point which is how disabled individuals are treated in the world. The lack of education I have mentioned directly causes exclusion and discrimination towards different communities and minorities, specifically focusing on disabilities. In general, disabled individuals face a tremendous amount of exclusion and inequity due to the world not understanding them as people, their needs, or their wants. One of the primary things I want to highlight is that disabled individuals are just like non-disabled individuals. While our world has unfortunately placed stereotypes and misbeliefs on almost everyone and everything nowadays, disabled individuals are no different than non-disabled individuals. I include this and want to emphasize this because it often gets forgotten and misunderstood that nearly everything a non-disabled person thinks, feels, and wants, can also stem true for a disabled person too! The desire for a relationship, wanting to find friends and a community, wanting to be understood, seen, and heard within society, wanting to dress up and be fashionable, the list can go on. The minute that we hear the word “disability”, it’s as if our mind has been programmed to automatically place the disabled community towards the side. Our minds subconsciously segregate these individuals simply because our world has not taught us how to authentically include, accept, and appreciate all types of people.

So, now what? How can change begin to be implemented in our world? Well.. something I’ve found within my studies is that the solution to a problem is oftentimes found within the “problem” itself. In this case, the ongoing exclusion disabled individuals endure can be confronted by sharing their experiences with the world. By bringing the exact individuals forward that have faced this separation for so long, a greater understanding of this community can begin to be established. For various concepts, faulty actions stem directly from complete unawareness of an issue. So, again, if people have been historically programmed to be unaware of the disabled community, then their misunderstanding will remain until they become aware of what they don’t currently, already know.

This is exactly where a very fond concept of mine comes into play: DEI, meaning diversity, equity, and inclusion. The concept of DEI ultimately hones in on changing the stigmas on how differences are met within the world. While that is a very broad version of the meaning of this term, it encompasses a variety of areas that are intended to make positive and intentional changes to how different individuals and groups are treated. Ultimately, it aims to increase Equity and Inclusion for Diverse groups of people.

This parallels almost identically with what I want to pursue in the future. Specifically, I want to focus on accessible fashion, and how to make fashion accessible for all people. This will look like tying DEI into fashion to allow for such a leading industry to include those who have historically been ostracized and stigmatized. While I always knew I wanted to incorporate fashion into my future, I knew that there was something more out there for me to get involved with. So, as I continued taking disability and justice studies courses, along with specific classes such as Social Aspects In Fashion and DEI In Fashion, the light went off and I immediately realized that this is what I was meant, and wanted, to do with my life.

In general, I have a very strong passion to speak on disability rights, which is an essential reason as to why I started this blog in the first place! My highest goal and intention is to increase awareness by incorporating discussions that have been continuously overlooked. My hopes are that this blog is able to provide education and advance understandings of the disability group that I, myself, identify under.

REFLECT

After reading more about the disability community, what is one area of your own life that you would like to put more emphasis on? It is an incredibly powerful feeling to be able to be compelled by something and to hold the desire to share it with the world. Throughout the week, I encourage you to reflect and find that one thing in your own life that holds great importance to you.