Disabilities in Today's Society

What is your reaction when you see people who are different from yourself?  Have you ever judged them?  To be frank, you would be lying if you answered, "No."

What if the person was very small in stature, in a wheelchair, or mentally retarded?  Generally, there is a reason for these things, like a birth defect or disease the person has.  However, we tend to ignore that and still judge the people in some way.  In addition, maybe you would think that they aren't as good as yourself since you don't have any physical issues like they do.  However, these are the people who have been through the most in life and are the strongest because of it; often, they have been teased and ridiculed and laughed at and bullied for their entire lives.
                    
In Disability, Nancy Mairs discusses our society's response to people with impairments.  In the piece, she highlights one point that really stands out to me.  She wrote that when she asked why disabled people are rarely used in advertisements, a local advertiser told her that, "'We don't want to give people the idea that our product is just for the handicapped'" (Mairs 14).  When I read that, I instantly loathed the advertiser.  To be honest, I really don't think having a disabled person on a box of Cheerios or a billboard for McDonald's would stop people from buying something they like or have any negative effects at all.

You might be thinking, "In what ways would society benefit from people with disabilities being included in advertisements?"  Well, the most important thing that would do is provide people who have these disabilities with role models who are in similar situations and have overcome the hardships that their condition has put them through.  This would provide these people with a source of strength and give them perseverance to keep fighting through their disability.  Also, it would mark an important milestone in our culture.  It would be the day that companies stopped letting their desired success trouble them so much and focused on something even more important, which is showing people who are disabled that they care about them.