Disability can be:

Disability can be: ·        visible, such as seeing a person walking with a cane. ·        something you cannot see, such as a person who cannot hear or has a learning disability. ·        a person who has depression, phobias and is unable to work
Disabilities have labels, for example, blindness, deafness, learning disability, autism, psychosocial disability, or intellectual disability.

Exercise: Who is disabled? Discuss these 4 cases in class

Case study 1

Hari was born with an extra finger. It doesn't stop him from doing anything. He can write as easily as other children. Sometimes others try to tease him about his extra finger, but he ignores them.

Case study 2

Shafiq is not very clever. He didn't develop intellectually like other children, but he is physically very strong. He left school after only one year. He wasn't learning much. Instead he helped his family on the farm. He is an excellent farmer. He is so strong that he can work much harder than many people can. He is also very clever at making things. He makes beautiful, strong fish traps. People from villages all around come to buy his fish traps.

Case study 3

Shifa lives in Dhaka. When she was small she fell into the fire and her face was badly burned. She was scarred for life. At school she was the brightest student in her class. She passed the Grade 12 examination three years ago. However, she hasn't got a job. She has tried many times but when employers see her face they don't want her to work for them. One person told her she would frighten the customers. Nowadays she is very sad, since she wants to work and does not find work. She doesn't believe she will ever get a job and she is sure no one will marry her because she is so ugly.

Case study 4

Khairul is ten years old. He has something wrong with his eyes so he has to wear glasses. When he wears his glasses he can see as well as everybody else. It is not easy to say who is disabled. All the people have impairments, but only in case study 3, Shifa, has this badly affected her life. Her problem is not her scarred face but people's attitudes towards her. What do you think? Is she really disabled? When you look closely at people it is not so easy to label someone as disabled and others as able-bodied.

Everyone is different. Everyone can do some things better than other. We are all individuals!

What does this mean? You have seen that some people in your community have difficulties which other people do not have. For example, you have seen some people have difficulty seeing. Some people have difficulty hearing, speaking, learning or moving around in the same way as other people. Some people show strange behavior, or often have fits or have no feeling in their hands and feet. Such difficulties are called disabilities.

Now introduce 2 models about disability. The Medical model, which keeps DAPs away from mainstream and the Social Model which seeks inclusion and accepts diversity.