Attitudinal barriers are the foundation of all other barriers for people with disabilities. Before we can overcome these barriers, we first need to know what they are.
What Is an Attitudinal Barrier?
What exactly are attitudinal barriers? Attitudinal barriers are negative views, inaccurate perceptions, avoidance, and even hostility toward people with disabilities. These prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes are the most limiting and the most challenging to overcome for people with disabilities because it takes time, self-awareness, and courage to change long-held conceptions and stand contrary to social norms.
Many factors contribute to negative attitudes toward people with disabilities. However, the root cause lies in the pervasive ableist mentality that cannot see past a person’s impairment. Most of society focuses on the impairment rather than the person behind the impairment. They move away from the person because of the impairment instead of reaching out despite the impairment.
An ableist mentality is outward-focused rather than inward-focused. Our society values physical prowess rather than inner strength, beauty rather than integrity, cleverness rather than wisdom, and material wealth rather than spiritual richness. When people do not appear to “match up” to society’s ideal, we tend to look the other way. We write them off without first getting to know them and discovering their abilities and gifts. We do not even give them the time of day.
Why Is an Attitudinal Barrier Hard to Overcome?
Covert
Many in society try to cover or conceal their discriminatory attitudes toward people with disabilities. They often disguise or cloak their prejudice by patronizing people with disabilities.
- A cover can be offering unsolicited help to individuals with disabilities.
A wheelchair is considered part of a person’s personal space. Touching a wheelchair without permission is invading personal space. Moreover, disability is a daily-lived experience of people with disabilities. They are capable of taking care of themselves without extra help. Unsolicited help communicates disrespect and condescension.
- A cover can be giving misguided or excessive praise.
“Look at Luke. He is always happy, and nothing seems to bother him,” a lady commented to her friend who had a son with Down syndrome. This type of misconception and stereotype only accentuates the differences between people with disabilities and people without disabilities. The fact is that people with Down syndrome experience a full range of emotions like everyone else.
“Even though you are bound to a wheelchair, you are as smart as the rest of us.” This kind of remark betrays an underlying ableist mentality. It portrays the unfounded assumption that nondisabled people are more intelligent and capable than their peers with disabilities. Moreover, people with mobility impairments are seen as victims confined to their wheelchairs.
- A cover can be using the stories of people with disabilities with ulterior motives.
The stories or experiences of people with disabilities have often been used as inspiration, challenge, or praise for nondisabled people. Though heartwarming, these stories are only another manifestation of society’s ableist attitude.
- Stories like a cheerleader asking a student with autism to prom or a quarterback taking a friend with Down syndrome to prom often make headlines. Why? Because the cheerleader and quarterback were charitable, kind, and inclusive toward students with disabilities? Because the students with disabilities were so fortunate as to be asked to prom by the “beautiful” and the “strong?”
Why are these stories so special, even newsworthy? They should not be.
Inclusion should be the norm. Every student should have equal opportunities to fully participate in every aspect of school life.
- Individuals with disabilities are often characterized as inspiring because of their disabilities. Examples would include giving excessive praise to a disabled individual for accomplishing everyday activities, to a student with Down syndrome for graduating from college and finding employment, or to a person on the spectrum for getting promoted at her job.
Will a nondisabled person get praise for bathing himself? Will a typically-developing student make the news for graduating from college and getting a job? What about a nondisabled individual getting a raise? It is doubtful.
These excessive compliments reflect the negative stereotype and false assumption that people with disabilities cannot take care of themselves or are underachievers. They reveal the underlying belief many in society hold that people with disabilities are “less than.”
- If you have not seen one internet photo of a disabled individual “accomplishing something,” often some sport, here is one for you. These images are often accompanied by bold captions such as “What Is Your Excuse?” or “Your Excuses Are Invalid.”
You may scratch your head and wonder, “What’s wrong with these images?” These images use people with disabilities as props to challenge or “dare” nondisabled people to do the same. They imply that if people with disabilities can do it, surely their nondisabled peers can do it. Again, the message is loud and clear: nondisabled people are better than their disabled peers.
- Many stories about people with disabilities are used to make nondisabled people feel good about themselves. People often are lauded for befriending children with disabilities, showing kindness to strangers with disabilities, or helping disabled individuals access public spaces. It is especially newsworthy when a superstar, whether a superstar in professional sports or in the entertainment industry, shows support for the disability community.
These acts of kindness are encouraging in our individualistic society. But making friends with or assisting people different from us should not be newsworthy.
We should ask ourselves: “Who is the intended audience, and what is the purpose of these stories?” These stories are written for the benefit of nondisabled people. These stories betray society’s sentiment that people with disabilities are objects of charity.
When telling stories of people with disabilities so as to appeal to nondisabled people’s emotions, we objectify people with disabilities for the benefit of the nondisabled. This only perpetuates society’s negative perceptions of people with disabilities.
Subtle
Prejudice or bias toward people with disabilities is often subtle. Subtle discriminatory attitudes are elusive, indirect, and hard to perceive but may appear in gestures, facial expressions, body language, or conversations. Sometimes people make casual stereotypical remarks unintentionally. At other times, they may make jabbing remarks and then try to laugh them off. Individuals on the receiving end may feel targeted or belittled. But when they confront the perpetrator, they are accused of being “too sensitive.” Though seemingly inconsequential, this kind of subtle discrimination grates on people. The subtle yet prejudicial attitudes gradually wear out people’s mental and emotional energy, adversely affecting their well-being.
The effects of subtle discrimination are as hurtful as overt discrimination, if not worse. Because it is largely imperceptible, people who are targets of subtle discrimination cannot call it out. And because people can easily get away with subtle discrimination, it happens more frequently than overt discrimination. People with disabilities may be confronted with these kinds of slights daily, and the harmful effects of subtle discrimination can build up and accumulate rapidly. Subtle discrimination leaves people with disabilities confused and depletes their emotional and mental reservoirs as they try to understand why people treat them that way.
Immeasurable
Because of their subtleness, attitudinal barriers are most often imperceptible and indiscernible. In contrast,
- A building’s physical accessibility can be measured. For example, an access ramp needs to meet the specific measurements required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- A church’s information and communication accessibility can be measured. Are large-print Bibles and hymnals available? Are captions included in the videos played during the worship service?
- A university’s technology accessibility can be measured. Are accessible computer hardware devices like wrist supports or adjustable keyboard trays available in the labs? Does the university offer alternative ways to register for classes or to access resources? What about classroom learning? Are accommodations provided for students with different types of disabilities?
- A city’s systemic barriers can be measured. Is accessibility considered when planning city-wide events? Are there adequate accommodations for participants’ accessibility needs?
However, it is impossible to measure attitudinal barriers.
Ingrained
Stereotypical beliefs and negative perceptions of people with disabilities are deep-rooted and firmly fixed in society, making them difficult to change. Our society worships beauty, fame, power, fitness, and wealth. We evaluate people based on their achievements and their appearance. We gravitate toward those who can benefit us. We tend to dismiss people who do not meet our standards, even though we have no right to hold people to our standards in the first place.
Unconscious
Because prejudice toward the disabled is firmly established in society, we often are unaware of our own biased and unfavorable attitudes toward them. We may unconsciously behave in a way that is unfriendly and disrespectful toward them. Whether we act consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, negative attitudes do not go undetected by people with disabilities. And these hidden and subtle attitudes hurt them the same as overt ones.
Accepted
The prejudice against people with disabilities is deep-rooted in our society and has become an accepted norm. Most people are uncomfortable around individuals with disabilities and try to avoid direct interaction with them. It is seldom that anyone points out inappropriate behavior or disrespectful attitudes.
How Do We Break Down Attitudinal Barriers?
Overcoming attitudinal barriers is challenging because it takes time to change a deeply-ingrained mindset and courage to stand against long-established social norms. However, the fact that it is challenging does not mean we should give up and not do anything. Instead, it should awaken us to the injustice the disability community has suffered for so long. It should urge us to correct the situation and eradicate the prejudice against people with disabilities.
The first step is to recognize and acknowledge the attitudinal barriers that permeate our society. We must admit that we don’t know the challenges people with disabilities face and the pain they experience due to attitudinal barriers. Instead of denying or ignoring society’s discrimination against people with disabilities, we must become more self-aware so we won’t fall prey to unhealthy social norms.
Next, we must reach out to the disability community, listen to their stories and learn about their struggles. We must consider their experiences and see how we can make accessibility a reality in every area of their lives.
We must show people with disabilities respect and kindness and speak up when we see injustice and prejudice against them, as we would for anyone else. We must become advocates for them in private and public arenas to help their voices be heard.
Most importantly, we must befriend people with disabilities, learn from them, and partner with them to make ours a better and kinder society.