To respect and value difference, we must understand and appreciate it. And this is not possible until we explore it. Ignorance and arrogance have worked simultaneously to keep people with disabilities out of various markets, client and customer groups and other aspects of community. I'm affronted that people with disabilities are also seen as separate - not part of the 'norm'. That stigma results in discrimination being imposed on individuals by society.
Social attitudes make disability a handicap.
Research undertaken with people with disabilities has assumed the irrelevance of gender as well as other social dimensions such as class, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Although men and women with disabilities are subject to work discrimination because of their disabilities, women with disabilities are at a further disadvantage because of the combined discrimination based on gender stereotypes and assumed roles. The research that has informed disability policies and practices has typically ignored gender as an important variable and hence gender differences in employment have been invisible. As a result, disability policies aimed to ensure employment of people with disabilities have not recognized the specific employment barriers experienced by women with disabilities, and practices within the field have not been designed to meet the needs of women with disabilities. It is my view that women with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in today's society.