There are a lot of very
different attitudes toward disability floating around in our society
today. Some cast people with disabilities as special and innocent.
Others portray people with disabilities as sinful and dangerous.
Still other attitudes stereotype disability as a medical condition
to be addressed by experts. Self-advocacy springs from a fourth
viewpoint—the civil rights
view of disability.
True/False
Quiz
Here’s a true/false
quiz about the civil rights view of disability. Next time your group
gets together, read these statements out loud and see how you do.
Answers follow.
True or False:
1. People with disabilities
have the same civil rights as any other citizen.
2. The self-advocacy movement began in the Middle Ages because
people with disabilities did not like the medical experiments being
done on them.
3. Under the civil rights view of disability, it’s not the
individual that has a problem. Rather, it is society that has the
problem and society that needs to change.
4. The disability rights movement was the first social change movement
in the U.S.
5. Disability rights laws have been easy to pass because the ideas behind
them are so obviously right.
6. It’s usually best when a trained professional makes the important
decisions for a person with a disability.
7. Making mistakes is one of the main ways in which all people learn.
8. One phone call by one person is usually enough to convince a legislator
to support an issue.
9. The disability rights movement is led by people with disabilities.
10. Allies, professionals, and parents can all play a constructive role in
the self-advocacy movement.
11. People with disabilities deserve civil rights because they are “special.”
12. Under the civil rights view of disability, people with disabilities should
do everything they can to overcome their disabilities and become normal.
13. Disability rights are gained the same way as other minority rights: through
organizing tactics like lobbying, voting, demonstrations and boycotts.
14. If professionals empower self-advocates to make their own decisions,
professionals have lost some of their power.
15. When even one person gains dignity, all people benefit.
16. People with disabilities are regular people.
17. People with disabilities must work together if they want to successfully
make changes in society.
Click here to see the answers.
