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.
True
2. The self-advocacy movement began in the Middle Ages because
people with disabilities did not like the medical experiments being
done on them.
False
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.
True
4. The disability rights movement was the first social change
movement in the U.S.
False
5. Disability rights laws have been easy to pass because the
ideas behind them are so obviously right.
False. But don’t
you wish it were true?
6. It’s usually best when a trained professional makes the important
decisions for a person with a disability.
False. It’s best
when professionals and experts give all the important information
to the person and see that the person has the support he or she
needs to make his/her own decision.
7. Making mistakes is one of the main ways in which all people
learn.
True
8. One phone call by one person is usually enough to convince
a legislator to support an issue.
False
9. The disability rights movement is led by people with disabilities.
True
10. Allies, professionals, and parents can all play a constructive
role in the self-advocacy movement.
True
11. People with disabilities deserve civil rights because they
are “special.”
False. People with disabilities
deserve civil rights because they are human beings, like everyone
else.
12. Under the civil rights view of disability, people with disabilities
should do everything they can to overcome their disabilities and
become normal.
False. Rights belong
to all people, not just people who fit into a false category like “normal.”
13. Disability rights are gained the same way as other minority
rights: through organizing tactics like lobbying, voting, demonstrations
and boycotts.
True
14. If professionals empower self-advocates to make their own
decisions, professionals have lost some of their power.
False
15. When even one person gains dignity, all people benefit.
True
16. People with disabilities are regular people.
True
17. People with disabilities must work together if they want
to successfully make changes in society.
True. This is true for all social change movements.
People work together to succeed in making change.
