Social Inclusion and Empowerment for Disabled Youth

If you are a perfectly healthy and normal person, you mostly cannot imagine the financial, psychological, and emotional ramifications a disabled person has to go through in their life. The pain of facing problems in doing the most basic activities of everyday life is not something that many of us can understand. The least we can do for these people is to not disempower them by discriminating against them or passing hurtful remarks. If we want to carve a better path for our future generations, we must empower people with disabilities by influencing their local decision process, supporting and being a part of the services, they need.

Here are a few reasons why we should empower the people with disabilities:

•   To foster respect and tolerance: People with disabilities often face discrimination and inequality because of their limitations. This is why it is critical to create awareness about different disabilities and how different people with various disabilities should be treated. This can be done by organizing campaigns and seminars in workplaces. This is how workplaces can create an atmosphere of mutual respect where people can get educated and informed and start being kinder and tolerant to different-abled people.
•   Empowering disabled people leads to economic empowerment: By organizing and supporting programs and campaigns to provide skills and work opportunities to people with disabilities, taxes can also come down for employers, and the disabled will feel encouraged. Hence, it doesn’t only improve the economy but also the standard of living.
•   To create equality: Advocating for the rights and respect of people with disabilities bridges the gap between people and creates an atmosphere of equality and mutual respect. We must carve out a path to a better society for our future generations by unifying all human beings and not discriminating against those who can’t stand up for themselves.
•   To give easy access to all services: It is our responsibility to ensure that people with disabilities also get the same opportunities for education and work as an average person. They should be given the same medical assistance as us. Furthermore, they should also have access to rehabilitation and assistive devices such as wheelchairs or braille materials.
•   To nurture responsible individuals: When we give disabled people equal opportunities and respect, we cultivate a sense of ownership, making them more confident and accountable. This, ultimately, creates a positive mindset and contributes positively to society.

Here are a few things we can do to support and empower people with disabilities:

•   Assisting: People generally confuse helping with taking care of. When we say it is recommended to assist people with disabilities, we do not mean giving them money, food, or shelter. Assisting essentially means encouraging such people and giving them the confidence to accomplish their goals daily. One way this can be done is by organizing team building activities for at risk youth.
•   Help them achieve: Another thing we can do to empower differently-abled people is to help them achieve their set goals by assisting them to overcome barriers and challenges. The helping hands project is one of the best examples of this, where amputees can clear their doubts about prosthetics and get a prosthetic hand at a very reasonable rate. 

Treat them like your equals: It can be very demotivating and hurtful for disabled people if they are neglected in a workspace. It is extremely important for employers to make sure their differently-abled employees don’t feel ignored and get their due credit. Furthermore, giving them extra praise and sympathy is also not an ideal thing to do. It is crucial to ensure that these people are treated equally and fairly.

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