Join the Discussion! Respect and Learning Disabilities

My definition of respect mirrors yours. Treating others as I want to be treated.

I would think one problem for people with any kind of disability is trying to figure out where the other person is coming from and how much tolerance to give them when they say or do disrespectful things. Some attitudes come from kindness, ignorance, from being overly solicitous, fear, and even hatred; some from respect. Deciphering how to respond and face each new person is one more challenge for those with learning differences.

To answer you though, I think disrespect abounds in a society competing to be considered perfect or at least in front of the other guy. I also think that disrespect toward those with disabilities has become more subtle and covert, yet resulting in the same belief that those disabled are not as good, or need treated as children, or worse, to go unseen, avoided, as much as possible.

Above all, you hit the nail on the head in describing how adults are treated as though they were children, or lesser somehow, that they couldn't be capable of enjoying the life and pleasures of an adult world. There is an active attempt, cognizant or not, to shunt disabled people off to the side, an out of sight, out of mind attitude.

Intolerance, and an absolute lack of respect seems so normal to some, that when they are called on it, they are shocked and angry.

It has to be so frustrating to always feel the need to think of polite ways to change a unthinking person's behavior and attitudes, to prove yourself capable of feeling and wanting the same things in life when it should not be questioned at all.

How to overcome attitudes set as examples by adults to their children, by teachers in school, parents at home and out with their children, all displaying those attitudes I mentioned as lessons for future behavior for future generations?

The change I'd most like to see is the one granted to so many people, which most expect as a right, that others will adjust enough, and allow an equal place in life; even if it requires a few more adjustments than usual for any of us.

Hi I'm not sure whether it's kids and adults with ld treated with respect should be the topic, I think if everyone with ld or not treated people with respect to begin with race, color, or disability we wouldn't even be having this convo I've had ld my entire life, and felt disrespected my entire life not by everyone but by people who don't know me as a person like in the workforce or even out on the street, I've just had my eyes fixed for a second time and I certainly notice people are paying attention to me more when I speak and even saying hi to me now physical disabilities may be different than mental disabilities which are associated with learning disabilities as a whole but I think everyone should work on giving respect to everyone else they know or may not know, with or without learning disabilities, this world would be a better place as a whole if we encouraged people and kids to look at a person as a person and not of color, race or disability, hope that makes sense. I also have physical difformaties as well as ld.

This is such an important topic, Merely Me.  As you know, my son is autistic and developmentally disabled and I think a lot of difficulty has been that he doesn't have any obvious physical disabilities, so when he doesn't act as one would expect someone his age to act, people might be puzzled and not know how to respond to him.  There are more and more people out in the workplace now with disabilities, but it doesn't seem as if the general population gets much education about different disabilities and what one might expect.  I wrote previously about my son's boss putting a lot of pressure on him to work faster, even though he will never be quick, no matter how much someone nags him.  He recently got a new supervisor and I was happy to hear that she is not this way and that many of the people he works with are really quite nice to him - one woman even baked him a birthday cake and gave him a card and I don't think he'd even told anyone it was his birthday.  He tries to be as self-sufficient as he can and I just wish more people knew what it was like for him and others like him to live in the world and want to be part of it, just like everyone else.  I do think there could be more education done about this because it's usually ignorance that makes us act stupidly.  Thanks for bringing up the topic!

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