| MYTH: | A person with a disability is sick, or has something wrong with them. |
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| FACT: | Disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it is not the same as being sick. Individuals with disabilities have varying degrees of need, and are sometimes sick, just as non-disabled are sometimes sick. Mistaking a disability for sickness not only fails to sometimes sick. Mistaking a disability for sickness not only fails to respond to a person's needs, it perpetuates a negative stereotype and an assumption that the person can and should be cured. |
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| MYTH: | People with disabilities have a poor quality of life. |
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| FACT: | This is one of the most common and damaging stereotypes, because it discourages social interactions and the development of mature relationships. People with disabilities have needs just like those who are non-disabled, and they strive for a high degree of quality of life as other individuals. Society handicaps individuals by building inaccessible schools, theaters, homes, buses, etc. The attitude that disability is a bad thing and that disability means a poor quality of life is often viewed as more disabling than the disability itself. |
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| MYTH: | People with disabilities are inspirational, brave, and courageous for living successfully with their disability. |
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| FACT: | A person with a disability a simply carrying out normal activities of living when they drive to work, go shopping, pay their bills, or compete in athletic events. Access to community based, long term service such as attendant care, access to buildings, public transportation, sidewalks, etc, access to quality health care, and necessary equipment enables them to carry on the same as non-disabled necessary equipment enables them to carry on the same as non-disabled people. |
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| MYTH: | People with disability always need expensive and high-tech assistive devices or services. |
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| FACT: | Simple inexpensive devices are often the most critical in helping people with a disability live independently. Assistive devices can be as affordable as an eating utensil or Velcro strap. |
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| MYTH: | People with severe disabilities need to live in nursing home or rehabilitation hospitals or under constant supervision so that they do not hurt themselves. |
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| FACT: | Unfortunately, this myth has created a system of long term care in our nation that relies on institutions such as nursing homes and other facilities. Even those with the most severe disabilities could live in their own home given adequate community based service, and at the very least, they should be given that choice. |