Design meets “Disability”- Tone & Tune

Research Project Introduction

In British Columbia, 687,000 people or about 16% of the population live with a disability. People with disabilities find it difficult to get educated and professionally trained to learn and work due to physical limitations and social exclusions. Rebecca Yeo defines disability as “a socially constructed phenomenon which largely constructed by non-disabled people (Yeo)”. In her information graph about the relationship between disability and poverty, she points out that discrimination and marginalization can lead to low self-esteem, lack of social contacts and social exclusion and would ultimately form a vicious cycle that leads the end to poverty.

According to the 2006 BC labor force status report of person with disabilities, most common types of disabilities are pain (9.6%), mobility (8.0%), agility (7.5%), psychological (3.1%), learning (2.9%), hearing (2.9%), seeing (2.3%), memory (1.9%), speech (1.7%). The proportion of the total population reporting each type of disability increased between 2001 and 2006, especially for pain, mobility and agility. And in 2010, about one in eight Canadians, or 13% of the population, have a disability that affects their mobility, agility, hearing, vision or learning (Access Guide).

The number of persons with disabilities in B.C. increased by 22.2% from 290,880 in 2001 to 355,430 in 2006, while growth among the non-disabled population was just 4.2% from 2.3 million to 2.4 million. Of the 2.8 million British Columbian’s between the ages of 15 and 64 in 2006, 355,430 indicated they had a disability. 200,640 were employed, 136,720 were not in the labor force and 18,060 were unemployed (BC Stats). According to Advancing the Inclusion of People with Disabilities 2009, adults with disabilities are more likely not to participate in the labor force.

Nationally, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than 50% higher than for people without disabilities. In BC, the labor force participation rate of people with disabilities is 65%, which is much lower than the participation rate for those without a disability (79 %). People may argue that this is due to lack of education, but interestingly, the completion rates for university, college and apprenticeship training in B.C. were higher than the Canadian average and the proportion that had less than a high school education was lower. Even though some were employed, the gap in earnings was largest among those aged 55 to 64 ($13,073E), slightly smaller for those aged 30 to 54 ($11,632), and smallest by far for those aged 15 to 29 ($2,222) (BC Stats).

2. Accommodations lead to possibilities and trends

According to the Labor Force report, fewer than 1 in 5 disabled persons required a job redesign, while most workplace accommodations required could involve relatively little cost and not require major changes to how the work is performed. People with disabilities can still contribute to the society and make good livings, but the bottom line is whether they were brave or confident enough to overcome their body limitations and social discriminations.
In fact, some employers realized that social discrimination towards disability may cause intelligent wastage. Jane Allen, Partner and Chief Diversity Officer of Deloitte, said “Making diversity a priority in Canadian organizations is imperative – not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is critical to the future success of our businesses and our economy.”

“While some progress has been made in the areas of race and gender, people with disabilities continue to be significantly underrepresented in our workplaces. Their numbers are growing steadily in the population and it is becoming increasingly important to include this community in corporate Canada. We need to address the business case, the benefits and the challenges to doing so. We have to give people with disabilities a voice at the table and full access to the workforce.”

Same kind of the story also appears in the banking business. The Bank of Montreal is now running a Pre-employment training program aiming to provide front-line opportunities for people with disabilities. The Vancouver program has room for 15 candidates who are interested. At the same time, the bank will identify and implement any workplace accommodations that will allow the candidates to do the work.

According to the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, 90% of people with disabilities rate average or better on job performance than their non-disabled colleagues, 86% rate average or better on attendance and 98% rate average or better in work safety than their non-disabled colleagues.
“Accuracy and attention to detail are paramount in my position,” said by Amy Mitschele who is currently employed as an administrative assistant and researcher with the BMO bank’s communications team, scanning and uploading financial information off national and international databases and websites, typing notices and authenticating stock certificates and securities. As for workplace accommodations, Mitschele was given a computer with an extra-large screen and a program that both magnifies the text and reads it aloud, if necessary. She also uses the latest in closed circuit television to help her read printed documents (Vancouver Sun).

However, people with disabilities often choose not to apply for roles because they don’t want to identify themselves as disabled, have too much concerns in terms of work related experiences, and most importantly, traditional ways for posting jobs are not appropriate for them to find a job. For the minority groups, the number one challenge is not oppotunities, but the public attitude towards them. “The individuals must challenge their ideas of themselves and their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as their compromised self-esteem or self-confidence.” said by Helen Henderson, a disability studies student at Ryerson University.

3. Labeling Wrong?

Government statistics show that on nearly every indicator of participation in mainstream life disabled people come out extremely badly not only employment statistics and income levels, but also suitable housing and access to public transport, buildings, multimedia information and leisure facilities (Swain). Even though the continuing attraction of rehabilitation programs has helped people with special needs to physically eliminate their impairments, conceptually, the way how our society is organized and how our activities are performed defined the meaning of disability.

For many years, people with disabilities were labeled with highly interpreted terms that have negative connotations such as “disabled”, “handicapped” or “cripple”, and most of these terms were imposed by non-disabled people or charity-orientated society. “In severe cases we forget to call persons with disabilities by their names; replacing their names with labels (Gee).”

Disabled, crippled, helpless, useless, wrecked, stalled, maimed, wounded, mangled, lame, mutilated, run-down, worn-out, weakened, impotent, castrated, paralyzed, handicapped, senile, decrepit, laid up, done up, done for, done in, cracked up, counted out, blind, deaf, mute, halt, lame, paralyzed, quadriplegic, immobile, immobilized, ailing, diseased, ill, sick, unfit, unhealthy, unsound, unwell.

Some individuals would willingly and consciously identify themselves as disabled because these labels are so powerful that they can guide our choices as to what to accept and what to reject, and our perceptions and understandings as to who the minorities are and what they can do. “We become convinced by labels and settle for them without digging further to unpack the hidden components. In the same way, labels can blindfold us as members of society and educators such that we are unable to see the hidden talents of persons with disabilities (Joseph).” Surprisingly, the commonality among these labels is that they were all been traditionally identified as a synonym for physical impairment, which could generate great confusions for both the individuals and our society, and reflect the minority group’s illnesses and become their indelible characteristics and traits. In addition, the growth of specialist professions and their publicly visible role as gate-keepers to medical, social and welfare services provides an effective reinforcement to the view that disability is a medical problem (Swain).

“The individual is trapped in a state of suspended animation socially, is perpetually a patient, is chronically viewed as helpless and dependent, in need of cure but incurable (Longmore)”.

“Because someone has been labeled ill, all their activity and beliefs-past, present, and future become related to and explainable in terms of their illness (Link, Cullen, Frank and Wozniak).”

“In the case of a person with a chronic illness and or a permanent disability, these traits once perceived to be temporary accompaniments of an illness, become indelible characteristics (Irving).”

“Our language affects our thinking and how we view the world and other people. But our language hasn’t caught up with the changes in our society.” – Aimee Mullins

“Labels serve as identifiers; they prescribe and attribute particular characteristics to things. Labels speak to us and appeal to senses. Sometimes they encourage us to act irrationally thus diminishing our sense of judgment when we yield to them. They influence our decision-making and limit our whole thinking to the context of the label (Joseph).”

“We are the only group lumbered with labels that are structurally loaded with inferior status. It is ridiculous to suggest we can “re-claim” a derogatory name our oppressors gave us in the first place (Facebook Post: a new name for disabled people). ”

“I thought it was very clever of homosexuals to hijack a positive, joyous, fun word like “gay”, and own it as a label for their sexual preference / orientation. We “disabled people” should do something similar (Facebook Post: a new name for disabled people). ”

However, the worst consequences of prejudice labeling we can ever imagine will not appear in a common or public workplace, but in education system. The term “special education” is a label which has been called into question as an acceptable way of referring to the education of pupils and students with disabilities (Booth & Winslow). Special educational needs is to identify the individual as different and to limit our perceptions and expectations of those designated as ‘special’. The use of the term ‘special educational needs’ has been described as discriminatory (Solity) and as ‘the language of sentimentality and prejudice’ (Corbett).

There is also an issue about how some special schools are labeled with special names. There are currently twenty two special segregated schools in Ghana (Ocloo). With the exception of one school, the only private one, which is known as New Horizon, the rest all have labels that I consider derogatory. Consider the following: ‘X School for the Mentally Handicapped’, ‘Z’ school for the Deaf’, and ‘W’ Special School for the Mentally Handicapped. These names are boldly inscribed on bill boards that direct people to these schools (Joseph).

Imagining kids who have inherited or acquired disabilities and are placed in schools with such labels, they are unconsciously forced to live with an indelible and obvious stigmatizing mark in the rest of their lives. Their preparation for life and acceptance in community life and work among colleagues is severed as a result of these humanly constructed labels and the types of school they attended. It is very difficult to look beyond the negative aspects of students within those settings because the mind has already been set at the gates of the schools (Joseph).

It is clear that the perceptions, judgments and expectations of people with difficulties and disabilities can be influenced by labels, which may be used in ways that stigmatize and devalue; what has been called ‘bad mouthing’ (Corbett). In 2005, Dr. Masaru Emoto did an experiment with cooked rice and water. He put cooked rice and water (nearly 70% of our bodies consist of water) in 2 jars with the first one labeled “I Love You” and the second labeled “You Fool!” For 30 days, he spoke the words labeled on the jars to each one, and after 30 days, the rice in the jar with positive words had barely changed, while the other turned moldy and rotten. In Emoto’s understanding, this is due to the acoustic vibration which generated by different rhythms we used to pronounce the words. Apparently, negative words may generate vicious impact to our bodies.

4. Remove or Change?

If these labels were the causes of stereotypes, discriminations, marginalization or even health problems according to Emoto’s experiment, then why not just stop using them or find some better replacements? In Joseph’s perspective, he believes that unless labeling is removed from the individual and, rather, placed on the problem, our minds will continue to be arrested to see only the negative side of disabled persons, and any consideration for appropriate placement of persons with disabilities is unlikely to work. However, the fact is that, it has been so difficult to stop the use of the term or find an accepted alternative because replacing one label with another while the day-to-day reality of disability remains unchanged seems to be an exercise in changing fashions, even adding more confusion to the relationship between impairment and disability. (Swain, Finkelstein, French and Oliver) However, labels have also been shown in some circumstances to evoke some effects that might be considered beneficial in the sense of evoking accommodating and protective responses (Farina, Thaw, Felner & Hust; Carver, Glass, Snyder & Katz). In other words, labels cannot be discarded and they are valuable as to the meaning of existence.

By looking at the language itself, Hastings and Remington did a Labels comparing experiment in 1993 trying to investigate the best way of labeling techniques, and they concluded that choosing a term with a different or wider denotation may ensure a positive connotation for the label, and even though, the result can still be confusing. As for the structure of our language, Irving points out that a way of contextualizing our relationship to our bodies and our disabilities may not be in changing terms but in changing grammars (Irving), for example, “being confined to a wheelchair” is very different from “using a wheelchair”. The inappropriate use of terminology will distort not only the literature meaning but also its interpretation of control. In addition, the use of the verbs “be” and “have” can also generate different meanings. The French Language makes careful distinctions between when to use “etre” (be) and when to use “avoir” (have).

By focusing on the minority groups, on the other hand, Finkelstein suggests that ranking people with special needs according to degree of employability can lead to various types of services and provisions, and also raise their self-esteem and self-confidence to identify themselves from those they see as less employable and more dependent. “By trying to distance themselves from groups that they perceive as more disabled than themselves they can hope to maintain their claim to economic independence and an acceptable status within the community (Swain).”

5. Conclusion

According to my collected data, people with special needs are facing rigorous challenges both from their body impairments and social prejudice. In my first attempt of possible design solutions, I intend to provide a socially interactive information platform that helps the minority group communicate with potential employers and eventually facilitate the employment rates of their community. But the results of my secondary research indicate that the root of low self-esteem and social exclusion is not just because of lacking of social interactive technologies or opportunities, but the negative implications generated by those inappropriately imposed terms and labels.
The labels are so powerful that we can hardly stop using them or find better alternatives, and they are so pervasive because they have already neglected the differences between medical problems and disabilities. Therefore, my another possible attempt to help reduce social discrimination and misunderstanding toward disability caused by negative labels would be to inform major members of society of the evils of labeling, and use social engagement as a vehicle to pass on the right attitudes and perceptions toward labels and the people they indicate, in the mean time,  I would also generate a social interactive website to facilitate the communication between potential employers and people with special needs to eventually create more job opportunities for the minority group.

Bibliography
Access Guide Canada, http://www.abilities.ca/agc/flats/index.php?page=business-introduction.

Advancing

the Inclusion of People with Disabilities 2009, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, 2009.

Booth, T. and Ainscow, M. 1998. From Them to Us: an International Study of Inclusion in Education. London: Routledge.

Carver, C. S., Glass, D. C., Snyder, M. L. & Katz, D. 1977. Favorable evaluations of stigmatized others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Corbett, J. 1995. Bad Mouthing: the Language of Special Needs. London: Cassell.

Farina, A., Thaw, J., Felner, R. D. & Hust, B. E. 1976. Some interpersonal consequences of being mentally ill or mentally retarded. American Journal of Mental Deficiency.
Oliver, M. 1996. Understanding Disability: from Theory to Practice. London: MacMillan Press.

Foreman, P. 1996. Integration and inclusion in action. Harcourt Brace & Company.

Gee, J. 1999. Introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. Routledge.

Hastings, R. & Remington, B. 1993. Connotations of labels for mental handicap and challenging behavior: a review and research evaluation. Mental Handicap Research.

Irving, K. Z. 1993. Self, Identity and the Naming Question: Reflections on the Language of Disability. Brandeis University Press.

Joseph, S. A. The power of labeling discourse in the construction of disability in Ghana. Monash University.

Link, B.G., Cullen, F.T., Frank, J. and Wozniak, J.F. 1987. The social rejection of former mental patients: understanding why labels matter. Am.J.Social.

Longmore, P.K. A note on language and the social identity of disabled people. Am.Behar. Scient.

Ocloo, M., Hayford, S., Agbeke, W., Gadagbui, G., Avoke, M., Boison, C., Oppong, A., Essel, J. 2002. Foundations in special education: The Ghanaian perspective. Cape Coast: Nyakod Printing Works.

Persaud, P. 2000. Labeling: Its effects on labeled students. International Special Education Congress.

Rebecca, Y. 2003. Including Disabled People in Poverty Reduction Work: ‘‘Nothing About Us, Without Us’’, World Development.

Solity, J. 1991. Special needs: a discriminatory concept? Educational Psychology in Practice.

Swain, J., Finkelstein, V., French, S. And Oliver, M. 1993.  The Commonality of Disability. Sage Publications.

The road of inclusion: Integrating people with disabilities into the workplace. Deloitte.

Design Concept

To generate a social interactive campaign and website that inform the public the evil of labels imposed to people with special needs, and in the mean time, to show potential employers the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. The social interactive aspects of the site tends to turn social issues into business opportunities and eventually facilitates the employment rate of the minority group.

Moodboards (since my approach and objective is using artistic visual language to inform people the evil of labels and labeling, i tried to investigate an approrpiate tone of the final design piece through moodboarding techniques)

Visual Research & Inspirations

Poster Design V1

Poster Design V2

Mockup Website Link

Bus Banners

Flyers

Video Test Part I

Website V2 Sitemap & Layout Sketches (1st Draft)

Building the Campaign Website V.2

This is the home page, showing the audiences the objective of the campaign and providing a rotery button interaction to allow them activate the campaign video.

on this page, users can watch the campaign video and learn about the evil of labeling. 2 rotery interactive button provided to allow the user replay the video and go to the next page.

these are the main navigation buttons of the website, the goal is to show potential employers and the public that hiring persons with disabilities is a smart business move. benefits page shows the positive facts of hiring people with disabilities; stories of success page allows users to read successful stories and share their own stories.

Benefits Page

Success Stories Page