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similarities between race and disability

amanda sarah's picture

In the Blanchett article, the intersection of race and disability (among other factors) is examined. I already knew that people of color with disabilities were less likely to be diagnosed and to receive proper support and accommodations for their disabilities, because people of color are more likely to be in a lower economic class. However, I hadn't thought about how similarly society treats race and disability, and how that adds to the struggle of being someone who is both a person of color and a person with a disability. On page 392, Blanchett mentions the "segregated classrooms" and "poor post-school outcomes" that students with disabilities experience, and these things are also often experienced by students of color. Both of these things increase inequity, so a student who is a minority race and has a disability will experience even more inequity. On page 393, the authors write: "like race, disability has been and is still being used as a method of sorting, stratifying, and excluding." I think this really sums up how our society tends to use race and/or disability to put a label on a person and exclude them many things, as well as denying them resources that they need in order to be successful.