I was reading another post, and this just popped into mind.
Include teaching material in school classes, which deals with and explains various types of common disability (blindness, paralysis, cerebral palsy, some things about people who use assistive devices, and so on...)
I think this stuff gets swept under the rug FAR too often, leading to gross ignorance in society. All too many people with a pair of working eyes, ears, hands and feet tend to assume that EVERYONE ELSE is just like them, then when they encounter people who aren't, they are clueless, and may even see it as 'strange'. It also leads to inaccessibility by the uninformed, for example not putting in a wheelchair ramp because they do not think of wheelchairs or get many customers that use them (which may be due to the fact there isn't a ramp, ironically).
Also I have read about people getting offended due to being 'forced' to comply with regulations for accessibility, "Those damn disabled people, always complaining about things, it's a hassle" etc etc.
Edit
And before anyone decries about deafness not being a disability... just humor me and look at the common view for the purpose of this post.
Include teaching material in school classes, which deals with and explains various types of common disability (blindness, paralysis, cerebral palsy, some things about people who use assistive devices, and so on...)
I think this stuff gets swept under the rug FAR too often, leading to gross ignorance in society. All too many people with a pair of working eyes, ears, hands and feet tend to assume that EVERYONE ELSE is just like them, then when they encounter people who aren't, they are clueless, and may even see it as 'strange'. It also leads to inaccessibility by the uninformed, for example not putting in a wheelchair ramp because they do not think of wheelchairs or get many customers that use them (which may be due to the fact there isn't a ramp, ironically).
Also I have read about people getting offended due to being 'forced' to comply with regulations for accessibility, "Those damn disabled people, always complaining about things, it's a hassle" etc etc.
Edit
And before anyone decries about deafness not being a disability... just humor me and look at the common view for the purpose of this post.