In "Guidelines for Assessment of and Intervention with Persons with Disabilities" (American Psychological Association, n.d.), the American Psychological Association recognizes several main issues with disability. First, there is a large number (1 in 5) of disabled Americans while the number of psychologists who received adequate education on disability issues is small. Second, it is difficult to define "disability". Even with the same disability, each disabled person will have his/her own perception of the condition. Third, there are different layers of barriers affecting proper handling of situations involving people with disability. The general questions are: "How complex are the issues?" and "What can we do to contribute our parts to the solutions?"
In order to understand the complexity of the issues, let us examine two cases where disabled children were believed to be treated unfairly by TSA agents. In the video "TSA treats 4-year disabled boy like a terrorist" (Cafferty, 2010) a disabled boy's leg braces were disassembled for the inspection for security purposes. In another video (ABC News, 2012), upon positive tested result for explosive chemicals, TSA agents performed rigorous inspection of a girl in her wheelchair who, in the public eyes, was humiliated by the agents. The situations could be handled better, especially after they were put under the post-event microscopes. It reminds me of another research that I did with my team regarding HAI - Healthcare Associated Infections (Nguyen, 2017). HAI is a very serious issue in healthcare, and it can be prevented by following proper protocols such as "nurses have to wash hands prior to helping a patient". Washing hand is a common-sense rule yet nurses do forget to adhere to at times of great stress and/or confusions. Therefore, it might as well be the case in both of the mentioned situations, involving both sides - the TSA and the disabled children. On one hand, TSA agents need to be trained with better-specified protocols that take into account of situations involving disabled people. On the other hand, disabled people need to be aware of their rights and demand to be treated fairly whenever situations arise.
We started to notice the issue is not just about Disability itself but rather an inter-linked web of issues such as disability, emotional intelligence, soft skills, policies and rules, legal matters, operational matters, etc. For example, Roy Moodley found that patients carry within themselves “networks of meanings” – meanings relating to their conditions and disability – that “are so closely bound to a client’s race, culture, gender and sexuality” (Moodley, 2005, p 8). In other words, a white man may perceive his own disability differently from a black man with the same disability; a gay black man may perceive his own disability different from a straight black man with the same ability. Race and gender were identified as the two most influential factors affecting disability both internally (within the patients’ minds) and externally.
That is why the American Psychological Association recommended "Watch for criteria that screen out clients with disabilities" (American Psychological Association, n.d.) which leads our attentions to new technologies such as online chatting, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) which are believed to be barrier free. Regarding online chat as a mean for psychological counseling, Dowling and Rickwood (2016) found that clients have a low level of hope for moving towards their goals while expect the online sessions to be as effective as the in-person sessions. That can be viewed as a proof of the notion that we cannot and will never be able to remove all the possible barriers especially the internal ones. There are and always will be trade-offs. Virtual Reality (VR) is about bringing users into a virtual environment. Augmented Reality (AR) is about bringing virtual objects/humans into the users' real-life environment. By allowing users to have complete control over the environments in which they want the counseling to happen, together with greater chances to find the right specialist who fit a set of expectations, VR/AR may eliminate some unique barriers involving the combination of race, culture and ethnicity. However, there will at least be technology complications and the associated learning curves that patients have to deal with.
Officially, the American Psychological Association issued recommendations on how regular people can enhance their interactions with disabled people (American Psychological Association, n.d.). There are three main areas for interaction improvements: communication, compliance and special situations. However, as we have noticed, we cannot remove all noticeable barriers. For example, compliance issues emerge strong overseas, across different countries with different laws and surprisingly historical backgrounds. In Paris, my mom had a difficult time using her wheelchair. We rarely see special entrances for wheelchair. It is possible that the layout of Paris was mostly "done" centuries ago with tiny houses built next to each other. As time goes by and as lands become much more expensive, it is too late to build ramps or lifts for the disabled. Laws protecting the disabled people are also varied from country to country. For example, not so many country cares about protecting the privacy of the disabled. Having guidelines is good but we must advocate hard for the use of such guidelines and use them consistently.
In conclusion, disability is a complicated topic since the definition of the term is extremely flexible, since it closely relates to other topics such as race and sex, and since the needed education for both professionals and the public is lacking. What we can do are: adhering to recommended guidelines, advocate for more awareness of issues relating to disabled people, do reach out to them, listen to them, work with them and support them.
References
American Psychological Association. (2012). Guidelines for Assessment of and Intervention with Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/disability/resources/assessment-disabilities.aspxCafferty, J. (2010). TSA treats 4 year disabled boy like a terrorist (2’02”). [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlYIgSMQyYg
ABC News. (2012). TSA humiliates child in wheelchair. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TaypiESnx0
Nguyen, T. (2017, March 2). Project White Wolf. Retrieved January 27, 2019, from https://devpost.com/software/white-wolf
Roy Moodley PhD (2005) Outside Race, Inside Gender: A Good Enough “ Holding Environment” in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 18:4, 319-328
Dowling, M., & Rickwood, D. (2016, February 1). Exploring Hope and Expectations in the Youth Mental Health Online Counselling Environment. Retrieved January 25, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321530087X
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Enhancing Your Interactions with People with Disabilities. Retrieved January 23, 2019, from http://www.apa.org/pi/disability/resources/publications/enhancing.aspx
