Youth and Community Development (Essay Sample)

Youth and Community Development: Anti-Oppressive Practice, A case of Paralympics games
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Table of Contents
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Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc343695647 \h
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The social vs. medial model of health  PAGEREF _Toc343695648 \h
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“The Disability Discrimination Act” and “The Equality Act 2010”  PAGEREF _Toc343695649 \h
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How Paralympics brought down equality  PAGEREF _Toc343695650 \h
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Thompson Theory PCS  PAGEREF _Toc343695651 \h
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Youth worker and support of disabled people in Anti- Oppressive Practice and empowerment ways  PAGEREF _Toc343695652 \h
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Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc343695653 \h
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References  PAGEREF _Toc343695654 \h
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Youth and Community Development: Anti-Oppressive Practice, A case of Paralympics games
Introduction
London 2012 delivered one of the most extraordinary Paralympics games ever in the history of the Olympic Games, probably outdoing previous Paralympics like those held in Beijing. However, after watching the golden Olympics that displayed amazing talent, the question of inequality concerning Paralympics games emerges. The display of prowess by the disabled people was just incredible if not excellent. However, as people around the world celebrated achievements of the golden Olympics, it is important to reflect on the importunate inequalities that still inconvenience the disabled people in the UK. Despite a colorful display of the London 2012 Paralympics games, the disabled sport is not something people want to associate or sit in the comfort of their homes and watch. This paper shall delve into the way Paralympics games has elevated issues of disabilism into the mainstream Britain and how this might change in view of people living with disabilities.
The social vs. medial model of health
The medical model of health heavily relies on science and medicine to treat people ignoring social and emotional aspects that led to illness or disease or injury. The medical model is more focused on the cause of the problem rather than trying to explain how the problem came about. On the other hand, the social model focuses on the origin of illness or disease and aims to free patients of medically defined diseases (Taylor, 1997). As much as this model focuses on treating the illness or disease, it goes a notch higher by explaining to the patient what caused the problem and how they might avoid it in the future.
Disability and ill health are believed to be socially constructed, meaning that they focus more on the social model than the medical model. This means that disability is a created label attached to people by themselves or others. The medical model equates disability with physical illness while the social model perceives disability as socially constructed. In this regard, it is easy to distinguish between impairment, which is the loss of physical, intellectual or sensory functioning, for example, lack of a limb, partial sight, and disability, which point to the restrictions that the society places on people with impairments (Taylor, 1997). Based on this notion, the social model argues that disability is more of a social and not medical problem, which originates from the society’s failure to respond to the needs of people with impairments. Based on this argument, disability is the result of discrimination and people with impairments are excluded from participating in mainstream society based on social and environmental barriers (Freire, 1993). The society itself has a disabling effect when various sectors including education, games or employment fail to address the needs of people with impairments. This perception perfectly explains the inequality of the Paralympics games, which mostly touch on the disabled. Since disability is more of a social problem, the society has failed to address the needs of such people, which results in separate Olympic Games. No sports stadiums designed specifically for the disabled exist and most of them have to undergo renovation to meet the specifications and standards of the disabled. This is probably the reason why the Olympic Games cannot be combined, hence the inequality.
“The Disability Discrimination Act” and “The Equality Act 2010”
The objective of The Disability Discrimination Act is to ensure equal and fair treatment of the disabled. Similarly, “The Equality Act 2010” came into force in October 2010 and provides a contemporary and single legal framework with comprehensible and streamlined law that effectively tackles disadvantage and discrimination in the UK. The Disability Discrimination Act requires that the public promote disability equality in all sectors including sports. The Act brought about a shift from a legal framework that relied on individual disabled people complaining of discrimination to one where the public sector is a proactive agent to change relating to the disabled. The Act places responsibility on the public and other public sector inclusions to promote equality of opportunity for the disabled and eliminate discrimination. The media is part of the public inclusions and has a responsibility to promote equality and eliminate any discrimination. This means that cases of bias in coverage of the Paralympics are illegal under the provision of this Act (Disability Discrimination Act). The media and other public inclusions must avoid discrimination of the disabled whether in games or other public places including the stadia where the Paralympics are held. It was good to the people from Britain fill the stadiums because this is a reflection of what the Act stipulate; that the public must be on the forefront in eliminating inequality.
Similarly, The Equality Act 2010 makes disability discrimination unlawful as it may arise in work, education, employment or anywhere where there is provision of services. Anyone providing services to the public or anybody with such a responsibility of public functions such as the Paralympics is under an obligation not to discriminate against the disabled in the manner they operate (Equality Act 2010). This includes responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of the disabled. Looking into the London 2012 Paralympics, the stadia management was under an obligation not to discriminate against the disabled. It is part of the reason for the allowance between the golden Olympics and the Paralympics to allow the stadiums make reasonable adjustments that suit the specifications of the disabled. As a result, the disability team would expect that services be provided to them in the same manner and conditions as anyone else from the public.
How Paralympics brought down equality
There are all indications that the London 2012 Paralympics games depicted inequality. One of them is holding the Paralympics Games separately. Many questions remain unanswered including the reason why Paralympics games are held separately. Why don’t we just hold combined games? Like many people mystified by the complexities of why Paralympics games are held separately, this in itself displays the highest echelon of inequality. There is just a seismic identity shift when it comes to the Paralympics games because of marginalization and commercialization of Paralympians. It has all narrowed down to hosting of such games because proponents or the status quo argues that the high commercialization of Olympic Games has made it difficult for poor countries to bid for such games. A major statistic observed in the 2012 London Paralympics games was the inadequate coverage of such games. An article published in “The Guardian” noted low coverage of the Paralympics games in the UK and probably low profiling for its Paralympics celebrities.
The British media were biased in its coverage and anyone keen on comparing the coverage of the two Olympic Games could notice that there was bias, which depicts inequality. This translates into a comparative lack of investment in Paralympics team, lack of talent identification in the disabled and poor development. Apparently, the problem of inequality is not in the UK only, but globally. The global inequality of the disabled carries on to the Paralympics. There is lack of interest from the public in watching the Paralympics, in addition to poor development and lack of investment in the Paralympics team.
Thompson Theory PCS
The Thompson PCS model explores anti-oppressive practice by providing an analysis of the workings of oppression. Thompson (1997) analyzes the workings of oppression at three levels. One if the personal level (P), which concerns individual perspectives, particularly prejudice against another group of people. For example, when a person discriminates against a disabled person, it is purely personal. Another level is the cultural level, which touches on shared values and commonalities regarding to what is wrong or right or a common perception towards other people. With relation to disability, there is a shared opinion of society that such people are not normal and cannot do normal things. This oppression working relates to culture. Another level is the structural level that demonstrates the way oppression has integrated into the fabric of society via the organizations that hold up cultural standards and personal beliefs. These institutions of society include media, government and religion. The British media and government had an instrumental role during the Paralympics, but unfortunately, they did not meet the standards expected of them as the media were biased in its coverage.
Youth wo...