5.3 OTHER THEMES THAT EMERGED
5.3.1 STIGMA
All the service users expressed that they were exposed to some form of negative stereotyping and labelling. They felt that members of the community treated them differently because they are intellectually disabled people. The response of family members was more positive compared to that of the greater community. Whilst most family members understood their children or siblings, members of the community did not share the same compassion. One service user responded by saying “I got families that understand me…my aunty understands me…everybody knows me.”
However her response about the reaction of the community towards her was:
They say I am mad… I am in a special school… I say to them I am in Challenge… they say only mad people…I am like normal…I have a problem that they don’t understand.
The hearing-impaired service user also holds the view that some family members are more sympathetic as her husband understands her disability and has accepted her the way she is and has even over the years learnt Sign Language. She regrets her parents attitude in not getting a hearing aid for her as they probably felt there was a stigma in having a disabled child therefore she was forced to stay at home. She felt that, if she had had a hearing aid, she would have been able to pursue her studies and found better employment. However, her neighbours gossip about her but they do not realise that, although she is hearing-impaired, she can lip read.
Another was aggrieved by the cruel comments made by members of the public when she was dressed in school uniform and they would jeer her and refer to her as being mad. She understood what they said as they spoke in IsiZulu. She felt that people should look at her as a person and not somebody with a disability. Yet another service user endured cruel remarks from her neighbours when they remarked that she was only attending a special school so that she could collect a disability grant.
She said that even the educators at the special school she attended showed no interest in them as “they spoke their own stories” and told the learners to put their heads on the desk and sleep. She felt that these educators were of the opinion that learners at Special Schools did not have a future therefore they were ignored. This is indicative of educators labelling intellectually disabled learners as having no future therefore they found no need in educating them.
Whilst some service users were not treated differently, others were not as fortunate.
Since some service users had a poor concept of money they reportedly fall prey to conniving business people. Even some food outlets were reported to take advantage of these intellectually disabled people and give them incorrect change. Stigma is also prevalent in the work place as one service user had to endure insults from colleagues because she was not able to speak English and they made fun of her. They did not understand that she had a problem.
Service users in the study are also of the opinion that employers discriminate against them. One responded by saying employers “wouldn’t understand me…wouldn’t take me…sometimes they laugh at me.” Another service user felt that, since she was at a special school and was not literate in English as yet, employers would be weary about employing her. Two service users remarked by saying that able-bodied people stand a better chance of being employed as employers are hesitant to employ disabled people who have attended Special or Remedial Schools.
Stigma acts as a negative social construct that impedes people with disabilities from participating in society. According to the social model of disability, sigma forms part of an attitudinal barrier to participation in the open labour market. Seirlis and Swartz (2006) mention that not only structural barriers but also attitudinal barriers exist to disabled people finding employment. This is in keeping with the view that people with intellectual disabilities hold. They perceive that employers would treat them differently. Therefore many of them are not willing to venture into the open labour market.
Stigma is viewed as part of the social aspect of the biopsychosocial model of disability. The negative attitude of the employers towards employing people with intellectual disabilities affects them psychologically and negatively influences their self esteem and confidence as they view themselves inferior to able-bodied people.
They also have internalised perceptions about work such as incompetence in performing tasks.
Research conducted by Schneider(2006) who found that lack of jobs, lack of awareness from employers, lack of skills training, negative attitudes from employers who see workers as less productive, and costs incurred by providing reasonable accommodation and assistive devices were barriers to finding employment. Edmonds (2005) and Briggs (2005) who also conducted research found that the attitude of private sector employers was a barrier to finding employment as they perceive people with disabilities as economically weak and non-productive.
A service user was also subjected to negative comments from her neighbours when she was employed in the open labour market. They had labelled her a slow learner
and they wondered how someone like her could be employed in the open labour market. It is not only employers that label people with intellectual disabilities but members of the community do the same. They cannot envisage people with intellectual disabilities as successfully holding down a job and being in full time employment.
The service users were of the opinion that the attitude of customers would affect their chances of getting a job as one participant felt that they would not understand them and make fun of them. The stigma of employing disabled people is also echoed by a supervisor who mentioned that employers outsource contract work to protected workshops rather than employing them.