Author: Alexandra Wong
How does being disabled impact one’s mental health?
As a person with a disability, it can be tough to mentally cope with the struggles of being disabled. For those newly disabled, there is sometimes a process of grieving what has been lost and what new limitations there are in their lives (Moser, 2022). On top of that, people with disabilities often face challenges accessing education, healthcare, and transportation, preventing them from accessing vital services that allow them to live a full life. These challenges include lack of captioning on videos, inaccessible entrances, and inaccessible medical equipment (Kapsalis et al., 2024; Pharr, 2013; USU, n.d.). Additionally, people with disabilities have trouble gaining meaningful employment in their communities. People with disabilities had an unemployment rate of 7.2%, twice as high as the rate experienced by people without disabilities (Andara et al., 2024). The reasons cited for this include difficulty finding a job that offers the accommodations to make it possible to work and the difficulties finding a job suitable for their skill sets (Andara et al., 2024). As a result, they lack a major method to make an income and live independently.
Continue reading