Essay Database

Cultural Communication and the Disabled. Dawn O. Braithwaite and Charles A. Braithwaite's "Understanding Communication of Persons with disabilities as Cultural Communication" makes a point that what ordinary people take for granted cannot be taken for granted by the disabled, and that this makes for difficulties in communication between them. Except for people who have been disabled from birth, becoming disabled involves learning new ways of relating to people and talking about oneself and one's needs. …

…repugnance to the handicapped, as if due to a fear that this could happen to them themselves. In a culture that values physical adeptness and beauty, the handicapped are seen as an exception as well as a reminder, and a warning. Secondly, the non disabled may show an unconscious tendency to feel sorry for the handicapped, and to even be patronizing to them, as being somehow on a lower cultural and social level than themselves.