DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

               

My decision to apply to the M.A. in Disability Studies is a result of my years of experience, on-the-job training, cultural issues, and my love for and emotional response to people, especially those in need of services. I was also influenced by the prospect of  developing more self-awareness and a readiness to change and to broaden and enhance my career goals. I am a change agent who exercises understanding and the ability to adjust my style and approach when advocating new ideas that may produce hesitancy in those who may be unable to envision the benefits to individuals and the agency. I am successful in my approach because of my ability to empathize and provide support to others who may be limited in their understanding, or fearful of the unfamiliar. The characteristics described above that I possess are, in my opinion, all pivotal reasons for my decision to apply to the M.A. in Disability Studies.

 

 My early experiences both gave me qualities that have prepared me to advocate for improvements in the treatment of individuals with disabilities and exposed me to conditions among the most in need of changing in how they are treated. The strengths that I now possess grew from the qualities that were instilled in me from an early age. I was taught to be respectful to all, especially to those in authority, and to be honest in whatever I do because this virtue makes me trustworthy. I was taught to be humble in my life's endeavors and to be patient and open to new ideas. I have nurtured those qualities over the years as I grew into manhood, and they have helped me in to become a more humane person. Through my years of working with people, especially people with developmental disabilities, I have developed a high level of tolerance and perseverance. Also, developing a habit of listening carefully and attending to both sides of an issue has helped me to be less judgmental and collaborate better.

 

 When I was growing up in Jamaica, an economically unstable third world country in the Caribbean, disability was seen as a negative symbol of some curse brought on by a particular member of the family (generation curse).  Individuals with disabilities were kept home with no programs to help them grow and no education that might help them acquire any skills. They became nuisances walking on the street and begging, whom we would call a “mad man or mad woman”—a person without self-value or worth. These individuals would be teased and often stoned by members of the community, including me as a child. I did not know any better or realize what I was doing was wrong. No one with a disability sat in a class with me nor did I have any friends who were blind or used a wheelchair. Even going to college I saw no one who had any disability— it was as if only the non-disabled could get an education, so where were the disabled individuals? Locked away in institutions—they did not have the privilege of being educated and there were no means to even include them in school settings because there were no accessible school buildings or even means of transportation that were accessible.

 

 After I graduate with my MA in Disability Studies, my ultimate career goal is to be an exemplary leader and an agent of change in the human service field  so that I can go back to my country of origin (Jamaica) to establish guidelines and laws to foster better economic and social privileges for individuals with disabilities. This will produce a more inclusive society where individuals with disabilities will have fundamental rights and live in a country where they are free from harm. I hope thereby to strengthen educational opportunity, health, medical coverage and family ties. By doing this, I am hoping to change systems on a macro level so other Caribbean countries can be open to making changes in the way they treat individuals with disabilities, to implementing systems and practices that will result in economic privileges for individuals with disabilities and to promoting and fostering more equal opportunity as well as social and economic justice.

 

 

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.