Multicultural Aspects of Disability

1. Multicultural Aspects of Disability November 14, 1998 R&R, Ch. 12 & M&R, Ch. 8

2. Discussion of the Statistics • US Population (Table Breakdown, p.1-2 handout) • Iowa City Population (p. 3-4, handout) • State of Iowa (p. 4-5, handout)

3. A history of oppression • African Americans • Indentured servitude and slavery • American Indians • Pushed off of their land and placed on reservations • Mexicans • Mexican American War, where they lost California, New Mexico, Nevada, and parts of CO, AZ, and UT

4. cont.. • Asian Americans • Exploited for cheap labor, then expulsed secondary to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 • Minority susceptibility to discrimination: • High rates of immigration and reproduction • Low level s of education • High rates of urbanization • Un- and under-employment • High rates of poverty and disability

5. Bottom Line... • Much of the isolation and segregation that dominated then still exists today. A history that cannot be denied or ignored is what shapes our present challenges

6. What is Multiculturalism? • Sue, et. Al (1998) defines ten characteristics of multiculturalism: 1. Multiculturalism values cultural pluralism and acknowledges our nation as a cultural mosaic rather than a melting pot. 2. Multiculturalism is about social justice, cultural democracy, and equity. 3. Multiculturalism is about helping all of us acquire the attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed to function effectively in a pluralism democratic society and interact with peoples from diversity background.

7. 4. Multiculturalism reflected in more than just race, class, gender, and ethnicity. It also includes diversity in religion, national origin, sexual orientation, ability, and disability, age geographic origin. 5. Multiculturalism is about celebrating the realistic contributions and achievements of our and other cultures. It also involves our willingness to explore both the positive and negative aspects of out group’s and other groups’ behavior over time. 6. Multiculturalism is essential component of analytical thinking. It challenges us to study multiple perspectives, to develop multiple perspectives, and teach our children how to integrate broad and conflicting bodies of information to arrive at sound judgements. 7. Multiculturalism respects and values other perspectives, but it is not value neutral. It recognizes “treating everyone the same” may deny equal access and opportunities, and that differential treatment is not necessarily “preferential.”

8. 8. Multiculturalism means “change” at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. It is an on-going and long-term process that requires commitment and hard work. 9. Multiculturalism may mean owning up to painful realities about oneself, our group, and our group society. 10. Multiculturalism is about achieving positive individual, community, and societal outcomes because it values inclusion, cooperation, and movement toward mutually shared goals.

9. Sensitivity Sensitivity to the unique needs, based on cultural differences, of consumers is a requisite for serving consumers from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Cultural awareness and sensitivity among counselors also includes respect for the differing values, classes, language factors, and unique experiences that consumers bring to the counseling relationship.

10. Multicultural Counseling Competence Is….. • Being to provide a working definition of multiculturalism: (Ten characteristics from Sue at. el, 1998) • Being able to clearly define one’s meaning terms related to multiculturalism such as culture, race, ethnicity, diversity, minority, majority. • Being able to define multicultural counseling and therapy and translate it into practice.

11. Cultural Competency • Be cognizant of your own biases. • Be prepared to use different approaches • Realize expectations lead to stereotyping

12. Acculturation Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups.

13. Assimilation Assimilation is the social, economic, and political integration of an immigrant or ethnic minority into mainstream society. These include primary (family & friends) and secondary (school, social agencies) relations

14. Culture • Physical culture • Roads, buildings, and tools • Subjective culture • social norms, roles, beliefs, and values

15. Ethnicity characterizes groups in terms of nationality, culture, or language

16. Pluralism • Pluralism is the cultural, social , and structural ways in which ethnic groups are maintained as distinct groups within a single political state. • Living side-by-side, willing to affirm one’s dignity, benefit from one another, and acknowledge each other's contributions.

17. Race • Race generally defines physical characteristics that are common to a geographically isolated population. • Information for R.C.: African Americans are more prone to high blood pressure, Hispanics are more prone to diabetes

18. Effective Multicultural Counseling (Sue & Sue, 1990) • Movement from being culturally unaware to being aware and sensitive of his/her own cultural heritage and to valuing and respecting differences • Counselor awareness of his/her own values an biases and how those biases may affect culturally diverse persons with disabilities

19. cont.. • Developing and increasing the comfort level with difference that exist between themselves and persons being served in terms of race and beliefs • Sensitivity to circumstances that may dictate the referral of a culturally diverse individual with a disability to a member of his/her own race/ culture • Acknowledgment and awareness of his/her own beliefs, attitudes, and feelings

20. Multicultural Considerations Majority of rehabilitation counselors are from white middle class and are culturally biased in their responses to ethnic minority clients (Casas & Vasquez, 1989; Richardson & Molinaro, 1996).

21. Importance of Within-Group Differences: Individual Focus To be culturally sensitive rehabilitation counselor does not need to identify the individual with characteristics of single cultural group. Example:

22. Specific Cultures • African Americans • Hispanic Americans • Asian Americans • Native Americans

23. Guest Speaker: Orville Townsend Rehabilitation Counselors Specific of Multiculturalism Considerations