Disability Issues In I Am Sam

In the video “Inclusion, belonging, and the disability revolution” (TEDTalks, 2014), speaker Jennie Fenton opens with describing situations where people with disabilities are segregated and excluded from their communities, sent to live together away from society, or even treated as lesser humans. She then proceeds to introduce her family, including her six-year-old daughter that was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Jennie admits to previously having negative or frightened thoughts about having a child with a disability, but with her “seven realizations,” she learned that her daughter was merely on a different path than others, but that no one should ever feel broken or not a whole person (TEDTalks, 2014). After she explains that there are roughly one billion people with a disability throughout the world, Jennie states that she believes in possibility over disability. If a person’s

The article “introducing disability Studies” by Ronald J. Berger was an eye opener in uncovering the past history of negative stigma associated with having a disability. Through history people have felt the need to stare at people with disabilities or to turn away in fear of maybe contracting the “disease”. This negative attitude was positively reinforced by ordinances such as the Chicago “ugly law” in which a person with physical deformities would have to pay a fine for simply being too “disgusting” looking to other citizens. This law was in place from 1880 to 1973, which is pretty recent in history. However there are positive glimpse in history when it came to uncovering and defining disabilities. Men like Leo Kanner and Asperger have dedicated

Many people may say one is a retard without knowing the truth behind the actual word. Intellectual Disability, also known as Mental Retardation, is a very serious psychological disorder that few are faced with for life. Intellectual Disability is characterized by a below-average level of intelligence (a mental ability) that lacks skills necessary for daily living. An IQ is the standard way to measure the level of intelligence one may have. Roughly 95% of humans have the IQ between 70 and 130. (Meyers and DeWall, 2014). The other five percent are either absolute genius or intellectually disabled. Being intellectually disabled can be caused in many ways

Usability is a critical portion of web design that one must be ever mindful of when constructing websites. Whether creating a personal web space or building multiple pages for a large corporation, it is the burden of the designer to guarantee people can access that content. According to the United Nations, disabled people compose roughly 10 percent of the world’s population (United Nations, 2010). Many regulations and standards have been set forth to provide disabled people with the same opportunities to access content available on the World Wide Web, as it is most of the World’s population.

Lost in a Desert World relays the story of the life of Roland Johnson, a man born with an intellectual disability and placed in an institution who eventually went on to be the president of Speaking for Ourselves, a group that encourages those with disabilities to stand up for themselves and their rights. This memoir offers a rare first-person, nonfiction account of the life and experiences of someone with an intellectual disability. Though filled with the harsh realities of the treatment of those with intellectual disabilities, the book is also one of passion, strength, and hope.

The film I selected to observe that displays a disability in the media is Pumpkin. The film Pumpkin is based on a young college girl name Carolyn that volunteers in yearly Challenged Games. In the Challenged Games Carolyn is partner up with a boy name Jesse that goes by the nickname Pumpkin, which has an intellectual disability and is handicapped. Despites everyone disapproval and differences in the film both Carolyn and Pumpkin end up falling in love in the film. The character in the film is portrayed as a young boy that is not “normal” enough to be around all the other students or even to have friends or a girlfriend. He is rather seen as an individual that has a disability that makes him different from everyone else and because of that disability

Every human has the right to equal opportunity in life; such opportunities should include the ability to have a stable income to cover basic needs, opportunity to education, and safer neighborhoods. However, not everyone seems to have those equal opportunities. In the memoir, The Other Wes Moore, the author describes those aspects as a serious social justice issues. Social Justice is based on the principle that every human has the right to civil liberties, responsibilities, moral freedom, etc. In the book, social justice was obvious; there were not equal opportunities for the boys in the cities of West Baltimore and the Bronx. In both cases of the Wes Moore; The lack of unemployment was a major play for the fact that both kids were unable to have a good education, lack of safe neighborhoods, and unstable income. Those factors at some point of the book drove the characters to make choices that were not the best for their future.

I Am Sam is a touching movie that demonstrates, despite any impairment – anyone is capable of love. Sam Dawson, a forty-year-old man, has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. The movie begins with Sam having a child with a homeless woman, whom abandons him shortly after they leave the hospital. His daughter, Lucy, becomes the love of his life. He raises her alone, with the assistance of a great support system. As she ages, his limitations began to be stunt her educational growth. She begins to hold herself back because she doesn’t want to surpass her father’s educational level. The authorities end up taking Lucy away due to the assumption that Sam isn’t capable of giving her the life she deserves. He then hires a lawyer to manage his case pro bono. The movie is spent with Sam fighting for his rights to his daughter. In the end, love wins and Lucy is back where she belongs, with Sam. He proves to everyone that if you have the capacity to love, you have the ability to fight for it.

The name of the film selected for this case study is I am Sam. (2002) The protagonist of the film is Sam Dawson, who is played by the actor Sean Penn. Sam Dawson is a developmentally or intellectually challenged adult male, who has a young daughter, primary school aged, named Lucy. Sam and Lucy live together without her mother, who is a homeless person. There is not extensive information provided in the film regarding Sam's upbringing, but based on his present situation, he is a well adjusted person in a middle class atmosphere. It seems he has enough assets to provide for himself and his daughter in a fairly independent basis. His daughter, Lucy, is happy and taken care of, but the tension begins when Lucy exceeds Sam's mental capacity. Her peers ridicule her and her father because of his intellectual deficiencies, calling him a "retard." The character's family consists of Lucy primarily, and some of Sam's other disabled friends who all help each other. One of Sam's greatest and most prominent "likes" is that he is a huge fan of the band The Beatles. One of his strengths is his love for his daughter. Another strength, although it is perceived as a weakness by others who might prey on him, is that he goes through life with a sense of awe and naivete. Of course, this is a result of his disability, but even still, he could have

As Sam and Rita are preparing for the trial, Sam states that he feels he is smarter than Lucy in some ways. He then tells Rita he is in some ways smarter than her, too. Here, Sam is displaying the confident side of himself. On the other hand, Sam seemed to parallel my assumption that disabled people can be fragile in ways that are not related to their disability. We see this after Sam loses hope of winning his case as he says to Rita, “You don't know what it’s like when you try and you try and you don't ever get there! Because you were born perfect and I was born like this. People like you don't know what it’s like to get hurted, because you don't have feelings. People like you don't feel anything!” Many people tend to perceive disabled people lacking emotion or feeling, or that their emotion is just part of their disability. It seems that Sam thinks that feeling sad is part of his disability, but what he doesn’t know is that everyone experiences intense emotions. He lacks the realization that anybody getting their child taken away from them would have feelings similar to his. His statement raised questions in my mind about how all disabled people perceive able bodied people. Sam also displayed one of my assumptions that “disabled people are more comfortable around each other compared to being with abled people”. Sam’s best friends in the movie all happen to be disabled in some way as

After watching the video and reading Bogdan’s Thesis, it’s important to notice the impact of the American with Disability Act (ADA) has on the topic of inclusion on our society. Individuals must have the opportunity to succeed in the general population without barriers and should be educated in the general classroom to learn the same curriculum and content that students that don’t have a disability are able to learn. The video mentions that the ADA was a civil rights law and was fought for so individuals with disabilities weren’t labeled has one population but as individuals that have different disabilities that may affect them in different ways but shouldn’t hinder them from being able to live, learn, and participate in the

The difficulties faced today in society by those with serious intellectual disabilities are very large hurdles faced by many in today 's world. These disabilities along with the pressure to remain independent question how we deal with those intellectually challenged individuals. The film, I Am Sam details the struggle of Sam Dawson- a man living with mild intellectual disabilities- and his fight to maintain custody of his young daughter. This film details many different important psychological principles that are taught and studied in modern psychology. These principles are brought up and make us question the validity and extent of principles that are held sacred in the psychological world today.

When some people think of someone with a learning disability they often think of someone who is not able to contribute to society. It is often assumed people with learning disabilities are people who have low intelligence, work the school systems, and are socially awkward. As someone who has a learning disability these misconceptions have made it difficult for me to be open about it and prove these stereotypes wrong. Most of these misconceptions stem from people not understanding what alearning disabilities are, a learning disability “results from a difference in the way a person's brain is wired. Children with learning disabilities are as smart or smarter than their peers. But they have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or organizing information if left to figure things out by themselves or if taught in conventional ways” (idonline.org).

ICF stands for International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. It views disability in terms of body functions and structures, activities, participation and important contextual factors, as stated in the ICF PowerPoint presentation (Francaviglia). At the top of the diagram, shown in the ICF PowerPoint presentation, the health condition is described as any disability, disorder, injury, or trauma, but also includes important conditions such as pregnancy or aging (Francaviglia). Moving to the next level of the diagram, the body structures may include the specific limb or organ deficiency, functioning defect, or impairment from the health condition. These body structures effect “the execution of a task or action by individual”

Personally, I loved the movie, I Am Sam. I loved how it portrayed someone who has developmental disabilities and what some issues they run into in their life. I liked how dramatic and emotional the movie was. When a movie is emotional like this one, it makes the audience pay attention more and wonder what happens in the end so it makes them finish the movie or book. I liked how it showed the problems or issues Sam had trying to take care of Lucy. It broke my heart when she said, she did not want to read the word because her dad could not read it. She did not want to be smarter than her father which I thought was amazing.