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Ray Sampang Dr. Alesha Gayle Intro to Acad Discourse SEC 057 13 September 2013 The Underdogs Your son/daughter is too stupid to work here. Imagine you are a parent to an intellectually disabled son/daughter and you heard this from an employer. According to The Guardian, this type of discrimination toward the intellectually disabled is quite common. People with mental health problems face poverty, homelessness and unemployment due to discrimination in the workplace and the benefits system (Batty). Many people with mental disabilities are struggling because of the way they are. They should not be struggling this much because of that. It is not their fault that they have their disability. We cant and we should never avoid or ignore them. There are many of them. The harsh reality is one out of five Americans lives with a disability, and 70 percent of Americans with disabilities are unemployed (Saunderson). They should be allowed to have jobs. While mentally challenged people have different abilities than others, they should have an opportunity to be hired in a typical workplace. They need to make a living, they have abilities that are very useful in businesses, and it would help with the business reputation. Just because they have a disability does not mean that they are any less of a person. Like everyone else in this world, they are human and they need to make a living. Each year the federal government spends forty times more to support people with disabilities who are not

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working than it spends to assist those same people to prepare for and to find employment (Williams). While its great that the federal government is helping to support those that cant support themselves, they also need to help those looking for jobs. Its easier said than done to balance helping everyone but the gap between shouldnt be forty times more than the other. But if the federal government is not helping those who can find a job, they become those people who are not able to support themselves. There is something crucial that these people need that is missing from not having a job. Being blocked from participation in the work force also bars people with disabilities from access to health insurance - a major benefit for all workers but of even more significance to people with disabilities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, twelve million people with disabilities lack health insurance (Williams). Basically, having a job allows one to have health insurance. It is extremely crucial that everyone has that. It is what helps us pay the medical checkups and the medical attention we need when we need it. Its what helps us stay healthy. We make a living by earning money. We earn that money by doing jobs. Its an asset that is needed. Most jobless people with disabilities are being stripped of living a long healthy life by having no money that pays for health insurance. They also need money for other things too; food, water, clothing, transportation, and shelter. They are human and they need money to live and work with us. The mentally disabled can easily be underestimated, but it is wrong for people to do so. We can be surprised of what they can do. A recent study that was conducted by Joanne Ruthsatz and Jourdan B. Urbach observed children with accelerated talents. They would either be talented in fields such as math, art, music, and science. There was something similar with all of them though. On a standard assessment of traits associated with autism, the prodigies in the current study scored higher than a control group on all measures, including attention to detail and

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problems with social skills or communication (Szalavitz). Those skills that those children possess can be extremely useful. Their high attention to detail which makes them so good at what they do would be helpful in businesses. Take the child that is a prodigy in math as an example. The capacity of working memory is limited: for numbers, for example, most people can hold seven digits at a time on average; hence, the seven-digit phone number. But prodigies can hold much more, and not only can they remember extraordinarily large numbers, they can also manipulate them and carry out calculations that you or I might have trouble managing with pencil and paper (Szalavitz). While that child may have difficulties communicating with others, give him/her something to calculate, whether it be someone easy or difficult to solve, and he/she will be able to solve it accurately and faster than others can. That will be incredibly useful for them to mention when they are job searching when he/she is older. The mentally disabled dont have to be accelerated in a certain field though. They can be accelerated at doing a certain task. For Elizabeth Dey, washing dishes at Rockdale Hospital is the chance of a lifetime. I love it, Dey, 43 I do everything. I wash the pans and I put them away. The first time they put me on the sink, they were surprised I learned so quickly (Stafford). Another person just like Elizabeth Dey is Al Theeb. "I started filling the [plant] pots finally I am a supervisory salesman. In his role, he must check orders that come in, place orders, convey sales figures, report to his managers and help other staff carry out their tasks. He can name and recognize 90 different plants, and tell you their price (Khaleej Times). While they may not be math wizzes, musical composers, or scientists they get their job done and they really enjoy doing it. In fact, people with mental disabilities are often the most satisfied on the job because accomplishments, however minor, give them a chance to show others that they are a vital part of the community (Stafford). Its a win-win for businesses and the mentally challenged employees. Businesses can

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have staff that will be happy to do what they are assigned and do it right. Because they like the position they are in, they are more likely to be in a good mood which makes working with them easier and customer interaction pleasant and engaging. The mentally challenged would have their self-esteem raised when they realize that they are helpful to the community due to their own personal skill set that could even improve with experience. Not only will hiring the mentally challenged help them, hiring them will also be very beneficial to businesses. A survey by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that compared to the general business population, sixty-eight percent of Fortune 500 companies surveyed are doing more to recruit employees with disabilities (Williams). Those companies employing people with disabilities are going to be able to make a good name for them. Giving jobs to disabled people will have a positive effect on the employees in the business. Many people have family members or friends with some form of disability, or know someone who has a loved one with a disability. Being a disabled-worker-friendly company will thus increase loyalty and morale across the entire company (Saunderson). Because the employees may know a friend or family member with a disability that they respect and love, they would be just as accepting with the mentally challenged employees. When a business has employees that work together and are loyal to the business, it will only make it a well-oiled machine. Hiring them will also leave a good impression on the consumers. While you should never do it for publicity reasons, hiring people with special needs, and offering training and development to cultivate their growth, is a positive and inclusive way to enhance your corporate brand similar to other corporate social responsibility initiatives (Saunderson). This form of good publicity will only help them sell or provide more service to customers. A business with a good reputation is a successful business.

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The mentally challenged are societys underdogs. They are highly misunderstood. They are not people who are useless or a threat to society. They are not failures and they are not dumb. There wasnt a decision to have a disability, it is just who they are. Their skills, talent, and capabilities should not be overlooked by a single or a few disabilities. They are unique just like all of us and so that doesnt make them any less capable of being able to have a job and being successful. Success can be achieved by everyone and yes, it can even be achieved by the mentally challenged.