Scholarly record

DISABILITY AND DISABLED PERSON THROUGH THE EYES OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY

Z. Puzanova, M. Simonova, V. Filippov, L. Tatiana

Abstract

The attitude towards disabled people and to disability is one of the most important indicators of the maturity of society and development of human rights. In the late seventies of the 20th century Europe comes to the historical stage, when attempts of integration of disabled people into normal public life, with full recognition of their civil rights, that fully coincide with the rights of citizens without disabilities, are made. Russia is now only on the way of transition to the fifth stage, when the biopsychosocial model predominates, according to which the position of disabled people in society is defined, first of all, by perception of them by other people. In the modern world, increasingly more attention is paid to the public opinion, measured by different means, including by means of tools of sociological polls. Results of referendums in Crimea (joining Russia) and Great Britain (Brexit) show the fact, that public opinion becomes the instrument of influence on policy. It means, that for changing social policy it is necessary to work with public opinion, public consciousness and to change social stereotypes, social representations. So, the review of the main projects directed to full acceptance of disabled people by society, which are implemented in Russia now, is given. One of the purposes of the article is the representation of the generalized image of disabled people in the Russian society and perceptions of disability by people without disabilities. It is based on the largest centers of studying public opinion researches results, content analysis of mass culture in the form of cinema industry production, and also its comparison to the European and American cinema products. According to the results, there is a serious request for this perspective in the media discourse of Russia, but only during the past 2 years the volume of cinematography and its consumption has approached the volume of consumption of the European and American cinema production. At the same time, the perception of disability is a serious problem, which requires the solution at the most important stages of socialization of disabled people – at school, at university. Nowadays in Russia there is a special federal educational standard, the results of its approbation are provided. Also on the example of one of the largest higher educational institutions of Russia, the experience of adaptation and perception of disabled students in the educational environment is shown. So, only one of ten students isn't ready to accept the disabled person as the full member of society.

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