Rights Assessment
Hopefully, the individual supported is not suffering from any afflictions. But promoting individual rights goes beyond
ensuring health and safety. When analyzing the concept of rights, the Recreational Therapist must use a lens that promotes
individual choice and freedom. Individual choices and freedom have been stripped from individuals with disabilities historically. But lack of rights for individuals with disabilities in not a past-time. Still today, people with disabilities are lacking many rights and freedoms.
Reviewing the history of people with disabilities provides insight as to how far our society has advanced, as well as the
current need for further advancement. In early 20th Century United States, individuals with disabilities were forced to be
sterilized, as well as receive lobotomies. At nearly the same time, in Nazi Germany, individuals with disabilities were used as
science experiments, receiving forced lethal inoculations, during the beginnings of the Holocaust. Further advancements in the U.S.A. occurred in 1974: individuals with disabilities gained legislation offering public education opportunities for the first time. In 1986, individuals with disabilities gained the legislative rights to vote, as well as board an airplane. More recently, in 2016, individuals with disabilities gained federal legislation that provides extracurricular opportunities in public education, henceforth unified sports.
