Abstract:

Discrimination, as a social problem, is the most significant problem to the full participation and the purpose of independent living of the disabled people. Due to discriminatory behavior and applications, the disabled people experience difficulties in participation in education, employment, leisure activities and all systems of society. Especially in extraordinary situations such as epidemics, the disabled people are more likely to face discrimination compared to other sections of society. In these situations, the disabled people encounter with discrimination mostly in terms of access to information, education and health services. Just as considering the prejudices creating the cognitive dimensions of discrimination, it will take a long time to build a social structure that includes the disabled people. Discrimination determines the effectiveness of national legislations and international conventions that define the rights of the disabled people, social inclusion policies for the disabled people and social policies at national level. For this reason, the importance of understanding the cognitive dimensions of discrimination and describing it as a social problem for the disabled people is emerged. In this study, the prejudices that create the cognitive dimensions of discrimination and discrimination towards the disabled as a social problem are evaluated in the context of theoretical and empirical studies. By means of this study, the social structure formed according to the dominant culture and the fact of discrimination caused by this social structure are once again emphasized as the reason why disabled people cannot participated in societies.

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