Exercise: Getting to know the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – you can click here to go to a copy of the document. Read through the UDHR and you will see that it talks about all the different kinds of human rights that all people have – including civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights.
• Take your list of myths and stereotypes that you made earlier and link it to the UDHR. Specifically, consider how people’s belief in the different myths and stereotypes can negatively impact the enjoyment by persons with disabilities of the human rights expressed in the UDHR. For example, Article 23 of the UDHR talks about everyone’s right to work. The stereotype that “all persons with disabilities are lazy” might make a potential employer not want to hire persons with disabilities, and this could negatively impact the enjoyment by persons with disabilities of the human right to work. How might the myths and stereotypes you identified in your list negatively affect the enjoyment by persons with disabilities of the human rights expressed in the UDHR?
• Now look at the list you made of things you would prefer people to think when they meet or think about persons with disabilities. How could these ideas about disability and persons with disabilities positively impact enjoyment of the human rights set forth in the UDHR?