Vincent

Imagine being in a world where you struggle to do things others consider routine and simple. You can’t learn like others can, can’t communicate well with your friends and family, and totally depend on others to feed you and take car of you. And to top it all off, you have a job that you hate. That’s exactly how Vincent felt when he quit his job at Concord Support Services. He was tired of the tedious work that he was required to do at his job, which is something that anyone could easily feel. However, due to his disability, he was unable to clearly communicate that he had no desire to continue doing what he was doing. The thing that struck me the most was how Vinnie, someone who is treated and looked at as different, felt about the situation he was in. Nothing was different about his boredom that came as the result of an unchallenging workload. Nothing was different about his nervous reunion with his coworkers, where he felt uncomfortable and insecure. Before I read this story, I never really had much exposure to Down syndrome and other such diseases. Because I had never had direct contact with someone who had such a debilitating disease, I had a closed minded view of how to interact with such a person. I thought they were just like children and should be treated as such. But when I saw how frustrated Vinnie was when he was talked to as a child, I realized that each individual person has his or her individual needs and should be treated with respect, no matter how disabled they are.

When listening to this story, I looked at the way Vincent made decisions. Emotions played a large part in Vinnie’s decisions throughout the story. His intellect was not at a level that could be used to help him with decision-making, so he relied almost totally on how he felt. In the situation he was in, he quit his job because he hated it. If I were to make that kind of decision, I would have to take into consideration how I would make money, what I would do to replace this, and what my friends and family would think. Knowing the consequences of one’s actions can further complicate the issue, and many times, the emotions involved in the decision are ignored. Vinnie took no consideration of what the consequences would be, like a small child. This is one of the reasons people with Down syndrome or Vincent’s are treated like children no matter how old they are. However, in Vinnie’s case, he was aware that he was an adult, but he knew that people were treating him like a little kid. When he caught his mom and sister talking about him behind his back, he was very upset because in my opinion, he didn’t feel he was getting the respect he deserved.

People with disabilities, whether mental or physical, are treated differently than “normal” people. This is good to an extent, as people with disabilities can’t function without the support of others. However, nobody wants to be thought of as being a “degenerate” or “retard.” Although they don’t always get it, people with disabilities deserve respect and should be thought of not as a disabled person, but as a human.