Attitudes

Ian Metherell: Prejudice


Ian Metherell was born in 1948 in Hounslow. Ian spent almost his entire school life in residential special schools, first in Henley, then in Kent and finally in Lancashire.

Here Ian talks about public perceptions of people with learning difficulties.

  • Ian Metherell
  • Ian Metherell
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/prejudice.mp3

Transcript

The general public’s perception of people with learning difficulties is, ‘Oh, he’s got a learning difficulty, we don’t want anything to do with them’. And they would also say that person, because you’ve got a learning difficulty you can’t go to Uni’ and further education. Wrong. Because what the general public’s perception is of people with learning difficulties is they’re taking away their rights to be able to go to university and be further educated. I've heard of a case where people with learning difficulties were moved into a group home and they came up against the residents’ association for that area, and what the residents were saying is that people with learning difficulties are going to devalue the price of a home by smashing windows and things like that… That perception from the tenants’ association is not only biased but prejudiced, because they don’t understand people with learning difficulties and also what they’re capable of doing as a human being. That is a fact.

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