Reflection on my presentation on the topic "No joking matter words and disability"

Last week's presentation made it clearer to me on the issues disabled people go through. The stories told through disability metaphors show that ableism has become a deep-rooted problem that reflects the kind of oppression and discrimination that people with disabilities often go through. The society perpetuates negative and disempowering perceptions about disabled people; something shocking is that these views find their way in things that people feel are important. The idea of such a view is so wrong; a culture dominated by pejorative metaphors about the disabled is a culture that does not see them as whole or entitled to anything important, such as inclusion in the society (Lester, 2017) . My position as a learner is advocating for social equality by condemning ableism and negative utterances.

This assignment was both rewarding, particularly in changing my mentality regarding ableism. Before undertaking the assignment, I was the “this idea is crazy” type, whereby I could just throw words that carried weight, but no considerations whatsoever. I was never sensitive at all and never thought that disability metaphors had any effect on other individuals. To me, they were like other classy names to express a feeling of happiness or disgust to my peers. This assignment helped me to understand that there was more to the disability metaphors. I understood that people with disabilities have feelings too and never fail to notice such metaphors flying through the air as they move. It must be hard for them! I am now a reformed perform with interest in promoting equality by creating awareness that ableism is damaging and is not cool.

Through the assignment, I worked with my partners to ensure that we thoroughly covered the assignment, resulting in detailed work. Working with my partners not only acted as an eye-opener regarding ableism but also served as a source of knowledge for me to develop into a better researcher and person. Most of the partners had a better understanding of ableism, which acted as a challenge to me. To work in a group with such knowledgeable individuals required me to dig deep to understand more about ableism. Digging deep acted as a source of knowledge, since the more I read and understood about the issue, the more I became motivated. The partners helped me to understand ableism and acted as a source of knowledge and motivation. Initially, I had less knowledge about disability metaphors; working with my partners helped increase my knowledge of the issue.

Working with my group partners brought a new perception and understanding regarding the issue. Diversity in opinions helps bring out new insights (Caruso & Woolley, 2008) . Initially, I never thought about ableism in detail. Discussing the issue with my partners opened my eyes that words like crazy, dumb, lame, and others refer to disabilities. Using these metaphors was a normal issue that I thought they were normal words used in describing happiness or disgust. From the discussions, I felt that as partners in the group, we should have learned new ideas about the assignment problem. Each member has a different understanding of the issue, which is relevant; understanding every partner's perceptions would have shed more light on the issue.

Enhancing intercultural communication was an achievement of the discussion and presentation. Group work enables one to interact with members of different cultures and learn about their way of life, and you also spot the deviation among all of you (Liu & Alba, 2012) . Learning all these improve my understanding of people hence smoothening communication with individuals from diverse cultures in the future, thereby bringing peace and understanding, which is key to the society. This contributes to growth as a person socially.

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