NAME: Cuerdo, Cheska G.

COURSE/SECTION: BSED - English 3-1

DATE: 26 October 2022

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1: DIVERSITY

DIRECTIONS:

Watch the video provided below. Understand and analyze the content of the message. Create a
reflective essay regarding the “Essence of Diversity in Diverse Community”. Support your claims
by presenting evidence and proper referencing in APA format. Save your work in PDF format.

VIDEO:

Catalina Devandas Aguilar, “Celebrating Disability As Part Of Human Diversity” TEDx Talks,
https://youtu.be/z6D0LbPZxnA

On TEDx Talks, the first ever United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of
persons with disabilities, a Costa Rican lawyer Catalina Devandas Aguilar talks about the
barriers she and millions of people with disabilities have to break down and face in their
lives. She explained how those barriers wear them down, demotivates them, hinders them,
and making them believe that there is no hope for them.
Catalina Auilar was born with spina bifida. It is a birth defect that occurs when the
spine and spinal cord don’t form properly. It is one of the many deficiencies that the society
thinks pity of. The deficiency that stops the person with disability to play with other kids,
or to attend school, or to marry, or to think and make decisions for themselves. Miss
Aguilar is a lawyer, a UN Special Rapporteur, a wife and a mother. These are the things
that the society thinks they can not be of. It is this sick mindset that’s been luring of years.
In every generation, there is always a stigma that people with special needs are people who
needs pity and people who should just stay home.
As part of Miss Catalina’s work, she travels around the world meeting different
people in different countries to people with disabilities. She wants to know the problems
within their community and talk to their government in hopes to have a solution. The
government always settle for short-term and inappropriate help for people with special
needs. One of Miss Catalina’s stories is of Oscar. A kid who was upset when he received
a wheelchair. A high fashioned, well developed wheel chair for our kid, Oscar. But Oscar
lives in the mountains where roads are rough and steep. He can’t use the expensive
wheelchair because the roads are not safe for him. This is where the problem lies. The help
they gave is not the help they need.
More than just the streets, or buildings, or events, the greatest barrier for people
with disabilities is the social values and discrimination they have faced for generations.
They hope not to be deemed as less worthy and unable to live a meaningful life like
anybody else. They want to be a true part of the community, to be included, and to be seen
as a human not the deficiency they have. They do not need pity; they need a hand to help
them break the barriers that they have been fighting alone all along. The struggle will end
when we will all fight against it. They are here for stories and pity; they are here to fulfill
their roles as a member of the society; and to add beauty in diversity.

References:
• Foundation, F. (2022, June 15). Ford Foundation appoints Catalina Devandas Aguilar to
board of trustees. Ford Foundation Appoints Catalina Devandas Aguilar to Board of
Trustees. Retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ford-foundation-
appoints-catalina-devandas-aguilar-to-board-of-trustees-301568985.html
• Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2022, January 8). Spina bifida.
Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/spina-
bifida/symptoms-causes/syc-20377860
• Ms. Catalina Devandas. UNITAR. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://unitar.org/about/unitar/advisory-boards/division-people-and-social-inclusion-
advisory-board/ms-catalina-devandas