People with disabilities can be treated from different perspectives. Social and cultural differences usually make individuals living in different countries perceive children with disabilities in their own way. Thus, in America individuals are perceived as disabled on the basis of scientific evidence or if they show signs of physical or moral impairment. But in some Eastern countries, possessing disability may be also linked to possessing poor spiritual or moral values or with the interference of supernatural forces.
Within the Western culture, researchers single out several sociological perspectives of disabilities. According to the conflict perspective, disabled individuals usually are at odds with the government and remaining society. Irrespective of the amount of help provided by officials, some requirements of disabled people always remain unfulfilled. People with special needs, in their turn, feel hostile towards the government which is not willing to support them.
Another perspective in the sociology of disabled people is the objectified one. As these people are dependent on special healthcare, rehabilitation becomes a commodity. Manufacturers can use people with special needs as consumers of the costly goods which have no choice but to buy medicine and services. According to the sick role perspective, people with disabilities depend on healthcare personnel for life. Many Western people believe that the disabled cannot exist without doctors and their programs or rules. Thus, society marginalizes disabled people as they fall out of social roles typical for healthy people.