The Invisible Disabled: A Research On The "Invisibility" Of China's Urban Disabled People

According to statistics, the current number of disabled persons in China has reached to more than 82.69 million, accounting for 6.34% of the total population, involving 1/5 of all families. Disabled persons are special and vulnerable group in the society, but as the development doctrine play a dominant role in the society, the disabled persons' right to survive is threatened, and there has been an increased sense of social exclusion, unfairness and being deprived of by people with disabilities. Consequently it will trigger new conflicts and bring about negative impacts.People with disabilities in China, as a part of the community, deserve to be involved in building the harmonious society and share the fruitful results of economic and cultural developments. Apart from that there will be no social fairness, civilization and harmony. Actually it is very difficult to find the disabled in political, economic, and cultural activities, and other aspects in various fields, either. They're just like wearing a stealth coat and becoming "Invisible Men". This paper tries to unveil whether the people with disabilities are really in such an "invisible" state in the society, and if so, what are the dimensions by which we would be able to prove the existence of such a state? If this state really exists, what is the mechanism of being invisible? What are the real reasons that lead to the current invisible state of people with disabilities?This paper has tried in two aspects in order to answer the questions. The first task is to describe the "invisible" state of the disabled persons. In this part, the author uses the secondary data and survey research, i.e., one of quantitative study methods to do the description .According to the concept of "civil rights" by T Marshal's, the author describes the "invisible" manifestation and characteristic of the disabled person at three levels—Legal Right, Political Right and Social or Welfare Right. The second task of the paper is to explain the reason of the disabled person's "invisible" state. That is to say, to discuss what factors lead to the present state of the disabled person and its working mechanism behind the "invisibility". In this part, the author uses the in-depth interview .Through the in-depth interview with the disabled persons , the author tries to find the reasons in the view of the disabled person themselves.Finally, the author draws the following conclusions: First, the disabled is "invisible" in many fields such as in legal services, politics, education, employment and income security. Second, their lack of communication skills, shortage in education and knowledge, and their mindlessness, working together, result in the "invisibility" condition of the disabled persons.