Everyday, workers in
nursing scrubs witness people cry in pain as they hear
doctors say "Sorry, we can do nothing at all.
" Mothers'
hearts are torn apart when they discover their newborn
babies having physical disabilities.
Some develop
syndromes leading to complicated health problems that
soon left them handicapped. But what is sadder is the
stigma they have to face living with disabilities.
There are 650 million
people living with disabilities worldwide, and they all
experience discrimination in many different ways. U.S.
Pres. Barack Obama said, in a presidential proclamation,
that discrimination against physically challenged people
in workplaces and in communities still happen in the
United States. He also mentioned that 90 percent of
children with disabilities in developing nations are not
able to attend school, and that women are all too often
subjected to deep discrimination.
However, discrimination
seems to root not only from bullies in school,
workplaces or the community, but also within the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities itself. On Thursday, the National
Association of the Deaf in Chennai held a demonstration
condemning the said organization, after a promise to be
included in the Eleventh Five Year Plan did not
materialize.
"Our joy turned into
sorrow when the plan received no mention in the 2008
budget. In 2009, we were promised by senior planning
commission members that it would be done. But nothing
has happened so far," said T K M Sandeep, coordinator,
The Deaf Way, an NGO working with people with hearing
disabilities. The group is asking for special schools up
to Class XII in each state and in each college, a sign
language academy, interpreters and captions on
telecasts, which is just right. Education is one big
aspect that can break the barrier that holds disabled
people from fully participating in the society.
In Beijing China,
disabled people called for accessible travel.
Improvement in security and social services are what
they want as the country has 83 million of the 650
million disabled worldwide. If government leaders are
encouraging them to integrate into the society, the
means through which they would be able to reach out to
must be provided first. Public places should install
relevant barrier-free facilities to ease travel in
connection to the rights of disabled people as
stipulated in relevant laws and regulation, said Zhou
Wei, a Sichuan University law professor.
Physically challenged
people have capabilities that can never be
underestimated. In fact, many of them show exemplary
qualities that have been very helpful to different
aspects of the society. May the International Day of
Persons with Disabilities remind everyone, especially
the authorities, that disabled people are a vital part
of the society.
