RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN SOCIETIES, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL LIFE
8 November 2019
UNESCO reports that 98% of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school and 99% of girls with disabilities are illiterate.
There is a tendency for participatory learning to be seen by young people with disabilities as key to their larger goal of achieving full inclusion and recognition of their specific needs and rights. A number of young people with disabilities would like to be involved in mainstream organizations if possible. In the main organizations, young people can meet each other based on their common interests. Young people with disabilities do not always have this option due to physical and psychological barriers23.
Barriers to wider participation include the absence of structures, either locally or nationally, for the representation of people with disabilities and their issues. Lack of information is another obstacle. Information on whether buildings are physically accessible and whether they have facilities for the hearing-impaired or blind is often missing or unavailable. This lack of information about accessibility, and sometimes the fear of inaccessibility, often stops people with disabilities from participating in events.
One long-standing barrier to participation is personal identification: whether people see themselves as ‘disabled’ or as members of a ‘minority’. Some people with disabilities do not want to belong to a minority group, because for them it has a negative connotation; others do not consider themselves disabled but members of a particular linguistic and cultural minority. In terms of political participation, the right to vote is denied to many people with disabilities who are disenfranchised or where voting is not accessible.
Abilities are important, not disabilities, which is not a word I’m dying to use.
Marlee Matlin, Oscar-winning actress who lost her hearing
Regarding participatory learning and the inclusion of people with disabilities, the role of the media in raising the level of awareness about the rights of people with disabilities and changing attitudes is extremely important. The mass media often portrays disabled people as falling into an extreme category: either the poor and in need of pity or hailed as heroes who dared to live. Such a depiction only contributes to creating a stereotype of people with disabilities, rather than understanding that they form a group that is as interesting and diverse as any other group in society.
No barriers, no borders
SALTO’s brochure ‘No Barriers, No Borders’24 is about how international projects with people with different abilities, aimed at young people with and without disabilities, are implemented. It contains specific instructions and guidelines for youth workers and project organizers, for example on how to interact with people with different disabilities, how to find youth projects and how to organize training courses for them.
www.salto-youth.net/rc/inclusion