Advocating a bold attitude

Malay Desai

At a time when self-promotion is second nature to many and earning print space often requires desperate efforts, we are surprised to meet 42-year-old Nilesh Singit. The kurta-clad disability rights activist, appearing more like a JJ School of Arts student, flatly refuses to be interviewed, citing ‘typical’ treatment meted out to the disabled in ‘such’ articles. We agree, many stories of differently-abled people are either too sympathetic or overtly glorifying, but assert that we won’t veer in either direction.

“Things are blown out of proportion, a small achievement is written as ‘overcoming all odds..’ he tells us later, having agreed after a mediator’s word. So here are some facts about Singit’s life, with the least usage of superlatives: Nilesh belongs to a large joint family hailing from Karnataka but has grown up in Mumbai. The cerebral palsy (a group of movement disorders caused by damage to the brain before, during or just after birth) he was born with was nearly invisible for his siblings and cousins whom he shared a close-knit childhood with. At his school (special one for persons with disability – PWD, an idea he’s against) and later, his inclusion factor wore off a bit. “Over the years as a PWD and as a rights advocate, I have realised that things come in packages of advantages and disadvantages. I have come to accept it, why rue it? Those who ‘acquire’ disability have difficulty accepting it,” he feels, likening himself to a person ‘who failed the medical test by a whisker and could not pursue his/her dream of being an air force pilot.’ Surely a perspective we haven’t heard before.

It’s this attitude (and the eloquence in conveying it) that we quite relish, despite his career having enough to gush about. Once before getting on to a flight, Singit was asked for his medical certificate, which he didn’t have. A doctor was called, who then proceeded to ask him questions, to which Singit interrupted and stopped short of lambasting him and the crew, before making his way into the flight. Turned out that the doc was asking questions related to Down’s Syndrome. “Where’s your certificate?” Singit asked them back.

His flamboyance may have to be tucked in at various moments though, as he’s working in one of the most challenging sectors of the government – advocacy. As a research officer at the Centre for Disability Studies, Nalsar University (Hyderabad), he writes papers, conducts audits and litigates for the betterment of PWDs in India, and not all people he meets are smooth to deal with. “I’ve been caught up quite a number of times in what is termed as ‘friendly fire’. I always carry a white hanky,” he claims, tongue firmly in cheek.

That said, those who know Singit well don’t really risk not taking him seriously as the man has arrived at this position after much experience in the field. An MA in Literature, he pursued disability studies and went on to play several key roles in the field – trainer, advocate of rights and researcher being some. “There is a dearth of writings on disability; as an access audit consultant I found that even though there are tonnes of data on universal design, there is not much on adaptation and customisation for an individual’s needs,” he informs. Of course, being a PWD himself was a great influence in advocating for the UNCRPD (UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities), an international instrument that provides PWD with the same human rights as everyone else, which is sanctioned by India. “Disability studies are the way to get the PWD in command of his/her environment and life,” he admits.

His strong opinions and voices for and against all things perfect and imperfect come out unfiltered through his writings on the web. His blog, ‘Disability News Worldwide’ is replete with informative, transformative, even evocative posts. Another blog carries his rant against the Lokpal and an old ‘open letter’ to Shah Rukh Khan, while his social network profiles bear pointers to the range of work he’s accomplished and waiting to do. But it is only after hearing his plans do we judge him as a passionate writer: “I regret not having written as much as I ought to have. I think I have in me a book or two I’d like to begin writing sooner than later.”

“I would rather write than be written about,” he says of his above mentioned reluctance, explaining that the very act of overcoming the stereotype sometimes reinforces the stereotype. We don’t know if this article would make the cut with him, but we sure have returned more insightful after having met him.

(An initiative of Trinayani, a nonprofit NGO founded by Ritika Sahni, the THIS ABILITY articles celebrates the intriguing lives of persons with disabilities. Trinayani works towards Disability Awareness and Support, communicating through workshops/seminars, print, radio, films and other electronic media.  Visit www.trinayani.org or write to us at trinayani.contact@gmail.com)

The Articles in the Series “This-Ability” are copyrighted material of Trinayani.  This Blog is carrying the series on the request of Ritika Sahni, Founder Trinayani.  Any queries or request to publish these articles please contact Ritika Sahni. The owner of this Blog is not responsible for any copyright infringement

Nilesh Singit

Poll officials to help disabled

MUMBAI: The city’s voting infrastructure is ill-equipped to cater to differently-abled persons in Thursday’s civic elections.

Election officials admitted that 28 of the 8,378 voting booths are on the first floor and are inaccessible by lift or ramps. While electronic voting machines have been made Braille-friendly , visually-impaired persons will still need assistance in matching candidate symbols and numbers before casting their votes.

“It is unfortunate that the lists of candidates will not be in Braille. It doesn’t speak highly of our democracy that visually-impaired persons will need assistance to vote,” said Raman Shankar who heads the National Association for the Blind (NAB), pointing out that such assistance was open to manipulation. Estimating that there are 4,000 visually-impaired voters in the city, he said NAB had been approached during the parliamentary and state assembly elections as well as the Alibaug and Pen polls to supply Braille stickers and candidate lists.

Physically disabled voters and incapacitated senior citizens will be inconvenienced in areas like Marine Lines, Mohammed Ali Road, parts of Chembur, Mankhurd and Govandi , where booths do not have disabled-friendly access.

“The approach to disabled persons as an electorate is apathetic . The issues never make it to political manifestos and voting infrastructure reflects this apathy,” said disabled rights activist Nilesh Singit, who had championed for his booth in Matunga to be on the ground floor during the last state elections.

Disabled persons point out that governance machinery remains apathetic despite judicial orders demanding inclusive facilities. The Supreme Court had directed states to ensure ramps at booths and Disability Rights Group had filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court for implementation of the provisions.

The authorities insisted there were constraints to making areas disabled-friendly in highly-congested areas. “Most booths have access. There will be assistants at the 28 booths that are on the first floor without lifts,” said S S Shinde, joint municipal commissioner in-charge of elections . He said officials will assist visually-impaired persons with lists in booths too.

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha, Times of India, Bombay

Polling booths to be disabled-, pregnant-friendly

 Priyanka Sharma

Don’t fret over how your physically-challenged or pregnant relative will be able to cast his/her ballot in the upcoming civic polls. The state election commission has issued a set of facilities to be made available at polling booths to ensure that the pregnant, the physically-challenged and senior citizens will not have to queue up for long. Women with a child, besides those pregnant, will be given preference over others at the booth.

“There have been instances when the pregnant, the physically-challenged and senior citizens were put off by the idea of incessantly waiting in line. This time, we are paying attention to every minute detail,” said Chand Goyal, additional chief secretary of the election commission.

No polling booth will be allowed to be set up above the ground floor in a building with no lift. An elevated ramp for the physically-challenged is also mandatory. “Also, for the first time, we have electronic voting machines with Braille script on the ballot unit with which the visually-challenged can decipher the candidates’ name,” added Goyal. Every polling booth will also sport a shed, facilities for drinking water and a washroom.

DNA Published Date: Dec 13, 2011

New Global Rights-Monitoring Network for Persons with Disabilities

Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) has introduced a new global monitoring system to address disability discrimination. This comes off the ba ck of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which reports how well all governments that have ratified the agreement are managing.

At the moment, countries are often limited by funding depending on how they report on their implementation of this agreement. The minimum requirements are simply catalogue laws, policies, and programs; which, as you can imagine, doesn’t always have a huge affect on real life accessibility issues.

The new monitoring system from DRPI aims to help countries place that cataloguing alongside evidence-based data. This is achieved by getting people with disabilities involved in the process; there will be training on “what disability means as a human right, how to collect data and conduct evidence-based research, and how to write and file human rights reports” (source). For example, insight into whether the laws about accessible offices or public spaces are implemented will much more effective when the targeted end users can influence the project.

The partners behind this new program are Bengt Lindqvist and Marcia Rioux. Lindqvist, as well as holding a position as Cabinet Minister in Sweden and as the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, is well known for his years of disability rights activism.

Riox has this to say of the new monitoring scheme: “Our project allows evaluation to happen within the context of the experiences of people with disabilities to objectively measure where discrimination is now, while developing and tracking solid trend data to determine if and how things are getting better.”

Research for this project has been taking place in Canada over the last five years with excellent results. The monitoring scheme is now being rolled out across the world with training kicking off in Africa, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America. In fact, a new monitoring centre, the Africa Regional Monitoring Centre, opened its doors in Kigali, Rwanda in early September.

Barrier Free Architecurals

EU development cooperation; does disability count?

Europe has declared 2010 to be the year against poverty and social exclusion. It is a good occasion to look at the European policy towards a group that knows only too well what poverty and social exclusion mean: people in developing countries living with a disability. Does European development aid reach people like Lila Maya in Nepal, who became blind as a baby and was isolated and mistreated until a local NGO helped her set up her business? Or Ricardo in Mozambique, who never went to school because of his paralyzed legs?

A vicious cycle

Poverty, exclusion and disability are interrelated. Poverty causes disability, because it means that people do not have access to health facilities, information and adequate food that could prevent a simple disease to develop into a disability. With proper treatment, Lila Maya might have not become blind. Disability in its turn causes poverty, because practical problems and social stigma exclude people with a disability from education and work to earn their own living. Ricardo makes a little money by repairing the clothes of his neighbours, but what would his life have looked like, if he had had access to school and a wheel chair?  According to the United Nations 650 million people live with a disability and 80% of those live in developing countries[1]. The European Union is a major player in development cooperation; it provides over half of all official development assistance worldwide[2]. An inclusive development policy of the EU can therefore really make a difference for people with a disability.

Beyond good intentions

In 2009 the EU ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is a legally binding convention which stresses the importance of international cooperation and states that countries should ensure that: ‘that international cooperation, including international development programmes, is inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities’[3]. This means that, besides and above the good intentions which the EU expresses by announcing a Year against poverty and social exclusion, it has is a legal obligation to ensure that development cooperation reaches people with a disability. The Convention is an important landmark signalling a change in attitude.  In stead of talking about the handicapped who need to be cared for, people with a disability are now recognized as persons who have the right to participate in all aspects of society. Only countries that have ratified the Convention are bound to it. The EU already took this important step, but a number of European countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy are still missing on the list.

Towards an inclusive European development policy

Europe has shown its commitment to the rights of the Lila Maya’s and Ricardo’s in the world. But to make sure they can
really benefit from European aid, more steps need to be taken.

• Ratify: More countries should ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This will show their real commitment and helps to make sure that we will come from good intentions to realization of rights. The EU should urge those member states that have not done so yet, to ratify the Convention as soon as possible. Together, the European countries can encourage other countries to ratify and of course to implement the  Convention.
• Plan: The start of implementation is developing a good plan. A quick scan of relevant EU policy documents on disability and development does not give much hope. The Commission Work Programme 2010 refers to disability only once, in an annex and not in relation to development. The General development framework, makes no mention of disability at all. The Guidance Note on Disability and Development, published in 2004 by the European Commission[4] provides a number of useful principles, but apparently these are not put into practice. A good sign is that the Directorate General Development is considering to add disability to the list of ‘cross cutting’ issues. Recognizing disability as a cross cutting theme will help to ensure that attention will be paid to disability in all development activities: ‘mainstreaming’ disability. Already, the EU requires applicants of development grants to explain how the grant will benefit people with a disability. Besides mainstreaming disability in development activities, the EU will need to facilitate disability-specific services and support for disabled persons to empower themselves and to get access to mainstream services.
• Learn: Developing such a plan is not easy. Implementing it will be even more challenging. Mainstreaming disability is a new concept and there are no studies yet that prove which strategies are successful. A lot can be learned from the experiences regarding gender and development. It is also important to do research regarding disability and development. Lessons should be drawn from good and bad experiences, to improve future  policies.
• Measure. To know if efforts are effectively reaching people with a disability, it is important to collect data before, during and after interventions. How many people with a disability are living in the project area? Which disabilities do they have and how does this affect their ability to benefit from development efforts? Targets will need to be set on how many people with a disability will be reached by a certain effort. In most cases, the required data will be unavailable. People with a disability are not counted and therefore cannot be accounted for. Starting to collect these data will make them visible. This will require ‘disaggregation’ of data: asking projects to report on how many of the people they are people with a disability, just as they are often required to do regarding women and youth.
• Involve. Last but certainly not least,  people with a disability should be involved in all the above. ‘Nothing about us without us’ is the adagio of the disability movement.

[1] UN 2006, Some facts about persons with disabilities, http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/facts.shtml

[2] http://ec.europa.eu/development/how/monterrey_en.cfm

[3] Article 32, see http://www.dcdd.nl/reader/reader.html

[4] http://ec.europa.eu/development/body/publications/docs/Disability_en.pdf

Published by: Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development (DCDD) -Saskia Bakker

Disabled people plan hunger strike in Delhi for rights law

A group of disabled people will begin an indefinite hunger strike from Wednesday outside the Shastri Bhawan, which houses many central government ministries, to protest their poor representation on a committee drafting a new law protecting their rights.

Following pressure from various disabled groups, the social justice and empowerment ministry in April ormed a committee to draft new legislation, reflecting the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to replace the Disability Act, 1995.

The first meeting of the committee will be held June 10.

“The government has overlooked the basic tenet of the convention and the bedrock of the disability rights movement – ‘Nothing about us, Without us’. The 27-member committee appointed by the government has only three people with disabilities,” said Javed Abidi, convener of Disabled Rights Group.

A group of disabled people also met Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik May 26, demanding an increase in the number of disabled people in the committee, he said.

“We will sit on indefinite hunger strike till our demands are accepted,” Abidi added.

Manmohan promises disabled-friendly laws

FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS: Physically challenged persons, under the banner of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled and led by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, march on Parliament Street in New Delhi on Tuesday to press their demands. Photo: V. Sudhersan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government was in favour of amending the laws, if need be, to make them more disabled-friendly. He gave this assurance to a delegation of the differently-abled persons who met him in Parliament. The delegation was led by CPI (M) MP Brinda Karat.  “The Prime Minister was extremely sympathetic towards the demands of the disabled persons and said their demands were genuine,” Ms. Karat said. Dr. Singh assured the delegation of changing the laws to make them disabled-friendly, if necessary. The Prime Minister interacted with the members of the delegations and enquired about their problems. Talking to The Hindu, Ms. Karat said this was the first time that a delegation of differently-abled persons had visited Parliament House. “It was pointed out to the Parliament staff that there was only one gate (Gate no 9) in Parliament House for the physically disabled people and this was far away from the main entrance,” Ms. Karat said. The delegation also met the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik who told them that the government was finalising a new law for the disabled that would replace the existing law.

Earlier, a large number of people with different forms of disabilities marched to Parliament House to demand a better deal. Marching under the banner, ‘National Platform for the Rights of Disabled Persons,’ the people highlighted the plight of the economically and socially disadvantaged among the disabled, the poor, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. “The basic issue is that of the approach of the government and we must request you to consider our demands not as an act of charity but as fulfilment of entitlements and rights as equal citizens of India. India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the persons with Disabilities which enjoins the government to ensure minimum rights and livelihood to disabled citizens,” the marchers said in a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister. The demands include a comprehensive social security system for all persons with disabilities and their families including the Antyodaya cards, free health care for disabled persons, amendments to the Right to Education Act to make provision for disabled teachers and professional and identification of jobs for the disabled immediately with annual special recruitment drives each year.

Besides setting up a separate Ministry for disability affairs, the memorandum also sought issuance of a universally valid identity card and replacing the current Persons with Disabilities Act (1995) in consonance with the provisions of the U.N. Convention and harmonising other laws, the disabled persons also wanted proper enumeration of the persons with disabilities. The organisations that participated in the march included the Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Samaiilani, the Differently Abled Persons Welfare Federation of Thiruvananthapuram, the Karnataka Rajya Angavikalara Mattu Palakara Okkota, the Jharkhand Vikalanga Morcha, the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of all types of Disabled and Caregivers and the Vibhinna Prathiba Vanthula Jakkula Vedika of Andhra Pradesh.

The Hindu

UK Campaigns for More Accessible Elections!

Written by Katrina Ward

19 March 2010

There are campaigns in the United Kingdom to make elections more accessible for people with disabilities. One problem is that information about politics is too difficult to understand.  The campaigns  want to convince politicians and authorities to make elections easier. People with disabilities should have the same right to vote as any other citizen, however, many people with disabilities are not given the opportunity to use their vote and to take part equally in the democratic life of their country. In the last few years, the UK has been campaigning hard to make elections more accessible for people with disabilities. Three major campaigns have recently been launched to push for more accessible elections for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. Research by United Response, an organisation which supports people with learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities to live in the community in the UK, has shown that while 80% of people with disabilities are registered to vote, only 16% of them voted in the last UK General election and 20% in their last local elections. The research highlighted a number of barriers to accessibility, including a lack of easy to understand information about political parties and policies. In light of this, United Response launched the ‘Every Vote Counts’ campaign in 2007. This three-year project, funded by the Electoral Commission, aimed to raise awareness and promote the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in campaigns and in every aspect of the democratic process. Meanwhile, in 2009, Mencap, Inclusion Europe’s UK member organisation, launched the campaign ‘Get My Vote’, which aims to ensure that more people with intellectual disabilities participate in the next general election. This campaign pushes for more accessible information about the voting and from political parties. They have produced an easy-to-read guide on how to vote for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK, which you can find here: http://www.mencap.org.uk/document.asp?id=12634 In addition to this, Scope, a UK organisation for disabled people, also launched its ‘Polls Apart’ campaign. In the last general election, Scope surveyed over 2000 polling stations and found that 68% were inaccessible for people with disabilities. On the basis of this research, Scope raised awareness at government and local level about the importance of making their polling stations accessible. On the Polls Apart website, people can find out how accessible their local polling station is in the UK. These campaigns are very promising for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK. At European level, Inclusion Europe recently started a project which aims to improve the accessibility of elections for people with intellectual disabilities across Europe. For the project, Inclusion Europe, together with its project partners Nous Aussi (France), Enable (Scotland) and Inclusion Czech Republic, are working together to analyse the current accessibility of elections in all countries of the European Union, whilst collecting best practices and lobbying for more accessible elections both at national and European level. For more information, please visit the website at: www.voting-for-all.eu If you know about any best practices in your own country which you would like to share, please contact the project coordinator, Katrina Ward at: k.ward(at)inclusion-europe.org (please replace (at) with @. For more information about the ‘Every Vote Counts’ campaign, go to: www.everyvotecounts.org.uk For more information about the ‘Polls Apart’ campaign, go to: www.pollsapart.org.uk

Call to encourage voters with learning difficulties

People with some learning difficulties are being encouraged to vote

A campaign is being launched to help people with  learning disabilities to vote in the next General Election.

It is estimated that 500,000 people in England with learning difficulties could vote but do not. It is also estimated only about 16% of people with learning difficulties voted at the last election. The United Response charity wants to raise that figure and has sent out what it calls a “toolkit” to all MPs, urging them use to jargon-free language. The toolkit includes a CD explaining its message, which  includes a request for MPs to use visual material where possible. The charity is calling on all the major parties to produce manifestos in a form that is easy to understand for people with learning disabilities.

United Response chief executive Sue Sayer said its campaign had been running for the past three  years. “The campaign is really important because what people told us it that they find political  information – I’m talking about manifestos and policy documents – really difficult to understand. “And of course it’s vital that they can understand what’s being proposed because so many political decisions have a real impact on their lives. “In a General Election things like health and social care, benefits, direct payments, they’re all very important. And in a local election things like public transport come up time and time again.”

MP interest

Ms Sayer said the response from MPs to the charity’s approach had been “fantastic”. She added: “They’ve been so enthusiastic, I’ve had hand-written letters from so many MPs saying how great it is to have this toolkit.” The report makes a series of recommendations, including calling for an increase in the number of people with learning disabilities voting in 2010, to at least 40%. It also wants all main political parties to make the information about their policies and their candidates as accessible as possible ahead of the election, with easy read manifestos as a minimum. The law says that anyone with a broad understanding of what voting is about, and the ability to choose between candidates is eligible to vote. The voting figures for the general population for the last election was 61%.

BBC NEWS

Student Forum Reclaims Radical Disability Studies

By Miriam Berger, Assistant Features Editor

At a University where classes such as “Gender in a Transnational Perspective” and “Ethnographic Approaches to Queer Studies” have moved towards the mainstream, Allegra Stout ’12 nevertheless felt that something was missing.  “I’ve been interested in disability studies for a long time,” Stout said. “A lot of classes have disability as a side note, but I wanted a more focused way to look at it.”  Disability studies—an inter-disciplinary field that approaches disability as a key aspect of human experience and identity with important political, social and economic implications—will now be redeemed from its sidebar status in a new student forum led by Stout, as well as Ariel Schwartz ’12, and Meredith Holmes ’10, that meets Thursdays from 1:10 p.m. to 4 p.m.  “We are going to look at disabilities the way that everyone looks at race and gender,” Stout said. “The forum will study people with disabilities as a marginalized oppressed group and seek to create social theories about that experience.”  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 defines a disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.”  Under the ADA, Americans with disabilities are afforded similar protections against discrimination as the Civil Rights Acts of 1964.  According to Schwartz, disability studies have developed over the last few decades as a more theoretical approach to embodiment and the experience of having a disability.  “When you volunteer for the special Olympics, it’s not the same as looking at the issue from a social science, oppression based way,” Schwartz said.

The discussion-based forum, which requires about sixty to eighty pages of reading a week, is intentionally flexible to accommodate different learning styles and creative pursuits. Each of the eight participants is required to lead one class, submit several papers, and complete a final project.  One component of the discipline is the social model theory of disability.  “The idea is that instead of the traditional medical view of disability in which there is something internally wrong with a person, the social model locates a person in the interaction between him or herself and a society that isn’t set up for them,” Schwartz said. “It’s not that your leg is broken, but that society is disabling you.”  “Crip theory,” another element of disability studies, was developed in connection with queer theory and addresses the oppressive normalizing forces of society that shape the experience of disabled embodiment.  According to Sheila Mullens, Visiting Instructor in American Sign Language, this forum is part of a wider academic movement.  “There is such a need in advocacy, law, and education for an approach like this,” said Mullens, who incorporates lessons on deaf issues into her second year sign language course. “I think that this is a wonderful beginning. It is an important part of the community.”  Across the country, institutions such as Teachers College of Columbia University, University of California at Berkeley, and Temple University, have all instituted disabilities studies programs on both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Schwartz urged Wesleyan to consider taking a similar path.  “There are a lot of classes that deal with disabilities tangentially,” Schwartz said, noting in particular American Sign Language, Psychotherapy Pathology, Ethics of Embodiment, and the Psychology of Gender. “I easily counted 10 classes that could fit under a disability class course structure.”  Stout has a similar aspiration.  “In the same way that a few decades ago women studies and female, gender, and sexuality studies (FGSS) didn’t exist, disability studies are a new, rapidly growing discipline.” Stout said. “I hope that this student forum will lead to interest in more professors and classes specializing in this field.”  Such was the case for Emily Wenzel ’10, who had no prior exposure to these theories before hearing from Holmes about the forum.  “I think that it’s interesting to look at, or attempt to look at, these experiences through someone else’s perceptive who deals with these considerations everyday,” Wenzel said.  Wenzel, whose brother was disabled in an accident, found the open environment of the forum ideal for discussing topics, such as the appropriate terms to use for identification, often hesitantly approached in other courses. For Crystal Abbott ’10 this forum provided the opportunity to build upon previous activism.

“I’ve been involved in the autistic community for some time,” said Abbott, who is autistic. “Disability activism is something that I intend to be involved with all of my life. I see this forum as a resource for me to get a deeper academic knowledge about disability activism and history.”  Stout originally presented the idea for the forum during a meeting of Wesleyan Students for Disabilities Rights, a group that she founded last fall as a freshman. Stout, Schwartz, and Holmes all attributed their interest in this field to personal influences, such as the experience of a family member with a disability or positive volunteer encounters.  Stout, however, stressed that disability studies is not an all-encompassing term.  “Disability studies does not include everything that deals with disabilities,” Stout said. “It is opposed to some approaches to disabilities, such as organizations, medical practices, and charities that evoke pity.”  She echoed Schwartz’s sentiments that volunteering should not merely be about the volunteer helping the person with disabilities, but rather should accentuate the strengths of both parties in order for each individual to gain from the perspective of the other.

While the forum’s facilitators lauded the University’s attempts to increase the accessibility of campus, such as the recent wheel chair ramp installed at 200 Church, they noted that a wider campus awareness of these issues is still needed.  “Accessibility isn’t just about ramps,” Schwartz said. “It’s about lighting, about the way people teach, and a million other everyday things.”

Wesleyan Students for Disability Rights meets on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. in Usdan 114. Students can contact Allegra Stout (astout@wesleyan.edu) for more information on the forum or about the group’s campus work.

‘Enabling elections’ for disabled persons

Accessible polling booths

By Dr. Ajith C. S. Perera

We warmly appreciate the continuing endeavours of the Commissioner of Elections and his dedicated staff, to ensure every election is completed in a free and fair manner for all persons. The way a country treats its ‘dis-abled’ population and the extent to which they are fully-fledged respected citizens in attending to day-to-day normal life, is a realistic, internationally recognized, true measure of a country’s good governance and a far more telling indicator of society’s development than GDP. An estimated 3 million people – (i.e.15% of our population), for different reasons, are with restricted mobility and/or impaired visually. A large percentage of them are young people – our life force. Furthermore, Sri Lanka has the fastest ageing populaton in our region with over 65 years heading towards 17% of the population. Every person who qualifies to be an elector and registered in the appropriate register of electors is eligible to vote. Of the estimated 14.5 million eligible voters, around 2 million are physically dis-abled persons.

Safety hazards and rights

However, I am personally aware of many people and, that includes persons with debilitating ailments or conditions that often go unnoticed, persons with restricted mobility and/or visually impaired on the basis of short term or long term physical/sensory disability, elderly and even the pregnant, who although very much desired to go and cast their valuable votes have been reluctantly compelled to refrain from exercising this right, due to potential safety hazards and/or physical barriers either in approaching their polling stations and / or accessing their polling booths – i.e. the right to access, another vital public facility. Although these ‘may be’ few in number and at most places the staff on election duty are quite helpful and understanding, still, in many districts casting their vote could become a crucial deciding factor. One such example is the polling station at a leading private school in Mount Lavinia at which several disabled persons from the nearby reputed ‘home for the disabled persons’ have to go for their voting at elections. In spite of the external physical support, I understand approaching this booth is ‘an agonizing battle’ for them.

Enabling the disabled

This article has been written in utmost good faith, to create awareness amongst decision makers, of this prevalent physical problem faced at previous elections by an ever increasing sector of our population that had also contributed to a drop in the percentage of the numbers that actually voted.  Already a formal written request in this regard has been forwarded to all relevant authorities for possible preventive measures. Furthermore, this writer had taken the initiative in compiling a simple check-list as a guideline and forwarded to the people concerned with the sincere belief that it will help them to promptly identify in advance through a very simple self-audit, any potential physical barriers to access by all at all polling stations and thereafter would easily enable them to eliminate most of them, in the larger interest of a free and fair election for disabled people. We believe these endeavours would also enable the ‘staff on duty at polling stations’ to be sensitive to the special needs of disabled voters, including those with visual and / or hearing impairments.

We have just been informed by the Elections Commissioner that District Election Officers and Returning Officers, if promptly contacted, will help the disabled to enable them at elections, for which we are grateful. But what is essential is to inform the public ahead through print and electronic media as a communiqué, on what facilities are available (and from whom) and what procedures are in place to empower a physically or visually impaired voter to overcome these external physical and attitudinal barriers. Such prior awareness is the only way to encourage the physically disadvantaged eligible voters to cast their votes freely and fairly without discrimination. The writer, Hony. Secretary-General of ‘IDIRIYA’, is a voluntary disability rights activist and an advisor on accessibility.

Sunday Times, 17th January 2010