News – December 2020
Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines disability as "the interaction of physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments and social or infrastructural barriers."
There are always wide-ranging debates about the definition - who is considered "disabled," at what point can one speak of an "illness"? When is aging a limitation? Are mental impairments just as much a part of it as visible difference? And what is different anyway? Do people who do not conform to a social norm also belong to this category because their environment reacts to them with stigmatization?
Whether in public transportation, the education system, voting rights, or the labor market, the record on "inclusion" is still dizzyingly poor. Jobs in workshops are paid independently of the minimum wage and therefore rarely offer the chance to earn one's own living. Permanent exclusion is reproduced at the so-called special schools, thus cementing the system of deficit thinking.
The social participation of people with disabilities concerns us all. We stand up for an equal coexistence and the dismantling of barriers.
Contribution image by Freepik
