Inclusion
With regards to disabled people this statement is a crude reality and although overtly everybody advocates equality and inclusion, we are very far off from a quasi happy situation. During the last weeks I received a lot of complaints from individuals with disability and their parents. Some cases are absurd because due to legislative anomalies many people who need help and social assistance are excluded from the legal schedules. Disabled people are entitled to disability pension but apart from that very few are those who qualify for other benefits.
Disability pension is not enough to cater for the needs and expenses of these people. Striving for equality also means trying to eliminate and minimise the disabilities and to render disabled persons independent and give them the dignity they are entitled to by right. To achieve equal status, equipment and medication are needed and these cost money which most families cannot afford. This means that these people do not have the possibility to improve their situation and condition therefore impeding them to attain independence and dignity.
I met also many slightly disabled youths who are very eager to work but there is no work for them. Although there is legislation in place to ensure that nobody suffers discrimination on the basis of disability, enforcement is very poor. These youths are too vulnerable to stand up for their rights and challenge the perpetrators of injustice – but there should be no discrimination and injustice the first place.
Inclusion is not a form of charity – it is a right with a corresponding duty and obligation on society at large to put it into practice. Inclusion is not just a nice buzz word to solicit appeal in certain occasions but is a concept which we have to actuate always and everywhere.
