Today is ‘celebrated’ worldwide as International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Regular MyPE readers will know that I have a pet hate for those miscreants who park in disabled parkings so I will be extremely pleased if we do NOT get a FLOOD of submissions from supporters of minority rights to the Traffic Hooligan page today.
This past Saturday I was berated by a really ‘classy’ beauty dodger who mouthed expletives at me for daring to tell her that she was incorrectly parked – work on your karma lady (of the night I am sure!).
According to the United Nations, over one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population, live with some form of disability.
Persons with disabilities, “the world’s largest minority”, often face barriers to participation in all aspects of society. Barriers can take a variety of forms, including those relating to the physical environment or to information and communications technology (ICT), or those resulting from legislation or policy, or from societal attitudes or discrimination. The result is that persons with disabilities do not have equal access to society or services, including education, employment, health care, transportation, political participation or justice.
Evidence and experience shows that when barriers to their inclusion are removed and persons with disabilities are empowered to participate fully in societal life, their entire community benefits. Barriers faced by persons with disabilities are, therefore, a detriment to society as a whole, and accessibility is necessary to achieve progress and development for all.
International Day of Persons with Disabilities seeks to make ‘normal’ people aware of the great contribution that disabled people make to society.
The way that we react to those less fortunate than ourselves is a measure of society as a whole.
