Theresia Degener was born into this world without arms, she has learned to do everything with her feet. Needless to say, in carrying out her daily routine, she sometimes draws people’s attention.
“I have a visible and exotic disability. It makes me look different and that’s a plus,” she says, revealing her sense of humour.
Degener is an energetic person whose condition led her to become an advocate for the rights of the disabled.
A Professor of Law and Disability Studies in Germany, she is also a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Committee monitors the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which came into force in 2008 and commits States to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
Degener contributed to the preparation of the background material used in the drafting of the Convention and was part of the negotiation process leading to its adoption.
She recounts her experience growing up, the youngest of six children, in a small village in Germany.
“My father was the doctor of the village,” she says. “When it was time for me to go to school, the authorities informed him that, according to the laws, I had to go to a special school.”
‘Take me to prison,’ her father told the authorities, ‘but my daughter will go to regular school.’ “He even threatened not to treat the Mayor’s children when they got sick if the authorities did not reconsider!” Degener said, smiling.
Degener was admitted to regular school. “I have always attended regular schools,” she says. “If it were not for my parents and the opportunity I had to go to a regular school, I would not have become a lawyer.”
Inspired by her personal experience, she focuses today on the rights of disabled children to obtain a proper and inclusive education.
Inclusive education is based on the principle that all children learn together, wherever possible, regardless of difference, states a UN report on the right to education of persons with disabilities.
By taking into account the diversity among learners, inclusive education seeks to combat discriminatory attitude and create welcoming communities. In this way, says the report, educational systems should no longer view persons with disabilities as problems to be fixed; instead, they should respond positively to pupil diversity and approach individual differences as opportunities to enrich learning for all.
Special schools are often based on the belief that persons with disabilities are uneducable or are a burden on the mainstream educational system. The practice of separating students with disabilities can lead to greater marginalization from society, a situation that persons with disability face generally, thus entrenching discrimination.
“Special education is less qualified than mainstream education,” says Degener. “Exclusion from the education system is a serious violation of human rights.”
Ultimately, inclusive education can lead to better learning outcomes for all children, not just children with disabilities, according to UNICEF. It promotes tolerance and enables social cohesion as it fosters inclusive social culture and promotes equal participation in society.
Why do disability and education policy debates focus on safety, fear and seclusion? How is it possible that the words “torture” and “school” are brought together in the practice of educating students with disabilities? Where are the paths or guidelines to help support inclusive and safe practices in schools? Where are the resources and supports necessary to train and support our teachers and students? Inclusion is not a destination, it is a journey. More often than it should, this journey may leave children vulnerable to abuse. Because of these reasons, we are happy to see the US government taking proactive steps to provide policy and practical guidelines in education practice and specifically discouraging restraints and seclusion. After you read the guidelines (see link below), you should explore and consider the following question:
How do these policies encourage or fall short for young people with disabilities?
U.S. Department of Education Issues Resource Document that Discourages Restraint and Seclusion
Today, the U.S. Department of Education issued a publication that outlines principles for educators, parents and other stakeholders to consider when developing or refining policies and procedures to support positive behavioral interventions and avoid the use of restraint and seclusion.
The goal of this resource document is to help ensure that schools are safe and healthy environments where all students can learn, develop and participate in instructional programs that promote high levels of academic achievement.
“As education leaders, our first responsibility must be to make sure that schools foster learning in a safe environment for all of our children and teachers,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “I believe this document is an important step toward this goal. I also want to salute leaders in Congress for their vigilance on this issue.”
The 15 principles that frame the document ultimately highlight how schoolwide behavioral interventions can significantly reduce or eliminate the use of restraint or seclusion. These guiding principles offer states, districts and other education leaders a framework for developing appropriate policies related to restraint and seclusion to ensure the safety of adults and children.
“Ultimately, the standard for educators should be the same standard that parents use for their own children,” Duncan added. “There is a difference between a brief time out in the corner of a classroom to help a child calm down and locking a child in an isolated room for hours. This really comes down to common sense.”
The document also provides a synopsis of ongoing efforts by federal agencies to address national concerns about using restraint and seclusion in schools, and includes links to state restraint and seclusion policies and procedures.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES: Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Secretary Jesse Robredo has urged all local government units and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to make registration sites and polling precincts accessible to persons with disabilities.
“Aside from providing them access to pathways and doorways, we should also help them exercise their right to vote,” Robredo said during the launching of the “Fully Abled Nation” project last week.
Robredo, whose father and two siblings are vision disability, noted that there are 2.6 to 3 million Filipino voters with disabilities.
“What we need is provide them the access. We need more accessible registration sites and voting precincts so that Persons with disabilities will be encouraged to go out and vote,” he said.
The Fully Abled Nation campaign is part of the three-year Disability-Inclusive Elections Program spearheaded by The Asia Foundation and is supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).
The program aims to increase the participation of Persons with disabilities in the 2013 midterm elections and other democratic processes.
Groups of Persons with disabilities in the country also backed the passage of House Bill 4048 otherwise known as the “Polling Center Accessibility Act.”
The bill, authored by Representatives Godofredo Arquiza (party-list, Senior Citizens), Teodoro Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares (party-list, Bayan Muna), Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerenciana de Jesus (party-list, Gabriela), Rafael Mariano (party-list, Anakpawis), Antonio Tinio (party-list, ACT-Teachers), and Raymond Palatino (party-list, Kabataan), was approved on second reading by the House of Representatives.
A survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), conducted from Dec. 3 to 7, 2011, found that Persons with disabilities participation in voting is highest among the vision disabilities (84 percent) followed by physically disabled (83 percent) and hearing disabilities (80 percent).
Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said promoting the rights of the Persons with disabilities to suffrage “has legal, constitutional and international support.”
“We have the 1987 Constitution, Omnibus Election Code, Law on Continued Registration, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, among others,” he said.
Sarmiento likewise asked President Aquino to consider appointing a Comelec commissioner who will represent Persons with disabilities.
“We have a vacancy in the Comelec now and soon I am going to retire, it is my wish to see a Persons with disabilitieseated as Comelec commissioner,” he said.
He also stressed the need for a persons with disabilities party-list in Congress who would champion their cause and will represent them in the lawmaking body.
Josephine Namirimu, from Uganda’s Young Voices program
Even though whydev brings a younger voice to issues and discussion around aid and development, it is rare that we have a chance to hear from a young person from Uganda. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing one of the most articulate and inspiring people I have ever met, Josephine Namirimu, who is a representative of Leonard Cheshire Disability’s Young Voices program. This program trains and brings together youth campaigners with disabilities from over 20 countries who have direct experience of having a disability and living in a poor country. It is unique in that it enables some of the most marginalised people in the world to have a voice and a direct influence over events and policy.
Although it was not my intention to interview anyone for whydev while at the conference, I was blown away by how well Josephine spoke about the topic of being young, female, and having a disability in Uganda. So impressed was I, that I simply had to hear more.
We talked about the difficulties that girls with disabilities face in Uganda, how being given the chance to have a voice has helped Josephine, and the importance of the Internet and Facebook for young people with disabilities. Our ten-minute interview can be found below, and the transcript below that. Thanks to Leonard Cheshire Disability and UNESCAP for hosting the conference.
To hear an audio recording of the Transcript of Josephine’s Interview below,
Weh: I’m here in Bangkok here at the moment at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and UNESCAP-hosted conference and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Josephine Namirimu from Uganda’s Young Voices Program. Josephine I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and also the Young Voices program that you’re a part of.
Josephine: Thank you so much. I’m Josephine Namirimu, from Uganda, Young Voices, acting as the vice chairperson, Young Voices, Uganda. Young Voices Uganda is a part of the global Young Voices and Young Voices is part of Leonard Cheshire Disability International. It started in Uganda in 2009. We are 39 members and we are divided into 2 groups. One group is in the central and another is in the east. Young Voices is big and widely spread, especially in Asia-Pacific, Africa and other parts of the world.
Weh: So I’ve just heard a really fascinating presentation by yourself here in Bangkok. You were talking about the perspective of a younger person with a disability living in Uganda and being female. Can you tell us a little more about some of the challenges specifically young people with disabilities face and particularly girls?
Josephine: Young Voices and women with disabilities, especially youth, are really facing a lot of trauma, in most of the developing countries. I don’t know how much it is in other areas, but in the developing countries, it’s really worse. When it comes to gender, it’s a double discrimination. First of all, we are marginalised as female, and secondly due to our disability identity, it has become really difficult. We’ve been affected in different ways. There is risk of sexual harassment, exploitation, and really there is no voice and positive response to that. Actually, due to UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities) there is a kind of response and most of the countries have adopted, for instance, in Uganda, they’ve ratified it and governments are just beginning to adapt to the UNCRPD. However, if some of the issues are being worked upon, the greater part is still remaining in Uganda.
It is really, really difficult, especially to make it to school, lack of appliances, the ramps – ramps are in place but they are not in good condition. It’s like they’ve been put for formality. However, as Young Voices it is our role to keep on reminding the concerned parties to make it proper.
I still need to enlighten you more about the challenges faced by the ladies, young girls with disabilities. It happens that since we are so vulnerable, and because of that we can easily by affected and fall victims of so many circumstances. We’ve been misused, we’ve been abused, raped. For instance in Botswana, there is a story that’s been pointed out by Young Voices member in Botswana. A girl who is visually impaired. She forced in love, she was raped actually and she conceived accidentally. However, there was no kind of response or care towards this girl and it happens that this girl, her times of giving birth, no one was there. She struggled so much and after the baby was out, unfortunately, the kid passed away. This is the girl who spent almost a week in a coma, and after that, she also died. So it has been seen that there is not much concern towards women with disabilities, and young people as well. And because of that, we’ve been found to fall victims and we miss our chance to our future life. We would like to get the kind of life that we do want, just like other people. Because I do believe that there is no difference from us and other people. The fact that we cannot maybe walk from one place to another. However, we can perform in other areas. As Young Voices, we can just say that “hold me by hand and then I’ll reach to wherever I want me to go. If you hold us, if you help us, we can really perform it and we can forget all about other issues”.
Weh: And of course Young Voices gives young women and men opportunities to talk about their particular issues and lives. Can you tell me how you think Young Voices can help young people with disabilities improve their own situation?
Josephine: Young Voices has really, really done great. Has helped us and is still helping us. The limited age within the group is 16 to 25 and during that period we are trained on how to talk, how to advocate, how to present ourselves, we’ve been given trainings on ourselves. Their plan towards people with disabilities has been great and it is the reason I am able to talk to you frankly. Before, I was so shy, I could not even talk to people just because I’m disabled and I think everyone could be under-looking me. However, when Young Voices came out, they trained us, we have potential and I’m proud of Young Voices.
Weh: It’s amazing to think that you thought previously you wouldn’t be able to communicate well, because you communicate so well now, so it’s an amazing transformation if that’s true. You also talked a lot in your presentation about technology, the internet, mobile phones and you mentioned Facebook as well. Can you explain a little more about why you think these sorts of technologies are important for young people with disabilities?
Josephine: This source of information, especially the internet is so important simply because it reaches out to us, to so many people. Especially in developing countries. Right now, most of the people they get access to internet. They read information, and since people are so busy, we are living a busy world, people have limited time. However with internet it is precise, so if we put information on the internet we are able and fully assured that it will reach out to many people. However it is slightly different from most of the countries in Africa, because most of the children and people with disabilities, I’m sure they don’t know how to use the internet. The reason being it is inaccessible in their countries, it is costly and above all, we don’t know how to use the internet. So we are missing a lot in that area. We would like to know more and more about the internet to reach the same level as others.
Weh: In order for you be able to access technology such as the internet, what sort of things do you think need to happen, what sort of role does government need to play or NGOS for young people with disabilities to access the internet more in places like Uganda?
Josephine: First of all is to avail the facilities and to make such places for internet and other sources accessible for all people including people with a disability. We need trainings. We need to know how to use the internet, how to use all the updated sources of communication. So I do believe when such sources are in place they are available to everyone, it will be easy for us to catch up.
Weh: Young people with disabilities need to be able to access internet and use sites like Facebook to communicate. How do you tell people who are from an older generation, who are often the ones in control of funding and resources, how do you explain to them that technology like Facebook is really important, when perhaps they are not so familiar with it as young people are? What would you say to these funders to convince them that it is important?
Josephine: I would really convince them, persuade them, by telling them the role of the internet today. Clearly, showing them that internet is worldwide and everyone gets access to it. It’s precise and we really also need to be on the same pace worldwide.
Weh: That’s excellent. Thank you very much for your time with us Josephine and we hope to be in touch with you in the future.
Josephine: You’re welcome. Thank you so much for your time too and the opportunity.
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About Weh Yeoh
Weh Yeoh is a current job-seeker. He is a professionally trained physiotherapist who has completed a MA in Development Studies at the University of New South Wales. With experience in the NGO sector both in Australia and in China, with Handicap International, he hopes to combine his interest in development and passion for visiting far-flung destinations in the future. You can view his profile on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.
When, at 23, Joanne Webber was told she had a rare eye condition , she received lots of support. She was diagnosed for free at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and was helped by the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind.
Joanne Webber, who has vision disability, lobbies for technological support for students with learning disabilities. (Photo credit: Rodger Cummins)
“I met with mentors of similar age to me and met people with the same eye condition,” she says. “At university I got access to a computer with a screen reader and audio books. I had a complete introduction on how to live with a vision disability.”
Ms Webber thought this response must be normal for young people with disabilities. So when she started working with young people with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, she was shocked to realise their needs were not recognised and there was almost no support.
“It really disturbed me,” she says. “Only 3.5 per cent of people are blind but more than 10 per cent of the population have learning disabilities.”
For six years, Ms Webber worked as the disability co-ordination officer for eastern Melbourne in a federal government role hosted by RMIT University. “I realised there was a massive gap in policy, with students with learning disabilities facing a tough time in education,” she says.
“With my eye condition, teachers don’t make me read off the board but they say to someone with dyslexia who can’t do so, ‘You are not trying hard enough’.
“Their disability is in the brain, just a few centimetres from where my disability lies, yet theirs is not recognised.”
Since 2003, Ms Webber has been lobbying for students to have access to voice recognition and other software in high schools. Many students drop out in years 7 to 9, she says, because disabilities such as dyslexia or auditory processing disorder mean they struggle to get their thoughts onto paper, to read or to understand verbal instructions. Ms Webber has trained teachers in schools, such as Our Lady of Sion College in Box Hill, to use this technology and says it can be useful for all students.
The program, Dragon Naturally Speaking, which converts a student’s speech into text, is being used by a number of schools to help students with learning disabilities write down their ideas. Free software on AccessApps and EduApps, which reads documents to students who struggle to read, is also being used by an increasing number of schools.
These programs also have mind-mapping tools, which allow students to list ideas that are then converted into draft essays.
The president of the Australian Learning Disability Association, Timothy Hart, says he dropped out of school at year 10 because of his dyslexia, finally going to university at age 29. He also wants young people with learning disabilities to be provided with this technology. “The symptom — leaving school early — is treated as the problem,” he says.
He and Ms Webber are calling for such technology to be approved for use in senior exams. Schools repeatedly tell them it helps their students but say they are reluctant to offer it to senior classes as students can’t use it for exams.
Justin Shortal of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority says students with disabilities can apply for extra help including a scribe or a computer if they have difficulty writing. But he says it is a difficult area as the VCAA has to be certain students aren’t gaining an unfair advantage.
Ms Webber says such assistance is granted to students such as her with a physical disability but rarely to students with learning disabilities.
Education Minister Martin Dixon says he would like to see such technology used more in schools. “I applaud that sort of innovation,” he says. “Victorian schools determine how they spend their budgets but I would say this is a great idea for schools that have students with such needs.”
Professor Max Coltheart, an expert in cognitive science at Macquarie University, has tried to get the federal government to respond to such issues. He was the chair of the Dyslexia Stakeholder Forum, an expert panel established in 2009 by the former parliamentary secretary for disability, Bill Shorten, to work out what should be done.
Professor Coltheart delivered a report with many recommendations but says nothing has come of it.
“I guess I wasn’t really surprised,” he says. “Governments like to be seen to be doing something.”
Ms Webber has watched parents stretch the family budget to send their children to independent schools, hoping for more support. “I got lots of calls from parents who had sent their boys to wealthy grammar schools, who had been told when they got a diagnosis at year 9, ‘Your son doesn’t belong with us any more’,” she says. “It was traumatic for them.”
She also knows students who have been told: “You will bring down the VCE results so let’s do VCAL or exit you early.”
In her current role with the Christian Blind Mission, she also advocates for young people with disabilities in developing nations. “Some African nations assist students with learning disabilities more than Australia does,” she says.
Louise Smith, a research associate at Sydney University, is working with Deakin University to see how disability, including learning disability, has affected young people. “We know such students are at increased risk of negative social, physical and mental health outcomes,” she says.
As young people from Whizz-Kidz set out to test London’s buses, trains and boats for persons with disabilities in Olympic year, its Kidz Board delivers a transport manifesto for No Go Britain.
Young people with disabilities from Whizz-Kidz set out to test London’s Transport accessibility (Photo credit: Channel 4)
There are 70,000 disabled children and young people living in the UK. This summer, many of them will be hoping to travel to London for the Olympics and Paralympic Games.
10 young people from Whizz-Kidz, some in wheelchairs, are taking part in a practise journey to London’s Olympic stadium. You can follow @nogobritain on Twitter to see how they get on.
Writing for Channel 4 News, the group’s Kidz Board members outline what they would like to see improved in transport accessibility, as we head toward the biggest sporting events on earth.
Accessibility
All buses to be power-wheelchair and manual-wheelchair accessible. All taxis to have not just ramps, but ramps that a powered-wheelchair and manual-wheelchair can use safely.
Minimise the need to pre-book assistance (taxis and trains) as this reduces the potential for spontaneity and independence. Stations should be made more accessible e.g. clear signposting to lifts.
If I were travelling to the Olympics or Paralympics, in terms of accessibility I would like there to be priority boarding for wheelchair users on all public transport.
Audit public transport information – to ensure that all accessibility information and timetables are available in multiple formats.
Awareness
We want taxi and bus drivers to put down the ramp straight away without you having to ask and being made to feel as though you are a nuisance. And we’d like as many drivers and staff as possible to get disability-awareness training so they are happy to help wheelchair users so everything runs smoothly and everyone is happy.
Facilities
More accessible toilets on commuter trains, further, better upkeep of these as they are frequently out of order. Seatbelts in buses and taxis for wheelchairs to be secured.
End to travelling in isolation
More space for wheelchairs users on buses. An extension of models such as the “bay bus” which operates around Cardiff – two wheelchair users can travel together simultaneously and the ramp is easily accessible.
Engagement
Use focus groups to establish the extent to which the current system meets the requirements of a range of individuals.
London 2012
“When it is busy at any station during the Games, I would like to see the staff letting the wheelchair uses to get onto the disabled part of the train before other people get onto the same part of the train.”
“It would be fantastic if accessible transport could become a recognised part of the legacy. Ideally, working toward things like a level access underground and graduated platforms and curbs – as the norm rather than the exception.”
“If I were travelling to the Olympics or Paralympics, in terms of accessibility I would like there to be priority boarding for wheelchair users on all public transport.”
Every year, there is an event called “Blogging against Disablism Day” (BADD, yes, I know, it’s an unfortunate acronym, isn’t it?) in which more than 100 bloggers post about the issue of prejudiced attitudes against people with disabilities. This year, for the first time, I have written a contribution to this at my own personal blog, “Why Fight Disablism? A Global Perspective: Blogging against Disablism Day 2012″, which you can find at:
I also encourage people to browse through some of the other contributions to the blogging event. The event usually attracts bloggers with a wide range of different disabilities–deaf and hard of hearing people, people with vision impairments, people with varying types of mobility impairments, Autistic people, people with specific area learning disabilities, people with psychosocial disabilities or users/survivors of psychiatry, people with varying health-related, pain-related, or fatigue-related conditions, and others. It also attracts bloggers who are family members, loved ones, and allies in the struggle for disability rights. Most bloggers are from the US, the UK, Australia, and a few from New Zealand. There are also sometimes a few from other European countries. But I keep hoping that bloggers from developing countries will contribute something, too. All, of course, have a very wide range of perspectives on the issue of disablism, what it means to them, and how it impacts their daily lives. All the May 1 BADD posts are (or, more precisely, will be) linked from here:
The blogger who manages all of this is based in the UK: she has now put up her initial post linking to the first few available BADD posts. But she usually continues to add more links to BADD contributions throughout the day and even for a few days after (so that people who post their contribution a few days late can still be included). So the few links you see on this page right now (the evening of April 30 in US time) will grow and grow very quickly. It would be worth coming back to the link from time to time this week to see what new links have been added. If YOU have a blog, then it’s not too late to dash something off today (or even tomorrow) and still ask to be included: for instructions on what to do, visit:
If it’s a tough job market out there for able-bodied college graduates, imagine how employment prospects might look to students with cerebral palsy or a muscular or neurodegenerative disease.
UC Berkeley’s Professional Development and Disabilities Class (Video produced by Roxanne Makasdjian and Angela Holm)
Take Jade Theriault, a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, who uses a wheelchair and worries about how to discuss with a prospective employer the workplace accommodations she will need due to spinal muscular atrophy.
Or Bridget McDonagh, a freshman whose right side has been paralyzed since she suffered a stroke at age 2.
But this spring, Theriault, McDonagh and a dozen other UC Berkeley students with physical and/or mental disabilities are enrolled in “Professional Development and Disability,” a unique course that is teaching them how to market their handicaps as strengths in the job market.
“I don’t have a resume. I’ve never worked a steady job. I’m a quadriplegic, so I can’t do anything that’s going to be physical,” said Theriault, who is considering majoring in rhetoric and media studies. “But I’m pretty good in interviews.”
“I try to prove that I can do what anyone else can do,” said McDonagh, who gets around with the help of a cane.
UC Berkeley is home to hundreds of disabled students who have the grades and smarts to thrive on campus, but show a lack of confidence that often comes from feeling unprepared to compete in a risk-averse job market that associates disability with inconvenience and litigation, said Paul Hippolitus, director of the campus’s Disabled Students Program.
Nearing the end of its first year, Hippolitus’s two-credit Professional Development and Disability course – taught under the sponsorship of English professor Susan Schweik and the Office of Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies– is open to all students and has attracted those with a wide range of visible and invisible disabilities.
A 30-year veteran of the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, Hippolitus came up with the idea for the class after coming to UC Berkeley in 2009 and finding that many high-achieving disabled students became phobic at the idea of entering the workplace. About 10 percent of America’s workforce report some form of disability, according Hippolitus.
“I’d ask students if they had a summer job or an internship lined up, and they’d say, ‘No, I’m just going to rest’,” said Hippolitus, the father of a disabled child, and who himself has a learning disability and chronic illnesses. “They’re bright enough to get into UC Berkeley, but when it comes to the job market, they just freeze up.”
He noted that many disabled students eschew the workplace in favor of graduate school, or avoid getting a job for fear of losing disability benefits that cover such costly services as medical insurance, living expenses and full- or part-time attendants.
Through his professional development class and other efforts, Hippolitus is hoping to start a movement to change attitudes and get more disabled people into the workplace.
“A class like this is absolutely essential in order to push aside low expectations and serious lack of knowledge about what it takes to succeed in the world of work,” Hippolitus said. He encourages his students to highlight their successes at overcoming obstacles and supervising attendants — including hiring and firing them — among other skills that come with managing their disabilities.
In a recent class, Hippolitus did not sugarcoat the challenges students will face in a competitive job market, but urged them to take every opportunity to promote themselves via social media, among other networks. On average, he said, a job candidate has 7 seconds to make a good first impression and 30 seconds to connect emotionally with an employer. Most recruiters spend 6 seconds scanning a resume, which is why it’s best to stick to one page, he added.
Class teaches disabled students how to navigate awkward questions about mobility.
Students in the class were quick to ask Hippolitus how to handle questions about what accommodations they might need on the job. While the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act bars employers from asking job candidates about their disabilities, the topic is hard to avoid for people with obvious disabilities, and Hippolitus takes a pragmatic approach to navigating these awkward conversations.
“If an employer asks a question about your disability, don’t say, ‘Aha, we’re going to court!’ … you’ll be branded as litigious,” Hippolitus told his students. “What might you say to turn it around and make it a win instead of a loss?”
For example, he suggests that, when asked about mobility issues, job candidates in wheelchairs might say something along the lines of “‘I understand that travel is a key requirement of this job I’m applying for, and I wanted to tell you about my past traveling accomplishment from this wheelchair’ … In other words, grab the bull by the horns and answer an employer’s unspoken fears about hiring someone with a disability,” Hippolitus said.
UC Berkeley has played a key role in the disability rights movement since 1962 when Ed Roberts, a young man with quadriplegia due to childhood polio, convinced the university to admit him and moved into the campus’s Cowell Hospital.
Roberts later secured grants to launch what is now UC Berkeley’s Disabled Students Program, to offer counseling, housing assistance and even wheelchair repairs. In 1998, New Mobility Magazine ranked UC Berkeley as the nation’s 2nd most disability-friendly.
Today, about 1,200 students use services provided by the Disabled Students Program. Of those students,30 percent have psychiatric disorders, 30 percent have learning disabilities and the remainder have physical disabilities, visual impairments, chronic illnesses and cognitive disabilities. In addition to the professional development class, the Disabled Students Program helps place students in jobs and paid internships.
For the summer, McDonagh, the freshman with partial paralysis, has landed a position with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers). A native of New York, she came to California to be closer to her father, who lives in Sacramento, and to escape the cold East Coast winters.
“UC Berkeley is pretty accommodating, said McDonagh, who is thinking of majoring in legal studies.
A native of Los Gatos, Calif., Theriault came to UC Berkeley on the advice of her aunt, Alana, a Berkeley-based disability rights advocate who was also born with spinal muscular atrophy.
“I had to get out of the house. I was going crazy,” said Theriault, who was debate captain in high school and is looking into entertainment law as a career option. “I knew I would have a safety net at Berkeley.” She is vice president of external affairs for the campus’s Disabled Students Union.
Hippolitus’s professional development class is now part of Theriault’s safety net because “it’s cut-throat out there,” she said, and she needs the skills to go after her dream job.
“If you’re confident, people don’t mess with you,” Theriault said with a broad smile.
AIDS-Free World is pleased to announce the Disability and HIV Leadership Forum, a full-day advocacy training on July 21, 2012, immediately preceding “AIDS 2012,” the XIXth International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. Presented in collaboration with Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) and Gallaudet University, the Forum will bring together young activists and leaders under 30 from the around the world to learn from seasoned advocates in the fields of HIV, disability rights, and human rights. Disabled youth with experience in the field of HIV as well as those recently introduced to AIDS activism were selected for their leadership skills. The one-day training will help them to advance disability rights at home, stay connected with young advocates from other countries, and help to bridge the disability rights and AIDS movements.
The Forum will take place on the Washington, DC, campus of Gallaudet University, known as the world’s premier higher education institution serving deaf and hard of hearing people. The leadership trainees – young people with a range of disabilities and innumerable abilities – will learn practical “how-tos” of advocacy from some of the world’s leading voices in the disability and HIV movements. Following the Forum, participants will have a chance to apply their new advocacy, communication, and networking skills as delegates to AIDS 2012.
Each young leader’s participation at the Forum and AIDS 2012 has been underwritten by one of over 20 sponsors*. A Working Group of disability and AIDS experts is guiding the Forum agenda, which will draw on prominent advocates attending AIDS 2012 to encourage, inspire, and share their own experiences with the next generation of leaders.
For additional information or to become a sponsoring organization, please contact:
* Sponsors as of 30 March: African Union of the Blind, African Women’s Development Fund, Christian Blind Mission, CORDAID, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Global Fund for Women, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Open Society Institute, Stephen Lewis Foundation, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women, VSO International, World Health Organization, World Vision Canada, and sponsors who prefer to remain anonymous.
Improving Lives of Mine Victims and Persons with Disabilities
By Ibrahim Baba-ali, Programme Specialist, Mine Action, UNDP Iraq
Zuhria Ahmed Yonis was only 15 years old when she lost one of her legs.
“It was spring time. I went with my mother and friends to harvest, when suddenly a mine exploded under my feet.” Zuhria said.
Zuhria is married and is the mother of five children. Three of Zuhria’s children go to school, while the others stay at home to support their elderly father. Zuhria is the head and sole breadwinner of her family.
The Diana Prosthetic Limbs Centre (DPLC) in the Soran District in Erbil was able to help Zuhria with prostheses and enrolling her in a six-month vocational training programme in tailoring, funded by the Government of Japan through UNDP Iraq.
During her training, Zuhria could not leave her family and was obliged to travel two hours every day to the centre to attend the course.
“My husband could not work and we had hardly any source of income. I needed a profession and becoming a tailor was a great opportunity to have a better life for my children and I.”
After completing her training in March 2010, DPLC helped Zuhria to establish a tailoring shop at home. Through this small business Zuhria is now able to support her family.
Zuhria believes the training had a considerable impact on her life. “Through this support, my life has changed and our worst problems are now solved. We are smiling again.” she said
This project was funded by the Government of Japan, with UNDP providing technical support to the three national NGOs.
The assistance provided 21,097 physiotherapy services to persons with disabilities, gave 2,719 prosthetic limbs and 8,780 orthoses and 9,120 mobility aids, and maintained 8,819 orthopedic limbs. 421 persons with disabilities benefited from income generation projects and 90 persons received vocational training in carpentry, blacksmithing, computing and tailoring. In addition, 52 home adaptations were completed, improving victim’s mobility within their homes*.
To ensure sustainability of the NGOs’ operations, UNDP conducts capacity building activities to improve management and resource mobilisation in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO).
*(From 2007 – March 2012)
For more information please contact Ibrahim Baba-ali at:
