Invisible or already somewhat visible?

Looking around the world

A few years have passed since 13 December 2006, the date on which the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted and ratified by 168 countries. What does this mean?

It depends, there are both progress and persistent obstacles to the implementation of these rights.

The Centre for World Policy Analysis at the University of California, Los Angeles (Fielding School of Public Health) has mapped the global response to this landmark human rights treaty. Let's look at examples from this analysis, documenting how far different countries have come in recognising people with disabilities in almost two decades, and how far they still have to go - or rather, we still have to go!

For example, in 2010, a new transit system was built in Guatemala with platforms accessible only by stairs. Disability rights activists filed a lawsuit against this system and won.

"Now some of the stations have to provide ramps", says Silvia Yee, a senior lawyer with the Fund for the Education and Defence of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. But this has not solved the problem. People with disabilities still have to access these ramps via dilapidated and crumbling pavements with no gentle exits.

"People with disabilities are one of the last groups to have their equal rights recognised", says Dr Jody Heymann, Dean of the School of Public Health and lead researcher of the study. We wanted to see how far we have come in recent years.

Do education systems already see children with disabilities?

Countries should guarantee people with disabilities the right to quality education at all levels. What is the reality? This right is constitutionally guaranteed in only 28% of the 193 countries surveyed.

Children with disabilities are taught in integrated classrooms in 43% of the countries. In a further 40%, they are taught in the same schools, but no longer in the same classes. Meanwhile, the analysis shows that participation in the mainstream improves learning outcomes for children with disabilities. Yes, children want to be seen and accepted - not only by their parents, but by their peers, by their teachers, by the whole system - it is, after all, an attitude of proper development of their mental health!

"There are schools that exclude children with disabilities because they see them as different", says Heymann. But children also cannot get into schools because of gaps in transport systems or lack of medical resources. "For example, a very bright girl I met in Mexico lived in a one-room shack", says Heymann. "She had Spina bifida and did not have a wheelchair, so she could not get to school. Spina bifida is a birth defect that can cause paralysis, as was the case with this child".

Heymann does not know what the subsequent fate of this particular girl was, but she is positively encouraged by Mexico's overall efforts for children with disabilities. Mexico has tightened regulations to ensure education for children with disabilities and is one of the countries that allow children with disabilities to attend the same schools as other children, although not necessarily in the same classes.

Peru, too, is moving away from the practice of special education for children with disabilities and is moving towards including them in public school education. "The problem now is the training of teachers and, on top of that, some negative reaction from parents", says Debbie Sharp, Project Specialist at MIUSA (Mobility International USA), an international non-profit organisation focusing on the rights of people with disabilities. Some parents of non-disabled children object to being placed in classes with disabled students because they believe it will harm their own child's education. To assuage similar concerns, countries such as Mexico are increasing the competence of teachers to work in classrooms with both disabled and non-disabled students, Yee says.

In some countries, teachers themselves are actively supporting the education of children with disabilities.

"I visited a village in Sri Lanka", says Wodatch. "I visited several schools where there was no programme to educate children with disabilities. So the teachers developed an after-school programme on their own. They were not paid for it".

Employers pretend to see

Countries should guarantee people with disabilities the right to work in an open, inclusive and accessible environment. And what does this look like in the real world? Only 18% of 193 constitution's guarantee the right of people with disabilities to work. Of the 25 most populous countries, at all income levels, 14 provide protection for people with disabilities against discrimination in the workplace.

According to an analysis, there are almost half a billion people of working age with disabilities worldwide. "The need is enormous", says Heymann.

Brazil passed a law in 2015 protecting workers from discrimination in hiring, promotions and training, and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work.

"Some countries, such as Japan and Montenegro, have set a quota, requiring companies to hire a certain percentage of disabled workers or pay a fine", Wodatch says. But he adds that this is no guarantee of the rule of law. Fines are usually so low that some companies are happy to pay them rather than employ disabled workers.

"In Peru, there is a system according to which employers are encouraged to employ 5% of disabled workers in the public sector and 3% in the private sector", says Silvia. But employers misuse the definition of disability or resist in other ways, such as counting workers who wear glasses or who often get headaches as disabled workers.

The good news: the world is opening its eyes to the Blind

Some countries have adopted provisions in their labour laws to help parents and carers of children with disabilities. Peru, which offers 90 days of paid leave to mothers, has extended this benefit by 30 days if a child is born with a disability. In Armenia, working parents are guaranteed paid leave to accompany their disabled children to necessary medical appointments or therapy meetings.

"The UN treaty has had an impact on both rich and poor countries. Even in a highly developed country such as Canada, it was only the ratification of the UN treaty that led to the health system providing interpretation services for deaf patients", says Heymann.

Whether inspired by the UN treaty or spontaneously, less developed countries are also making changes. "We see a lot of women and girls with disabilities working in health care", says Susan Sygall, Director General of MIUSA, "They are interested in ensuring that women with disabilities have access to health care, access to information about diseases such as HIV/AIDS and information about violence against women".

The bad news: sometimes the eyes of the world are very closed.

In some poor regions of the world, access to and quality of health care is poor for all. There, people with disabilities are literally invisible, and fighting to improve this situation is a difficult battle.

"In some of the countries I've been to, Mongolia, Armenia, Georgia, the health care was not very good",‖ Wodatch says euphemistically. "The healthcare system doesn't even work in midwifery. The availability of a doctor's surgery? For many people in these countries it's a joke, unfortunately not funny at all".