Disability Rights – Worldwide

Written By: James Seidl
Program Intern, World Affairs Council of Atlanta
Student, Oglethorpe University
Published: 8/16/2016

In 2016, everything is supposed to be easier. If you want food, you go to the store. If you need water, you turn on a faucet. If you need to go somewhere, you get in a car, or take a flight. In many developed countries in the world, particularly those with a high standard of living, daily activities are relatively easier, and the quality of life is better for just about everyone. This quality of life may not translate to the majority of the disabled population. Surely in countries like the United States that passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, which “prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation,” have substantially better lives. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case.

Even within the U.S., there is a stigma associated with being disabled, not all facilities are ADA compliant, and even the ones that claim to be compliant, are barely over the margin. For example, consider a convenience store The disables are forced to circle the building to enter through a back service door, only meant for employees, just to make a purchase. A viable option would be to have an accessible entrance with a ramp. If a disabled person is graduating from school, have they not earned the right to cross the stage, and to take the same route as everyone else who is graduating? Apparently, my county did not think so. There were stairs on either side of the stage, and while there was a ramp on the back of it, it was steep, dark, and invisible to the crowd and my family. It was unfair that I was unable to walk with the rest of my class. No one enjoys being different from everyone else solely because they have a condition.

In China, the social stigma associated with being disabled is far more negative there than in the U.S. If you were to look at China solely by its laws, you would assume that China is the global example for disability rights. Introduced in 1990, their ‘Laws on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities’, offer a strong and wide-range protections for the civil rights of the disabled. In principle, these protections include: guaranteed employment, education, welfare, and accessibility. Unfortunately, despite these progressive laws, Chinese cities make few concessions to disabled people, showing little to no effort to act in accordance with the laws, or they are implemented in a way that accommodates the needs of the disabled. For example, sociologist Yu Jianrong documented raised pathways for the blind often lead into dead ends, bollards, trees or open pits, or even spiral decoratively, but misleadingly. Outside of Shanghai and Beijing, wheelchair access is non-existent. Guide dogs are effectively forbidden from most public spaces, despite the authorities’ repeated promises of full access. The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games was nothing but a hastily built façade. As a bus driver told the Global Times in 2012: “We never allow guide dogs on board, except during the 2008 Olympic Games,” Ramps were hastily installed at hotels and stadiums. Meanwhile, beggars, including the disabled, were cleared out of the streets for the duration by police unwilling to let the capital’s face be blemished.

Ambitious government pledges go unfulfilled across the country. While the law says that children with special needs are entitled to proper schooling, there are no provisions for funding. Local authorities regularly turn away children, telling them to go to ‘special facilities’ elsewhere that do not exist, or are far out of their parents’ financial or geographical reach. As a result, according to a 2013 report by Human Rights Watch, 43% of disabled Chinese are illiterate, compared with only 5% of the general population. According to Handicap International, only a third receive the services they need, and only a fifth get assistive devices, such as walkers, prosthetics, or adapted software. It is not uncommon for welfare funds to be stolen, delivered late, or altogether inaccessible. In the countryside, disabled children fare far worse. Often, they are confined within the house and kept away from outside eyes. Employees of NGOs tell horror stories of what they have seen. Most children are shut away from sight or sound, trapped in fear, malnutrition and neglect, left to moan like animals. Sometimes, they are even chained to prevent escape, or to “ease the pressure” on parents or grandparents already struggling under poverty and shame.

Disability rights is a worldwide dilemma, which cannot be solved until there is a higher level of empathy and awareness for the hardships that disabled persons around the world endure on a daily basis.

Sources: https://aeon.co/essays/what-is-life-like-for-disabled-people-in-china