by Ms. Fadila Lagadien
First published in the IDT magazine - Leading Edge, 1996

It is the accepted belief that as disabled people we cannot engage in gainful or meaningful employment as we are believed to be sick. Sick people belong in hospital! For this reason, disabled people are placed in sheltered employment to KEEP THEM BUSY. I would like to challenge the existing perception by providing an alternative viewpoint.

In my opinion the major reason for the non-participation of disabled people in society, particularly in the workplace, is that we live in a barrier-infested society!

by Fadila Lagadien, 1993

To understand potential one needs to clearly understand or have a vision of what or with whom one is dealing. For example, to understand a dog's potential, one needs to know what a dog is, what it can and cannot do.

The same would apply to any human being including people with disabilities. Unfortunately, our society have negative stereotypes about people with disabilities. This shadows society's ability to focus on the capabilities of the person as they focus only on what the person cannot do. For this reason I would like to give a world wide accepted definition of "Disability" and "Handicap" as is defined by the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - GENEVA -1980.

Dear Friends,

As the consequence of my meeting with Director General of Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) yesterday, the inauguration of Thailand First Accessibility Bus Lines will occur on August 5, 1999 at 09.00 AM.

Mr. Sonthaya Khunplum Dept. Minister of Transportation & Communication will preside over the first launching of service. Hundreds of persons with disabilites including 30 wheelchair users will witness the ceremony. You can get update news at www.bangkokpost.net on August 6, 1999. The schedule for the launch of this service is as follows:

08.30

The Office of Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announces the first-ever federal resource center for women with disabilities as part of the expanding National Women's Health Information Center (NWHIC). NWHIC serves as a single gateway to thousands of federal and private sector publications and organizations on women's health through its Web site (http://www.4woman.gov) and toll-free information number (1-800-994WOMAN).

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Budapest 1991

Contents

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Design guidelines of public collective housing for the aging society:
The move toward a new era in Japan

Satoshi Kose, Building Design and Use Division, Building Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan

 Other Columns

by: Audrey King

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Harare 1992

Contents

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UWZ efforts in improving accessibility in Zanzibar Stone Town

H. Khalfan, DPI, Zanzibar, Tanzania

In October 2000, Yoshi KAWAUCHI, architect, access specialist and advocate, Tokyo, Japan, email address bzh15277@nifty.ne.jp sent us this report on the new Japanese legislation on access in public transportation:

The law requires public transportation operators to make their facilities accessible in the case of new construction or major renovation, and make efforts (note 1) to make their existing facilities accessible.

Internet browsers with computer-generated speech and smarter wheelchairs and canes are just some of the innovations making it easier for people with disabilities to interact with the world.

Imagine being able to type simply by looking at the letters on a keyboard. Or being able to hear the Internet "spoken" by a Web browser.

For most people, such innovations could make life more convenient. But for people with disabilities, they could change the way they live.

Presentation at the Munich Disability Policy Meeting, November 13, 1995

by Dr. Andreas Jürgens,
legal counsel to ISL, e.V. (Interessenvertretung "Selbstbestimmt Leben" Deutschland e. V. - ISL)

Lange Jahre war eine Pflegeversicherung ein umkämpftes, ein strittiges Thema. Unbenommen war von allen Seiten immer zu hören, daß es nötig sei, das Pflegefallrisiko abzusichern. Es sollte nicht mehr wie früher dazu kommen, daß Menschen durch einen Unfall zum "Sozialfall" würden, daß deren Familien von den Sozialämtern unter Druck gesetzt werden, erhebliche Teile ihres Familieneinkommens zur Versorgung des Pflegebedürftigen auszugeben. Zum Beispiel haben die Sozialämter den Angehörigen eines in einem Heim lebenden Schwerstbehinderten vorgeschrieben, wieviel sie für ihr Auto bei einem Neukauf ausgeben dürfen - damit nicht zuviel des Geldes den Klauen der Ämter abhanden kommt, um für den Heimplatz genommen zu werden. Aber geeinigt haben sich die politischen Matadore nicht.

This documentation is courtesy the International Labour Organisation.

Convention concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons)
(Note: Date of coming into force: 20:06:1985.)

Description:     (Convention)
CONVENTION:     C159
PLACE:     Geneva
CONFERENCE_SESSION:     69
ADOPTION:     20:06:1983

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office and having met in its Sixty-ninth Session on 1 June 1983, and

"Legislation for Human Rights"

Stockholm, Sweden, 24 August 1998

by Judith C. Heumann, State Secretary

Twenty-five years ago I was very excited about many of the programs in Sweden that were providing basic assistance for disabled people thar enabled them to live more integrated in the community.

Tools for Power: Disability and aging

Independent Living Movement: organizing for an active, disabled old age

by Judith E. Heumann

Memo To: The World
From: Candace Hawkins

by Harlan Hahn, University of Southern California (1985)

Contents

Abstract

The Definition of Disability

The Medical Definition
The Economic Definition
The Socio-Political Definition

Toward a Politics of Disability: Traditions and Prospects

Summary and Conclusion

Notes

"Bam, bam, bam". It was late in the evening and in the silence of night the door shook with the loud knocking. I instantly guessed that this could only be the security police. My friends who had been sharing a pleasant evening suddenly seemed pale and wide-eyed, as I suppose I must have been. There was nothing to do but open the door before they broke it down. Being in a wheelchair I had long ago reckoned that if the police did decide to arrest me there was going to be no escape. So at last, like other comrades that I had read about or met, my time had come...

The background

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Budapest 1991

Contents

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Harare 1992

Febby Chizima, ZAFOD, Lusaka, Zambia

På svenska

On January 15th, 1998 (Martin Luther King's birthday), in a ceremony in the White House East Room, Justin Dart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest civilian honour in the U.S.A. There is no disabled person who deserves this more. Justin has been a fighter for human rights and democracy all his adult life. he has witnessed the degradation, segregation and oppression suffered by so many disabled people around the world and has not only given them his love and empathy, but given his time, his energy and whatever resources he could to changing society to ensure that these horrors no longer happened.

Dear friends,

We have learned that on July 28th the government discussed a proposal to set aside 4 billion Czech crowns to construct new buildings for institutional care. This will happen because many existing institutions will be closed down - not due to the good sense of the government, but because the buildings have to be returned to their former owners (restitutions). The owners naturally do not want institutions for people with disabilities in their buildings.

Ira E. Holland, President of Concepts of Independence, Inc.

Last January the tidal wave of Republican reform finally hit New York State (as it did many other states). With it came a new governor and a new set of home care priorities focused on streamlining a program that served more than 75 thousand people at a cost of nearly $2 billion per year. The governor's goal was to slash $400 million in home care services, which would have forced me and other ventilator-dependent quadriplegics into nursing homes.