The year 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the National Commission Persons with Disability (KNPD). It also marks the 25th anniversary since the death of Mgr Mikiel Azzopardi, widely acknowledged as the first real champion of disabled people in the Maltese islands.
If Mgr Azzopardi was notable in his achievements as an individual, KNPD has focused its endeavours on turning disability into a national issue through the introduction of the social model of disability with its concomitant changes in language-usage, values and a focus on human and civil rights.
Life being what it is, every time a disabling barrier is overcome new ones crop up.
One reason is because disabled people naturally raise their expectations, becoming more demanding and insistent in their desire to join mainstream society.
Disability can therefore be seen as a constantly developing situation, continuously evolving.
While the aspirations and expectations of disabled individuals have changed very rapidly over the past three decades (and rightly so) everyone understands that national change happens at a much slower rate than individual requirements.
The KNPD’s endeavours are reported mainly in the two annual reports, which encapsulate the work the KNPD carries out in fulfilment of its legal obligations under the Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act of 2000. It is important to bear in mind that the KNPD’s legal obligations comprise no fewer than 19 functions. It is impossible to go into detailed descriptions of these functions in a single document, therefore, the EOCU’s most recent annual report focuses on those functions that deal directly with complaints of discrimination lodged by disabled people, family members or other allies.
Among the issues raised in an article entitled ‘Action On The Disability Front’ (The Times, December 15) was the number of complaints dealt with by the KNPD. There were 122 complaints from October 2011 to September 2012, the period covered by the report.
The number of disabled people residing in Malta, according to the NSO’s 2011 Census figures, is almost 32,200. This means that complaints were made in the past year by 0.3 per cent of the disabled population.
To take another country as an example, according to statistics provided by the Australian Human Rights Commission, in 2010/2011, 4,294 complaints regarding discrimination on grounds of disability were received. The total population of disabled people in Australia is 3,958,300. This means that the complaints represent 0.1 per cent of the disabled population there.
Naturally, these statistics may be interpreted in different ways. One might argue that the statistics show that Maltese disabled people are more aware of their rights and demand them more assertively.
Conversely, one can insist that disabled Maltese encounter more discrimination than their Australian peers and therefore they have more cause for complaint.
But, as ever, statistics can only elucidate part of the picture.
For instance, many complaints the KNPD deals with are greater than the sum of their individual parts: many have a multiplier effect.
Sometimes, the multiplier effect is direct. For example, an individual may complain about lack of access to a shop, church, government office or some other part of the built environment. Once the KNPD has intervened and accessibility improved, the resultant improved access is enjoyed by everyone, disabled or not.
The multiplier is indirect like, say, in cases regarding discrimination in employment, which concern individuals whose situations differ from each other.
Resolving individual issues often results in more employers becoming aware of the rights of their disabled employees, providing reasonable accommodation at the workplace. Reporting the outcome sends out a strong (hopefully positive) signal to other employers.
This direct or indirect multiplier effect applies to all the other types of complaints dealt with, including those related to education.
The article referred to earlier speaks of the lack of a grassroots disability movement in Malta. In 1994, the KNPD began addressing this problem by identifying and fostering future leaders through its Speak Out! courses.
Based on Paolo Freire’s concept of ‘conscientisation’, Speak Out! helps disabled people and parents of disabled people unable to represent themselves to develop public speaking skills and media savvy. Many disabled Maltese activists prominent in the public sphere today are Speak Out! ‘graduates’.
This year, the KNPD assumed a new role and new responsibilities under the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. To cope with these new tasks and new identity, the KNPD will be setting up structures to ensure that disabled people, especially those in disabled people’s organisations, are directly involved in all decision-making processes.
The process will contribute to the capacity building of these organisations. All our efforts can be further reinforced by the contribution of non-disabled allies who enable and support disabled people to speak on their own behalf.
The KNPD can assure all disabled people that its doors are always open to them and their families and allies who require its assistance.
It pledges to continue working steadily to improve disabled people’s quality of life and not to waste its precious resources indulging in time-consuming, fleeting and ultimately self-defeating polemics.
Joseph Camilleri is chair, National Commission Persons with Disability