“On the International Day of People with Disabilities we should be raising issues rather than raising funds.”This is what Joe Camilleri, former chairman of the National Commission Persons with Disabilities, says in an interview with this paper today.
December is a time for giving and for spending. It also happens to be the month when we celebrate two important dates: the International Day of People with Disabilities, today, and Human Rights Day, today week.
Both aspects, generosity and the upholding of rights, are relevant for disabled people.
Fundraising initiatives like L-Istrina telethon and Festa ta’ Ġenerożità in aid of Id-Dar tal-Providenza in Siġġiewi enable various NGOs to keep on carrying their invaluable work with disabled people and their families as well as with other disadvantaged groups. Donating money, and giving generously, tocharity is indeed a noble gesture and the Maltese people excel.
Some even go beyond this and are willing to give their time. Still, just donating one’s time and money is not enough because the human being does not live by bread alone.
In the case of disabled people they need to be assured they would not experience disadvantages, to be truly included in society, to have access to all the facilities/opportunities available to the rest of us. This might require structural changes to ensure physical accessibility but also open doors to information, communication, technology, education, employment, public transport, shops, places of entertainment, cultural events, in short to anything and everything that most non-disabled people take for granted.
For that to happen, we must complement our culture of charity and giving with a human rights culture.
Unfortunately, very often many are inclined to conclude that ensuring enough funds are available guarantees that people with disabilities can automatically lead as normal a life as possible.
It may come natural for a shop owner or an employer to make donations in cash and in kind to charity but then fail to realise that providing physical access to their shop or employing a disabled person is justas essential.
On paper, the rights of disabled persons are covered. The right laws arein place, laws that are being further strengthened. However, that too isnot enough.
It is said that laws cannot change the heart but they can restrain the heartless. In the case of disabled people, it is not heartlessness that is the problem but the misconception that following the heart is all that is needed in the disability sector.
We hear a lot of talk about disabled people’s rights. However, if action speaks louder than words, it is not discourse about rights that we hear. It is the ‘pitiable’ mentality that is heard more loudly and, while that remains the case, it will never lead to true equality for disabled people.
A culture change is a must. We need to bring about social change. And because society is made up of each and every one of us, because it is each and every one of us who creates a culture, we need to become aware of what we ourselves need to change in order to create a truly inclusive society.
Ultimately, we need to keep on giving generously when December comes, and in all the other months too. But we must also keep in mind the rights-based messages we highlight today and today week and actively find ways of turning those messages into a reality throughout the rest of the year.