“RAISING AWARENESS OF THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES”

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” - Nelson Mandela

Awareness raising has a crucial role to play in overcoming negative, ill-informed attitudes. It is complementary to anti-discrimination legislation and necessary for the full realisation of human rights of people with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are entitled to have access to and enjoy the full range of human rights. These rights are safeguarded by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and other international human rights instruments.

Side effects of lack of awareness raising in the field of rights of persons with disabilities can lead to negative perceptions of persons with disabilities, as well as to their discrimination and disabling environment.

Disability is not determined by levels of pathologies, impairments, or functional limitations (purely medical approach to disability), but instead results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others (the social approach to disability). A disabling environment is an environment which is not accommodating to persons with specific impairments, impeding them to be able to live in autonomy and to interact with the society.

A disabling environment arises from the non- accessibility of information, transport, services or built environment and from discriminatory legislation and negative attitudes (linked to stereotypes). In order to tackle this issue, awareness raising on the rights of persons with disabilities together with the promotion of universal design plays a crucial role.

Often seen as vulnerable and sometimes treated as second-class citizens, persons with disabilities are much more likely to be victims of violence (including unintentional neglect), exploitation and abuse, especially in public institutions but not only, yet those cases are often overlooked and under-reported.

More awareness raising is crucial to overcome this problem (for example law enforcement officers and magistrates should be properly trained to adequately handle cases of violence, exploitation and abuse of persons with disabilities).

Persons with disabilities often face exclusion and social and legal discriminations, directly arising from the negative stereotypes attached to them. The solution to these issues is to intensify awareness raising at the earliest stage, that is to say at school. Actions, such as maintaining children with disabilities in a parallel education system, aside from the rest of the society only further marginalize persons with disabilities.

Education could and should be used to promote values such as equality and diversity and to empower and integrate children with disabilities. An inclusive educational system is an important step to change the mind-set of future adults toward persons with disabilities. More awareness raising is also needed to encourage employers to recruit persons with disabilities by stressing their abilities instead of their disabilities in order to favour their professional inclusion.

Awareness raising is key to ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities in society and our communities, as ignorance and stereotyping are one of the major causes of the marginalisation of persons with disabilities.

When we see someone using a wheelchair, a guide dog or a prosthetic limb, we focus more on differences and disability than on our shared ground, such as our shared social identity, political status,our abilities, our aspirations, and our dreams. Therefore strong and well-targeted awareness raising campaigns are needed to change the way we see persons with disabilities. To this aim, involving key stakeholders (including persons with disabilities) in the development of strategies from the bottom up is likely to be more successful than seeking to impose “solutions” from the top down.

Awareness raising is an important factor in achieving the full integration of persons with disabilities in the society. For many years, persons with disabilities have been invisible to and set aside from and by the society. Because of the ignorance, the stereotypes and the blindness of the society toward them, social, legal and environmental barriers to their integration and participation have arisen, leading to their disempowerment and marginalisation. Creating a more inclusive and supporting society thus first requires a change of mentality toward persons with disabilities.

Accessibility is closely linked to awareness raising. The society has to be made aware of the challenges faced by persons with disabilities and, the public authorities need to promote the principles of accessibility and universal design in all the sectors of the society to ensure the full participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities. Pursuant to Article 2 of UNCRPD, “term ’universal design’ means the design of products, environments, programs and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design“. The promotion of universal design is crucial to avoid marginalisation and segregation of persons with disabilities and must therefore be integrated in the awareness raising campaigns.

How should we proceed to efficiently raise awareness? The study on Awareness Raising for Persons with Disabilities gives us some indicators. First, we need to carry out numerous and diverse campaigns such as video campaigns, on-line hashtags, posters, testimonies, workshops, awareness raising activities etc. in different social settings such as for example at the workplace, in schools, in public, with the media and engage with all relevant stakeholders.

Awareness raising strategies are driven by two complementary axes. The ‘push principle’ takes a top-down approach, telling people what they must do and the negative consequences of failure to comply. Of course, people generally do not like being told what to do. They may change their behaviour temporarily just to abide by the new requirement,but they are not intrinsically motived to do so, and may not be convinced that it is necessary. The message may need to be continually repeated if change is to be sustained.

Conversely, the ‘pull principle’ takes a bottom-up approach, involving persons with disabilities and other stakeholders with roles to play from the outset to co-create and co-produce the measures to be taken in order to achieve a shared goal. People will be convinced to act because they themselves have created the strategies, making them much more sustainable and effective.

The participation of persons with disabilities themselves is of course an essential element. One of the best ways to promote tolerance and inclusion is to encourage the participation of persons with disabilities to mainstream activities (change things on the ground).

■ The success of an awareness raising campaign greatly depends on:

 the intrinsic quality of its content and design

 the proactive attitude of the national authorities (actively committed to bring improvements)

 the involvement of persons with disabilities themselves (“nothing about us without us”) and of all the other relevant stakeholders (the media can be particularly influential)

 the conviction that the modification called for by the campaign will bring a positive change to/in the society in a whole.