Civil Society Dialogue on Disability Rights

Last week we participated in the EU-China Civil Society Dialogue on Disability Rights.

It was a very intense and interesting experience because there were people from all over the world talking about such a complex and important issue, i.e. disability. The conference was very rich and full of various ideas not only because of the several participants coming from different places but also the multiple disability perspectives. In fact, there were people who work with different kinds of disabilities and they pointed out the most important problems related with their specific fields thus making the meeting really complete and addressed to many types of disabled.

The discussion focused on difficulties disabled persons have to face during daily life: how deaf people can communicate or blind ones can be indipendent and able to work within society. I found it stimulating because of the general approach speakers showed towards disability issues and some particular aspects they talked about. First of all, they highlighted the point of view people should use in facing the issues relating to disability: people should have a human rights approach instead of a medical one, i.e. they should try to make society more inclusive for disabled people rather than curing them to make them fit in society. I believe this is the basic starting point to deal with disabilities because medical science cannot solve completely all kind of physical problems so the entire society has to make disabled people life as much easier as possible. Secondly, speakers pointed out some practical examples to explain the type of difficulties disabled people have to face in their routine: there are some rules, such as the obligation of having a driving license to get a job, that appera neutral but have the effect of disadvantaging disabled people (blind people in this case); deaf people have difficulty understanding how to cure themselves if doctors do not speak with them looking at their faces. These seem minor issues instead they are important topics everyone should be familiar with in order to create a better society.