Disabled people want added accessibility in all places, not segregation - Amy Camilleri Zahra
People with a disability want more initiatives from both the private and public sectors to provide more accessibility, such as hotels with more accessible rooms, rather than a hostel just for the disabled, according to Amy Camilleri Zahra.
“What is needed is for more cultural activities to be accessible for persons with disability, not the ‘ ghettoisation’ of such people,” she told The Malta Independent.
Camilleri Zahra is an assistant lecturer within the Department of Disability Studies at the University of Malta and herself an amputee.
Earlier this week, in a Facebook post, Camilleri Zahra criticised Project Reach, a community hub for persons with disability, which is planned to be up and running by 2022. The hub will serve as a one-stop-shop and hostel welcoming foreigners with disabilities staying in Malta. She said that the project will only result in the ‘ghettoization’ of persons with a disability.
Camilleri Zahra said that it is good to have a one-stop-shop, as long as it is a place where disabled people and their families can access information related services offered by the government.
“There needs to be a push for more initiatives to promote better accessibility for people with disability in both the private and public sectors,” Camilleri Zahra told this newsroom.
She continued that, as a mother, she wants to go to places where her family members and friends can commute, and not to a café just for disabled people. “Accommodation and cafes just for the disabled are a form of segregation. This is exactly what the Civil Rights Movement and Disability Rights movement were fighting for in the 1970s and 1980s, and here we are in 2019 reversing those achievements.”
She explained that, when she travels abroad, she looks for hotels which have accessible rooms, and that is what other disabled people coming to Malta do as well. “If such a community hub becomes a reality, this will make other service providers, such as hoteliers and restaurants, move away from their responsibility to make their premises more accessible to people with disabilities. They will come up with the argument that disabled people have their own restaurants, cafés and pools.”
She explained that, while there is a very strong legislation protecting the rights of disabled people, there is a need for more awareness on these laws and for more knowledge on the topic.
She also added that more information is needed regarding Project Reach.
“Since the project started being mentioned in the media in 2014, there have been numerous changes to the concept. I believe there needs to be more information on the project and on how taxpayer money is being spent.”