Manifesto highlights

• Education – Speedy reforms in primary and secondary inclusive education for children with special needs and introduction of new technologies and alternative teaching and learning methodologies. Allocation of at least 5% from the National Education Budget for inclusive education and special needs education reforms. • Health & rehabilitation – Introduction of a National Injuries Surveillance and Referral System, with periodic and systematic post-reviews as well as a National Healthcare Security System; setting minimum national standards in the manufacture and importation of devices used by the disabled; and standardisation of the service provided by helpers and caregivers. • Work & employment – Review of the circular providing for a 3% quota for the disabled when recruiting for the State sector and provision of tax concessions to private and corporate sector employers who provide disability-friendly workplaces. • Enabling access to the physical environment – Full and effective implementation of the Disabled Persons (Accessibility) Regulation No. 01 of 2006 and setting up taken off. An example cited by Mr. Kuruppu is Sri Lanka being among the first eight countries to be signatories to the International Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30, 2007, at the United Nations in New York, but even eight years later there has been no ratification. There are laws in place but they simply have no teeth, he laments, pointing out that even in Parliament people with disabilities have no proper accessibility. “Parliamentarians need to stay in a wheelchair for just a day to realise the frustration of those who have to live all their lives in wheelchairs where the physical environment is not conducive.”

According to him the basic is accessibility in the physical environment and those who need these facilities