Leaders seek to boost lives, roles of world’s disabled
UNITED NATIONS: World leaders yesterday held their first-ever UN meeting to explore how the more than 1 billion disabled people in countries rich and poor can contribute to the global economy instead of being a drain on society.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says a huge increase in hearing aids, glasses and wheelchairs could improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people — and help them participate in the development of their countries. But the disabled have other hurdles to overcome as well, including discrimination and stigma.
The high-level General Assembly meeting on disabilities was the prelude to the annual UN gathering of presidents, prime ministers and monarchs which starts today. It is expected to be dominated by Russian-US efforts to rid Syria of chemical weapons and hold a new peace conference to end the Syrian conflict, and a possible first meeting between US and Iranian leaders since the Islamic Revolution nearly 35 years ago.
But for the disabled, who represent about 15% of the world’s population, yesterday’s meeting with speakers ranging from US Secretary of State John Kerry to blind singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder was a milestone.
‘‘We are excited about what’s going to happen,’’ said Daniela Bas, director of the UN Division for Social Policy and Development, who has been a paraplegic since the age of six. ‘‘It is the first meeting of this kind in the history of the UN.
‘‘This group has been considered for too long a group in need of help, while on the contrary this is a resourceful group that can contribute in an enormous way to development,’’ she said.
Jacob Kumaresan, executive director of the WHO’s UN office, said people with disabilities are twice as likely to find health services inadequate, and three times as likely to be denied adequate health care.
According to the WHO, 360 million people worldwide have moderate to profound hearing loss but only 10% have access to hearing aids, 200 million people need glasses but have no access to them, and only between 5-15% of the 70 million people who need wheelchairs have one.
Dr Kumaresan stressed these barriers are avoidable and can be overcome.
Mongolia, for example, has introduced disability-friendly health centres, and East Timor and the Solomon Islands are providing wheelchairs to those in need, he said. And the Philippines Health Insurance Corporation added rehabilitation to its coverage last year which enabled a 25-year-old construction worker who lost a leg in an accident to get a prosthesis and return to work.
‘‘This is what we mean by what the governments can do to help not an individual but an entire society to be productive,’’ Dr Kumaresan said.
In its main report earlier this year, the UN children’s agency, Unicef, said children with disabilities and their communities would both benefit if society focused on what these youngsters can achieve, rather than on what they cannot do.
But a report issued yesterday by child rights organisation Plan International found children with disabilities in West Africa face widespread poverty, discrimination, violence, and exclusion, including from education. The report — based on research in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Niger and Togo — said disabled girls, especially, are highly vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and neglect.