- People living with disabilities emphasise need for inclusive policies and empowerment, particularly in employment opportunities and at workplaces, and the need for disability education for the non-disabled, beyond the mere legal recognition of accessibility rights
Despite various efforts such as making policies and raising awareness at various levels, it is widely accepted that Sri Lanka has a long way to go when it comes to ensuring the social inclusion of and combatting discrimination faced by groups of diverse identities, abilities, and beliefs. Although marginalised and minority groups have received relatively more attention in the context of improving social security schemes for those groups amidst the economic crisis, identifying the challenges that they face is a matter that goes beyond economic inclusion.
Those who are identified as people living with disabilities, or the differently abled, are one such group. While the term ‘disability’ has been reinterpreted in recent years in order to include more and more people with diverse forms of disabilities, especially non-physical disabilities such as psychological ones, in this category, Sri Lanka has paid attention to strengthening the legal framework applicable for the well-being of people living with disabilities.
At the Cabinet of Ministers meeting held on 13 March, the approval of the Cabinet was granted for the Bill on the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As The Daily Morning reported, commenting on the preparation of the Bill, Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Bandula Gunawardana noted that the Legal Draftsman’s Department had been directed to draft a new Act to repeal the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, No. 28 of 1996 on the basis of the preliminary draft which was forwarded earlier by the relevant Parliamentary Committee. He added that the Legal Draftsman’s Department had been directed in this regard by President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Minister of Women, Child Affairs, and Social Empowerment, along with the Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms President’s Counsel Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.
Legal reforms the solution?
Although the said legal reforms are a welcome move, as per several persons living with physical disabilities, laws are highly unlikely to put an end to discrimination and stigma against them or address the issue of the lack of employment opportunities that they face, which they identified as the two main issues that have hindered their progress as citizens.
They questioned the practicality and practical benefits of these laws.
“What could laws do to make the lives of people living with disabilities better?,” discussing the needs of people living with disabilities, 38-year-old freelance writer Aditya Kumara questioned, adding that for the most part, laws could only require that buildings be built in a manner that ensure convenient access for them, require national and institutional policy making in their favour, and tighten punishments for discriminatory treatment, which he claimed were inadequate.
He added: “No person living with a disability is completely disabled. The majority of them are capable of contributing to society in some way. We have to start looking at people living with disabilities as people who are capable in different ways, and that is not something that laws can do.”
Meanwhile, with regard to legal reforms, 40-year-old L.A. Perera (name changed on request), who is currently unemployed after leaving a managerial level job in the private sector, opined that more than laws, what was necessary to improve the lives of people living with disabilities was balanced policies. His definition of ‘balanced policies’ in the context of employment were policies that ensure benefits for both employers and employees living with disabilities, and in the context of education, policies that improve the education system through supporting children with disabilities.
“Laws scare people, and people tend to ignore laws when laws require them to do things that they do not want to do. Therefore, while laws are certainly important, relying on laws to improve the socio-economic situation for people living with disabilities is an unwise position. While laws order people to do or not to do certain things, policies help take actions with some level of understanding and consensus. For example, if a law asks businesses to ensure that the entrances to their businesses are wheelchair friendly, the businesses’ response would be that they do not have funds to do that. However, if an inclusion policy is brought, and is discussed with emphasis on how improving access in such a manner could help businesses get more customers living with disabilities, that would be more compelling.”
Inclusion and diversity
According to people living with disabilities who spoke with The Daily Morning, what could truly spark positive changes in the society in their favour was increasing visibility and inclusion and addressing misconceptions about people living with disabilities.
“People seem to think that people living with disabilities are a group that inevitably requires others’ support, and are therefore a group that depends on the larger society and various relief programmes. This has devalued the skills and capabilities of people living with disabilities as part of the society,” Kumara opined. According to him, in most cases, the only support that people living with disabilities require is awareness raising and sensitising programmes to publicise the idea that disabilities are merely one aspect of people living with disabilities and that they could excel in a multitude of other ways.
He explained: “For example, a person who does not have one or more properly functioning limbs may be able to progress with his/her intellectual capabilities. A person that is living with hearing and visual impairments may be able to excel in his/her personal and professional life using their physical capabilities. Society needs to stop seeing only the disability part of people living with disabilities, and instead recognise their skills and capabilities and thereby encourage them to stop feeling as if they are completely disabled.”
In this endeavour, education plays a key role, and it should target both children and adults who form laws and policies. Noting this, 55-year-old former public sector worker A. Pathmasiri (name changed on request) added that the lack of education on disabilities had resulted in misconceptions about, and a certain aversion towards, people living with disabilities, which in turn have created a lacuna in law and policy making and also in social discourses pertaining to disabilities and people living with disabilities.
“I do not think that our schools sufficiently talk about disabilities, or at the very least, about differences in people’s capabilities. Even if they did, in almost all the cases, it is limited to mere physical disabilities. The education system seeks to evaluate everyone’s skills and capabilities through common standards that do not discuss diversity and inclusion. As long as we do not change this situation in order to teach our children about diversity in people’s capabilities, our children will not know how to give due value to or not discriminate against people living with disabilities. It is our children that become law and policy makers someday, and them being insensitive and uneducated about this matter is a threat to the future of people living with disabilities.”
Self confidence and empowerment
Moreover, according to Perera, the conduct of certain people living with disabilities has weakened the progressiveness of existing social discourses on disabilities. “I am not denying the fact that certain people who are living with disabilities require more support than others and that some cannot do a regular job. However, some people living with disabilities have turned their disability into a profession and that is why we see a large number of beggars who have chosen to use their disability to earn money even when they are able to do a job regardless of their disability. Due to this, although I do not recommend begging, even those who cannot do any job, who have no source of income whatsoever, and who have no relatives or friends at all, cannot beg for money to survive.”
In addition, he emphasised that it is important to improve the self confidence of people living with disabilities and to reduce their dependence on various parties or programmes. Policies should aim to support such endeavours as well, according to Perera, who further added that instead of legally protecting people living with disabilities, they should be empowered to be financially independent which will reduce the need for such protection.