UNICEF and Children's Rights

Children With Disabilities

KIDPROJ UNICEF07 ---------------- From W.J.Parks@durham.ac.uk Mon Dec 20 03:18:12 1993 ====================================================================== WEEK 7: CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES. Aim: to discuss the attitudes, prejudices, and difficulties children with disabilities face and what people can do to help them and work with them. "Behind every person with a disability is a human being. And all human beings are unique." In the last lesson we discussed 'health and education': what it means to have these in everyday life and what governments and international agencies should do to help those children who do not have access to health care and education. In this lesson we will talk about the problems of being disabled and how disabled children should and could be helped to live fulfilling and enjoyable lives. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Governments, schools, organizations, and individuals should ensure: 'The right of disabled children to special care and training designed to help them to achieve greatest possible self-reliance and to lead a full and active life in society.' (Article 23) However, statements such as this have been criticized because "they bear very little relation to the conditions faced by the vast majority of poor, disabled children" [Stewart MacPherson 'Five Million Children' (1987 page 168), Wheatsheaf Books: Sussex]. Some estimates put the number of children with disabilities (physical, mental, or sensory impairment) in developing countries at over at 100 million. - - - - - - - - (1) ATTITUDES AND DISABILITIES. What do you think are the major problems that children with disabilities face in your local neighbourhood and in your country in general? What do you think could be done to improve the facilities and opportunities for disabled children in your local community? Who do you think should be responsible for carrying out these improvements? Think how YOU could help: describe what you could do. One of the major problems that people with disabilities face is the ATTITUDE OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC, and the lack of consideration that goes into planning which would ensure their needs were also met. As two disabled people told the BBC: "We disabled people see our problems as coming mainly from people's attitudes, the environment and social systems that actually keep us fairly oppressed." "People are being educated into thinking that we, disabled people, must be the receivers; not that we must integrate them into our society and give them a job, WHICH IS WHAT WE WANT." What do you think? Is it right for disabled people to always be considered UNABLE to join in activities or jobs? What could be done to change this misconception and fulfil the wishes of many disabled people? As Stewart Macpherson remarks, 'The essential point here is that physical and mental impairments suffered by many of those labelled as disabled need not incapacitate them from becoming full members of society' ('Five Million Children', page 170). - - - - - - - - (2) FREEDOM FROM PREJUDICE. You may be aware of publicity campaigns aimed at educating people about disabilities such as Down's Syndrome. For example, you might have seen posters with photographs of children displaying typical physical characteristics of Downs Syndrome with captions reading: "Years ago he would have been called an idiot or moron: some people call him a mongol - others call it Downs Syndrome. We just call him Jimmy." This is one example of how to promote a positive attitude toward people with disabilities. See if you can find more - or better still, design some posters and captions of your own. Martina is a Swedish girl who would benefit from your efforts. Here's her story: Swedish-born Martina has Downs Syndrome. People born with this disability usually have recognizable physical characteristics, like a blunt nose and slanting eyes. There is also some degree of learning difficulty. Martina was fortunate. Although her mother was advised to put her into permanent residential care, and 'forget about her' she brought her home and dedicated herself to teaching her to speak, using music as a teaching aid. Berit, Martina's mother was so successful that Martina was allowed to attend a day-care centre with 'normal' children. In fact she was able to attend both primary and secondary school with all the other children in her neighbourhood. Even so, some adults have been reluctant to accept that a child with a mental disability could have a place in 'normal' society even when they have seen her joining in with all her class's activities and playing the piano at a school concert. Berit knows the dangers of stereotyping children: "We put labels on peolple. We put them into categories like 'mentally retarded'. I think it is dangerous to do that - because behind every person with a mental disability is a human being. And all human beings are unique." It used to be common policy to put children like Marina into an institution and not even give her the chance to learn anything. Asked what her greatest pleasures are, Martina replies: "Music - and having people accept me as I am. I am what I am, quite simply and no-one else." You also like to be accepted as you are. How would you feel if people did not think you capable of joining in class activities or sports? What does Martina's story tell you about prejudices and how attitudes towards disabled people are beginning to change? How should this process of change be speeded up? How could you help? - - - - - - - - (3) A DISABLED *WORLD*? For many children in the developing world, disabilities could often be avoided but due to economic problems and a lack of access to health care (remember last week's lesson) their lives are devastated by diseases such as polio (for which a vaccine exists), trachoma (for which early medical intervention can prevent loss of sight), and irreversible blindness due Vitamin A deficiency (which proper nutrition would prevent). For example, let us meet Gopamma, an eight year-old girl in India: Gopamma walks with crutches. She has recently had two operations and will shortly have a third. But Gopamma is thrilled at her new mobility because at the age of two she caught polio and for six years she was unable to walk. Gopamma caught polio from the polluted water in her village in India. Villagers still drink this water, they have no choice as there is no other supply. But Gopamma need never have caught polio in the first place if her parents had known about immunising their children. Polio is a totally preventable disease. A few pence pays for the polio vaccine, which is given by mouth, and which most children in the USA and UK receive soon after birth as a matter of course. Immunisation is not so automatic in many countries of the world, even though the price of preventing illnesses is only a fraction of the cost of expensive drugs, doctors and operations which are needed once people are ill. In countries like India vaccination campaigns are reducing the possibility of children dying or being disabled by polio and measles, tetanus and tuberculosis, diptheria and whooping cough. Gopamma's parents have had her younger brothers and sisters immunised but Gopamma will never be fully mobile. Gopamma can remember the years when she had to sit and watch the other children playing and going to school and is grateful for the chance she has been given to walk again. When she grows up she wants to be a teacher who spreads the word about immunisation so that other children will not have to suffer as she did. What caused Gopamma's disability? Was it just polio or were there other factors involved? How could immunisation reach those children who have not been vaccinated? Should parents be made more aware of the benefits of immunisation? Who should teach them? - - - - - - - - (4) LOCAL COMMUNITY PROJECT. Voluntary initiatives in the UK such as the Save the Children Fund-supported Sparky playbus project provide facilities for able-bodied children and children with disabilities to play together. This project also provides disability-awareness training with children and teachers to challenge and find ways of changing negative attitudes and behaviours towards people with disabilities. Survey your local environment for facilities for people with different disabilities (blind, deaf, physically handicapped). Find out what problems disabled children would experience without these facilities and what benefits they receive from having these facilities. Contact a local newspaper and write an article on these facilities and the children who benefit from them. One day this week record everything you do and everywhere you go. Consider whether or not people with different disabilities could do the same things and why they could not. Is it always because of their disability or is it because facilities and activities have not been planned to allow disabled children to participate? Think of ways of how would you change this. If there is a local school for children with disabilities in your area, arrange an exchange visit. Talk to teachers or care workers about their children's needs. Use what you have discovered to create a class project to invent or adapt toys (including computer games etc.) for children who are blind, or deaf or mentally disabled.