The life of disabled people in the 21st century

15% of the world population suffers from some form of disability. This is approximately
one billion people worldwide. However, that sizeable number doesn’t have an impact
on the way this group is treated all around the globe.

But what classifies a person has disabled? How does the world really treat people with
disabilities? Are disabled people well represented in the media? This are some of the
questions we want to answer with our presentation today.

Life of disabled people all around the world

To talk about the life of disabled people, we thought it might be interesting to share
with you some of the laws the United Nations have demanded all countries to follow.
And then some stories surrounding disabled people connected to the well practice or
bad one of the same laws.

Rights according to the United Nations

The term "disabled person" means any person unable to ensure by himself or herself,
wholly or partly, the necessities of a normal individual and/or social life, as a result of
deficiency, either congenital or not, in his or her physical or mental capabilities.

Basically, a disabled person is someone with a physical or mental impairment that has
substantial and long-term effects on the person´s ability to carry out a normal life and
do day-to-day activities.

Some examples:
People with autism spectrum disorder
Deaf or blind people
Schizophrenic people

Disabled people shall enjoy all the rights set forth in this Declaration. These rights shall
be granted to all disabled people without any exception whatsoever and without
distinction or discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, language, religion, political
or other opinions, national or social origin, state of wealth, birth or any other situation
applying either to the disabled person himself or herself or to his or her family.

This meaning that all disabled people have the exact same rights without exception.

Disabled people have the inherent right to respect for their human dignity. Disabled
people, whatever the origin, nature and seriousness of their handicaps and disabilities,
have the same fundamental rights as their fellow-citizens of the same age, which
implies first and foremost the right to enjoy a decent life, as normal and full as
possible.
In this statement it’s clear that disabled people have the same rights as non-disabled
people. Which implies they have the right to be respected and to enjoy, live and to
have a normal and decent life.

Sophie Morgan an BBC journalist travelled in 2015 to Ghana a west African country,
known by their 5 million disabled citizens. Unfortunately, she found a practice that
shook her. And now I will quote a statement from the article she made about it:
«The people I met during my trip were mostly devout Christians, but who had
imported traditional beliefs to shape the way they explain disability. It soon dawned on
me that for many people, disability was considered not a physical or mental
impairment, but in fact a spiritual sickness or curse that could either be healed by
prayer or by confinement, and in some cases by physical violence. »

So as you can see from this brief text, disabled people are treated differently all around
the world sometimes in worst conditions than non-disabled people. In your opinion
should this practice be banned even if it is part of the Ghana culture?

Disabled people have the same civil and political rights as other human beings;
paragraph 7 of the Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded People applies to
any possible limitation or suppression of those rights for mentally disabled people.

Disabled people are entitled to the measures designed to enable them to become as
self-reliant as possible.

Disabled people have the right to medical, psychological and functional treatment,
including prosthetic and orthotic appliances, to medical and social rehabilitation,
education, vocational training and rehabilitation, aid, counselling, placement services
and other services which will enable them to develop their capabilities and skills to the
maximum and will hasten the processes of their social integration or reintegration.

Disabled people have the right to economic and social security and to a decent level of
living. They have the right, according to their capabilities, to secure and retain
employment or to engage in a useful, productive and remunerative occupation and to
join trade unions.

As you can see from these paragraphs of the declaration on the rights of mentally
retarded people, disabled people must have the same rights as non-disabled people,
regardless of any circumstances and in all matters of their life, thus being able to
guarantee that they have a complete and normal life like all of us. However this does
not always happen.

A studied conducted by Jean Ravaud and Béatrice Ville mailed unsolicited job
applications to employers of their size. They send four different profiles one with a
disability and a high qualifications and another with the same qualifications but
without a disability and the same thing but with medium qualifications.
They found out that highly qualified non-disabled applicants were 1.78 times more
likely to receive a favorable response than their disabled counterparts, and modestly
qualified non-disabled applicants were 3.2 times more likely to receive a positive
response. As well, discrimination became more marked as company size increased.

Disabled people are entitled to have their special needs taken into consideration at all
stages of economic and social planning.

Disabled people have the right to live with their families or with foster parents and to
participate in all social, creative or recreational activities. No disabled person shall be
subjected, as far as his or her residence is concerned, to differential treatment other
than that required by his or her condition or by the improvement which he or she may
derive therefrom. If the stay of a disabled person in a specialized establishment is
indispensable, the environment and living conditions therein shall be as close as
possible to those of the normal life of a person of his or her age.
Disabled people shall be protected against all exploitation, all regulations and all
treatment of a discriminatory, abusive or degrading nature.

This declaration makes the rights of disabled people very clear and specific, but
unfortunately many of these rights still aren’t provided in the 21st century.

In terms of exploration of disabled people the numbers are shocking!

Did you knew that those who are disabled are four to ten times more likely to be
abused than their peers without disabilities? Compared to the general population,
people with developmental disabilities are at greatest risk of abuse.
And Children with disabilities, in particular, have a higher risk of being abused or
neglected. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services,
11 percent of all child abuse victims in 2009 had a physical, cognitive and/or behavioral
disability and children with disabilities are almost two times more likely to be
physically or sexually abuse or neglected than children without disabilities. In addition,
abuse is typically more severe, is more likely to occur multiple times and is more likely
to be repeated for a longer period of time.

How does Portugal treat people with disabilities?

In this part of the presentation, we will focus on the latest controversies and political
stories surrounding disabled people and their rights.
1. Parents don't want a student with Down syndrome in their children's room.
Just this year, Embla a 11-year-old girl with down syndrome was victim of
discrimination by her peers and their parents. When the parents of her classmates
made the decision of not bringing their kids to school while a, and now I quote, «not
normal» child was having the same education has the «regular» kids. To show support
to Embla and her parents the president of north Macedonia came to Portugal only to
personally walk Embla to school to show that she is normal, amazing, and everyone
should be kind to her.
2-New rules on early retirement for people with disabilities “will create divisions,
injustices and inequalities”
In 2021 there were made new adjustments to the limit age of retirement for those
with disabilities. The new set of rules reinforced that disabled people had to have more
than 60 years and more than 80% of incapability on the legal test made by the
government. Although, many in the parliament were pleased with that measure, the
president of the life center association found the bill extremely unfair. Because many
of those who are disabled don’t have technically more than 80% on the test but still
are highly worn out when they reach their 50s and 60s.In his opinion the measure
should be for those with more than 55 years and with 66% of level of incapability.
3- Portuguese association of the disabled
To show support to disabled people, since 1970 Portugal has an National association of
the disabled, responsible for organizing some events like: wheelchair marathons, job
fairs for those who are disabled and want to start working and much more.

Struggles
In the workplace and job market
Unfortunately employing someone who is disabled for many is a sign of poor
leadership, but that is only one of the explanations for the high unemployment rates
among disabled people who are capable of working. In this part of the presentation,
we will focus on the struggles of those with disabilities in the workplace.
1. Skepticism and doubts surrounding their capabilities
Sometimes employers may take advanced conclusions about someone's capabilities
only because they have a disability. And that is totally not understandable.
2. Education
Many, not by choice don’t have their desired education levels. Because of the
difficulties they would have to go thru to go to school or maybe their parents didn’t
want them to suffer from any bullying at school. Therefore, they cannot apply to many
jobs that need higher education levels. Althought, this isnt always the case, there are
many disabled people who actually have pretty interesting and complicated jobs.
3. Stigmatization
Working can be challenging for a person with disabilities, especially if they do not get
along with other employees. People with disabilities often face stigmatization,
especially if their disabilities are visible, such as the inability to walk. Some of the
employees are isolated by their peers who fear that the disability might be
transmitted. This is a high level of ignorance since no person would contact disability
from another person.
4. Transport and Accommodation facilities
Often, facilities are not prepared to have someone who is disabled. Per example, many
offices nowadays are still not prepared for those in wheelchairs and that can be a
dealbreaker when trying to hire someone who can´t walk.
In their personal life
1.Feeling of being incompetent
Disabled people need more time to do a particular work than other normal people.
The disability barriers stop him from performing basic tasks with ease. This makes the
person with disabilities think that there are being a burden and fills them with a
constant feeling of incompetence.
2. Teasing
Often people find satisfaction in putting others down. They find superiority in bullying
the weak and underprivileged. Disabled people often find themselves at the receiving
end of such violent and disgusting actions.
3. Patronization
People with special needs often hear things like, “I know what you are going through”
or “I know this must be hard.” These kinds of words never do justice to the problems
those people face and the troubles they go through every day. A normal person can't
know exactly what that person is feeling.
4. Finding long lasting Relationships
Human beings are complicated. They judge others on a set of parameters that may or
may not apply to all situations. These prejudices are the root cause of all mistrust and
misunderstanding. Most disabled people can´t find a life partner, and this often brings
sadness and loneliness to their lives.

Representation
In fictional characters
Many times, disabled individuals are represented as sad and depressive people. Or
they exist only to further the narrative of the typically able-bodied, main character.
This kind of representation can be seen in movies like me before you. The article we
read about this topic also showed really interesting example of a good representation
of disabled individuals, the X men. Where not only professor xavier had a disability but
also wolverine´s PTSD. And now there is a quote from the movies that we think is
really powerful we though applied well in our presentation when related to disabled
people: “They can’t cure us. You want to know why? Because there’s nothing to cure.
Nothing’s wrong with you. Or any of us, for that matter.”
Furthermore, there is the villain and hero issue. Where we see a lot of supervillains
having disabilities like joker who is assumed to have schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder. And many believe that the cause for the violence is the mental issue. Feeding
the stereotype and myth that there is about them being related, that it isn't true said
new studies. While, if the hero has a disability there are powerful and amazing for
overcoming the disability while highlighting the wrong stereotype that having a
disability is a part of them to hide/ overcome while it is something that we should be
more accepting of instead of solidifying the thought, they should hide it.

Important people/stories
The last topic we are going to mention in this presentation, are some success stories
about people who were disabled but still managed to excel in their areas. To show you
that you can achieve everything even when there are forces against you.

Stephen Hawking
As all you know, Stephen Hawking was a great theoretical physicist who made
significant breakthroughs about the functioning of the universe. He suffered from
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that bound him to special wheelchair with an
incorporated computer.
Hellen Keller
Hellen Keller is one of the most known disabled person ever. She was deaf and blind.
And even with all of that pushing her back she was the first graduate with deaf
blindness in the world. Her Autobiography, The Story of My Life, is considered a classic
book in English literature. Additionally, she traveled around the world and campaigned
for antimilitarism, women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other similar causes.

Franklyn Roosevelt
Franklyn Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States. In 1921, Roosevelt
contracted polio and his legs became permanently paralyzed. Nevertheless, he was the
president of the US from 1933 until his death in 1945. In 1938, Roosevelt founded the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, leading to the development of polio
vaccines.

John Nash
john Nash was a world-famous mathematician. He won Nobel Prize in Economics in
1994 for pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games. Nash
was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1959. Despite his continuous struggle
with his illness, Nash excelled in the field of mathematics. He taught at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University.
Additionally, there is a very interesting film about his struggles with squizophrenia and
about his achievements in his field. That was what inspired us to make this
presentation.

Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter. She contracted polio at the age of six. The illness
made her right leg shorter and thinner than the left. In 1925, Kahlo was in an accident
which further aggravated her disability. Therefore, she spent most of her life in bed
suffering severe pain. Nevertheless, Kahlo progressed to become one of the most
famous painters and a cultural icon.

Conclusion
To conclude our presentation, we want to show a brief video about a person with
disabilities and her normal day life.We think is inportant to understand that we have
been talking a lot about people who a«suffer from disabilties but we obviously don’t
know what it is like to life with disabilities. So to show you what is like and so you can
understand better the topic we want to show you this video 'You're treated worse
than a farm animal' | Living with disabilities

Polio, is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. The

virus spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing
paralysis (can’t move parts of the body).