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] The United Voice's newsletter is launched. Some of the articles in the November edition include: - UV's participation in the UNESCAP Workshop on Empowerment of People with Intellectual Disability held in Shanghai. - The 2nd National Self-Advocacy Conference held in Sabah. - BEAT Team working together with AirAsia. - GIANT's employment of persons with learning disabilities. To download the PDF file, please check http://www.unitedvoice.com.my/newsletter/2007NovNewsletter.pdf
Better support for people with intellectual disabilities will be an outcome of a unique new research and teaching centre based at the University of Queensland (UQ). The Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Support, an Australian-first initiated by the Queensland Government, will expand national and international knowledge of intellectual disabilities and severely challenging behaviours, and improve the skills of people working in the field. Australian and international postgraduate students will have new opportunities to conduct research that aims to address disadvantages experienced by people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviours throughout the world. Tailored postgraduate study and internship opportunities will also improve workforce skills and expertise.
The 3rd Annual International Forum, hosted by the Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs, will be organized during 20- 22 April 2008 in Doha. It will bring together advocates, family members, scholars, and practitioners from a variety of perspectives to explore the theme of Sport and Ability. The Forum will explore how sport, recreation and cultural activities promote social inclusion, acceptance, skill acquisition and friendships. Also the Forum will explore the current efforts of these programs and future directions for how sport and the promotion of ability can be expanded to reach all members of our globally aware society. Abstracts are due by 17 February 2008.
Mobility International USA will organize the 4th International Women's Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD) from12 August-2 September 2008 in Oregon. MIUSA will bring together 25 women leaders with disabilities from Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania/Pacific to strengthen leadership skills, create new visions and build international networks of support to explore new leadership opportunities for women and girls with disabilities. The WILD program will include workshops, site visits and practical activities on priority issues for women with disabilities. Application deadline is 4 April 4 2008.
The 5th WBUAP Teruko Ikeda ICT Scholarship (2008) is a project initiated and managed by the Japan Braille Library (JBL) with funds donated to it by the Teruko Ikeda Foundation. This project is being implemented in close collaboration with the World Blind Union Asia Pacific (WBUAP). The objective of this Scholarship is to give blind and vision impaired youths from developing countries of this region the opportunity to receive training in computer literacy and some social skills to better prepare them to be leaders in advancing the cause of blind and vision impaired people in the fields of education, employment, culture, welfare etc. The successful applicants will receive their one-month training between July and August 2008. They will spend the first three weeks of their training in Malaysia and the last week at the Japan Braille Library, Tokyo. At the end of the course, the scholarship holders will take back with them notebook computers, JAWS Screen reader software (English version) and Braille displays. These items will be the personal property of the scholarship holders to help them in furthering their ambitions.
Malaysian Confederation of the Disabled (MDC) is organizing the Leadership Training Seminar for young people with disabilities to be held in Kuala Lumpur from 25 - 26 April 2008. MCD will also invite a group of young people with disabilities from the Asia Pacific Countries. Overseas Organization is invited to submit one candidate from each country before 10th February 2008.
The Enable Newsletter Issue No.1-January 2008 is now released. It is a service of the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to keep you informed about the work of the UN system on disability issues.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has just released a document on a human right based-approach to accessible education for all. This document brings together the current thinking and practice on human rights based approaches in the education sector. It also provides a framework for policy and programme development from school to national and international levels. As such it is a valuable resource to governments, civil society organizations, United Nations and bilateral agencies, as well as other development partners strategically involved in the development of education policies and programmes.
The website, http://www.pwdmedia.com, is a media project of persons with disabilities in Thailand. This website was established to promote the lifestyle, activities, news and events of person with disability which also on air at channel 11 every Thursday and Friday at 11.20-11.50pm.
Finally the issues of disability have been included in the Text Book under National Curriculum in Bangladesh. It's a most delightful reward of the New Year to our untiring advocacy of the last couple of decades. Year 2008 has started with a great achievement of the collective efforts of disability and development activists, parents, teachers, educationalists and many individual advocates of the governmental and non-governmental sectors for inclusion of disability in the mainstream. As a result articles on disability issue have been included in the text books of primary and secondary levels under national curriculum for the first time in the country. From this year, under national curriculum all students of class eight have to study an article 'Pratibandhita O Protikar' on basic information of disability, types, causes and intervention and students of class nine and class ten have to study a article 'Otheyr Jonnyo Bhalobasha' on love, affiliation, dignity, inclusion and psycho-social aspects of disability. It will remain as a milestone achievement of disability movement in Bangladesh. Association for the Welfare of the Disabled People (AWDP) is proud to be a part of this movement since 1997. It congratulates all relevant parties, agencies, activists, individuals as well as authorities of the government of Bangladesh for this inclusion.
A ceremony was held in Hanoi on January 3 by Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) and the Prudential Vietnam Life Insurance Company to donate audio books to children who are visually impaired through the Vietnam Association for the Blind (VAB). The implementation of an audio book programme started in September, 2007, drawing the participation of VOV reporters who selected the best Vietnamese fairy tales for recording. After more than four months, 3 audio books had been recorded on 900 cassette tapes and CDs. These audio books will be handed over to 15 schools for the blind, 43 provinces and municipal organisations and 400 VAB chapters throughout the country, said Mr. Nguyen Xuan Huong, VAB Vice Chairman. Vietnam now has 22,000 children with visual impairments, living mostly in rural
Nepal has become a state party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Some countries in South Asia, which are Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Nepal, signed the Convention. On behalf of the Nepal government, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations Madhu Raman Acharya on 3 January 2008 Thursday signed the Convention and its optional protocol 2006 at the treaty section signature room of the UN Headquarters in New York. Under the Convention, states parties would guarantee that persons with disabilities enjoyed their inherent right to life on an equal basis with others. Children with disabilities would have equal rights, would not be separated from their parents against their will, except in their best interests, and would in no case be separated from their parents on the basis of a disability of either the child or the parents
People who received artificial legs from a project under the Prosthesis Foundation say HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana's kindness gave them a new life. The Prosthesis Foundation of HRH the Princess Mother has distributed more than 20,000 free artificial legs to the disabled since its inception in 1992. Therdchai Jivacate, director of the foundation, said the Princess, who continued the work of the Princess Mother, was dedicated to helping the disabled poor. As the foundation president, she had tirelessly travelled to provinces across the country to oversee the foundation's work and visited people in remote areas. ''Her enthusiasm for the artificial leg service was impressive. When visiting our mobile production unit she always showed how much she cared about the disabled, compassionately asking about their lives,'' said Dr. Therdchai. ''Of course, she wanted them to have a happy life and to work like able-bodied people after receiving the artificial legs.'' The 67-year-old physician recalled that the late Princess had often instructed him and other staff to develop new techniques and find equipment that would make their artificial legs cheaper than imported ones and finally they did. The locally-produced equipment not only makes the artificial limbs cheaper, but it speeds up the work. Instead of one or two weeks, it now took only one day. ''The equipment is really useful. Those in need do not have to wait so long,'' he said. Each year the mobile unit makes five to seven trips to the provinces, each lasting five days to a week. Since 1992 it has made 96 trips, producing artificial legs for people in need. The foundation has seven branch offices in Ban Kruat, Khu Muang and Lahan Sai districts in Buri Ram, Sangkhla Buri in Kanchanaburi, Nam Yuen in Ubon Ratchathani, Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo and Pua in Nan. A new office is to be opened in Chiang Kran district in Nan this year. Last year the Princess allowed Dr. Therdchai and other staff of the foundation to train Indonesian volunteers in the production of artificial legs and they set up a production unit at Banda Aceh on Sumatra, where there are thousands of victims of landmines from a long civil war. The area was also hit by the tsunami in 2004. The foundation has been asked to help disabled people in Afghanistan and the central African countries of Rwanda and Burundi, but has yet to make a decision. Dr. Therdchai expressed profound gratitude to the Princess for accepting the post of foundation president. If not, the foundation would have had a difficult time getting funds and donations. ''Thanks to her, our foundation has become recognised and works well helping those in need,'' he said. The late Princess' contribution to this work has helped thousands of disabled people to live happy lives. They can now work and earn a living, and support their families just like able-bodied people, he said. Montree Kitimoon, 42, who lost his right leg to diabetes four years ago, said: ''My life has changed a lot since I received an artificial leg from the foundation. I even got a job here and earn about 5,000 baht a month, so I can feed my two young children.'' Mr. Montree, from Chiang Mai, used to be a construction worker, but has now learned the skills to make artificial legs. He said he sought help from the foundation after a state hospital turned down all his attempts to get an artificial leg because of lack of money. Anant Jaipling, 50, who received two artificial legs from the foundation's Pua office in Nan, now earns a living driving a school bus in the district. He has also opened a grocery shop in his village and helps his wife behind the counter. He stepped on a landmine 23 years ago when he was a defence volunteer in Bo Kluea district in Nan. He said he was grateful for what the Princess had done to help the disabled. ''I will always remember her goodness, her kindness and compassion,'' said Mr. Anant as he performed a wai over his head.
People with Down's syndrome are less likely to get some cancers - and scientists hope to exploit this to help other people at risk. Most cases of Down's happen because the baby is carrying an extra chromosome packed with genetic information. But Johns Hopkins University experts, writing in the journal Nature, say the additional copy of one gene might help block cancers. But another scientist said boosting the gene might actually help cancer spread. Up to 95% of Down's syndrome cases are caused by "trisomy 21", in which the baby has three, rather than two, copies of chromosome 21, and the hundreds of genes it contains. Common features of the condition include facial differences, learning difficulties, congenital heart defects and a far higher risk of childhood leukaemia. However, advances in medical science mean that the life expectancy of people with Down's has risen sharply, and now averages 60 years. This increase led to some studies finding that adults with Down's syndrome appear to have less chance of developing certain cancers which involved "solid" tumours.
Faced with a prison population ageing as rapidly as the rest of the country, Japan is to build new jails with disabled access, including elevators, slopes for wheelchairs and grab-bars in toilets and baths. The three new penal facilities will offer healthy meals and may also have specialists in nursing and rehabilitation on staff, a Justice Ministry official said. The number of prison inmates aged over 60 rose to 8,700 in 2006 from 3,500 in 1997. Those with disabilities are currently spread around the country, making it difficult for wardens to deal with them, the ministry said.
A photography exhibition titled 'Skills' to celebrate abilities was held on platform number 5 and 6 at the Fort Railway Station from December 11, 2007 to January 4, 2008, to change the stigma affiliated with disability in Sri Lanka and create a more inclusive society for persons with disabilities. The exhibition displayed the work of three prominent Sri Lankan photographers, Anoma Rajakaruna, Menika Van Der Pooten and Gemunu Amarasinghe and one French photographer who specializes in disability photography, Philippe Merchez. The exhibits were selected with the participation of disabled activists and partners affiliated to the Abilympic competition. The exhibition portrayed photographs taken during the Abilympic competition which brought together 600 persons with disabilities from across Sri Lanka. The four national winners represented Sri Lanka at the 7th International Abilympic Competition in Japan in November 2007. Organized by Handicap International Sri Lanka, the exhibition will tour the country throughout 2008 and be displayed at selected public locations and railway stations. These activities to raise awareness on issues pertaining to the rights, social inclusion and access to livelihood for persons with disabilities are being held in connection with the International Day of Disabled Persons celebrated last year, under the UN global theme of 'Decent work for people with disabilities'.
The Conference themed "Innovations and Solutions Focused" is the first of its kind in east and Southeast Asia that focused on the equal rights of women with disabilities. The objective of the conference is to establish a network for women with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. The Conference does not target at discussion only, but also aims at generating the tactics and strategies in solving the problems. It will be conducted in Cantonese, Putonghua, and English. Simultaneous interpretation service will be provided.
The United Nations has approved a Philippine-led initiative that would include some 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which aim to wipe out poverty. In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., Philippine permanent representative to the UN in New York, lauded the Filipino diplomats who successfully pushed for the adoption of the resolution, "Implementation of the World Program of Action Concerning Disabled Persons: Realizing the Millennium Development Goals for Persons with Disabilities" in the 62nd UN General Assembly. Davide said 103 member-states cosponsored the resolution aimed at including the perspective of persons with disabilities in the MDGs, a set of eight targets that binds countries to exert more effort toward addressing the problems of inadequate incomes, widespread hunger, gender inequality, environmental deterioration and lack of education, health care and clean water.
A 166-strong sports team is leaving for the Southeast Asian Para Games-2008 on January 8 with the aim of bagging some 60 golds and winning a place in the top three rankings. The biggest regional sports event for the disabled athletes will take place in Thailand from January 20-25. The Vietnamese sportsmen, led by General Secretary of the Vietnam Disabled Sportsmen's Association Vu The Phiet, will compete in track-and-field, swimming, table-tennis, badminton, weight-lifting, tennis, judo and chess events. Donors have also pledged to grant an immediate award of VND3 million to each gold recorded at the event.
Aten cannot control his muscles, nor can he speak as well as other children do. Suffering from cerebral palsy, the three-and-a-half-year-old boy can hardly articulate to his parents what he wants to do, wants to eat or where he would like to go. But today Aten seems to be happier--he now enjoys communicating with his parents and other people more because he has a tool, a computer by which he can express his desires. This is all possible, thanks to equipment and a computer program developed by the Assistive Technology Center (Astec) of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Nectec) in Thailand. Nectec has teamed up with Siriraj Hospital to conduct a trial project using prototype equipment and software to help people with communication, language or speech problems.
Under one per cent of the people employed in the civil service are disabled, and the public sector must be more proactive in hiring people with disabilities. Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) president Senator Datuk Dr Ismail Md Salleh said the reason the figure was so low was probably because the Public Services Department (PSD) did not know what type of job would best suit a disabled person and what sort of facilities they would need. "A more proactive approach must be taken. I suggest that special priority be given to some jobs to ensure that more disabled persons work in the public sector," he said at the MAB open house. "If possible, we and the Social Welfare Department will work together with PSD to identify suitable jobs." Welfare Department director-general Meme Abdul Rashid said it was working with PSD to achieve its target of one per cent disabled persons working in the public and private sectors. She added that the department was using the "job coach" programme in which the department acted as middleman, matching employees with employers. Ismail said the number of disabled people in the private sector was encouraging, but more could be done. "The disabled could help wean us off our dependence on foreign workers."
For children with disabilities, information about sex and gender were even scarcer. Recently the Department of Education and Training (Ho Chi Minh City) and the Special Education Department at the University of Pedagogy-HCMC organized a two-day crash training course for local teachers and educators titled "sex education for disabled students". The course was part of an initiative by UK non-profit organization, Volunteer Services Organization (VSO). In Vietnam a large percentage of sexually-abused children have some sort of disability, according to Pham Thi Tiet Hanh, deputy head of early childhood under the city's department of education and training. Currently, the systemized Vietnamese sign language system addresses only 2,000 words, with only a few related to sex education. Phan Thi Ngoc Dung, a teacher at District 1 School of Special Education for the Future and one of the course's participants, said the training showed her effective ways to teach her students lessons such as how to recognize "dangerous" signals from the opposite sex.
Wheelchair-user S. Thanaletchumy, was overjoyed when she received her first order for Chinese New Year baskets and flower arrangements. It was a happy moment for the 24-year-old, who is fondly known as Chitra, when a few local folks decided to place orders for her products after seeing her works in Port Klang recently. Chitra became paralyzed from waist down after her motorbike collided with a car when she was returning home after work. She said she had been learning flower arrangement from a volunteer at the Beautiful Gate Foundation for the Disabled in Petaling Jaya since May last year. Beautiful Gate Foundation executive director Sia Siew Chin said "We are proud to see her so positive and optimistic now compared to her first few months in the home. She had low confidence and self-esteem". Sia also said Chinese New Year baskets and flower arrangements were part of the handmade products produced by the disabled members of the foundation. The handmade products are sold to raise funds to pay for part of the home's activities, she added.
Action for Autism with support from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is proud to host the South Asian Conference on Autism in New Delhi over 15 and 16 January 2008. This will be followed by a two-day practical hands-on training workshop in Structured Teaching on the TEACCH approach over 17 and 18 January 2008. The Conference will have a number of speakers who have Autism and who will speak on growing up and living with autism. There will be national and international presenters on Social Understanding, Adolescent Issues, Employment, Communication, Education, Marriage and Sexuality, among others. The conference will also provide a professional platform to share and exchange knowledge and learning about various issues affecting the Autism community in South Asia. Academicians, researchers, professionals from the UK, USA, Denmark, Germany and India and SAARC countries from a range of fields have been invited to share and exchange the latest in research and practice. The workshop following the conference will aim to train mainstream teachers, special needs teachers, OTs, SLPs, vocational trainers, parents, and anyone involved in helping individuals with autism receive an education and life skills training. The training on the TEACCH approach out of North Carolina will address the need for structure in a lifespan perspective, from the classroom right up to employment and future life. For more information
Some 1,500 disabled athletes from the Association of the Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries will start competing at the 4th ASEAN Para Games on Sunday in Thailand's northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima. The athletes from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei and Timor Leste will flex their expertise in a myriad of sports. Dubbed the biggest ever games for the disabled in Southeast Asia, the event will be held at the King's 80th Birthday Anniversary Stadium sports complex in the main town of Nakhon Ratchasima province. The theme of the biennial event is "Friendship, Equality and Opportunity". Its main objectives are promotion of friendship and sports development, and integrating them into society. The games end on Jan. 27. Athletes will competing in athletics, badminton, chess, goal ball, judo, power lifting, swimming, table tennis, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, archery, boccia, fencing and shooting. At stake are 935 gold medals. Meant for the physically disabled, the games are organized just after the SEA Games by the same host nation, like other multi-sports tournaments like the Olympics and the Asian Games. The first ASEAN Para Games was held in Kuala Lumpur in 2001, with just athletics and swimming. Two years later, the number of sports increased to five during its second edition in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Microsoft has opened up its usability specifications, the User Interface Automation (UIA), to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), a group formed to develop standards for making user interfaces more accessible to people with disabilities. The 2,600-page specification document, which was released royalty-free, marks the first significant upgrade to the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) standards, which were released with Windows 95. The new standards operate as both a bridging technology for the previous standards, which creates backward compatibility for current screen readers and other devices, and forward-looking technology that attempts to create a universal standard for the Linux, Solaris, Apple and Microsoft operating systems. "We are trying to remove the barriers to creating technologies that are more accessible and work across all platforms," said Norm Hodne, Microsoft Windows Accessibility Lead. "We've creating the plumbing that works between software applications and operating systems."
Provincial Minister for Public Health Engineering Mian Shafqat Ali has called for closer cooperation and liaison between the government and social organizations for rehabilitation of disabled children. He said social organizations should join in creating public awareness, and that by adopting effective measures at initial stages, the disabled could turn more useful. He said his government was trying for the rehabilitation of physically disabled children by providing all possible help to rehabilitation centres. At a workshop, at the Mayo Hospital, titled "rehabilitation of disabled", where Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre In charge Dr. Khalid Jamil was also present, the minister said, "It's the need of the hour to create awareness among parents that instead of ignoring by birth physically handicapped born children, they should contact the rehabilitation centres to check up their children to remove physical disorders. If parents pay attention to this problem earlier, many children can be saved." Dr. Jamil said his centre had trained 811 mothers under the "mother-doctor training programme" enabling them to conduct physical exercises to their children at home. He said the element of inheritance was also a cause of physical disorder, and cousin marriages should be discouraged in case of any kind of disability in the family. The minister visited various sections of the hospital's rehabilitation centre.
The Centre is planning to issue necessary directions to all airlines in the country to ensure a barrier-free environment for disabled passengers in airport as well as aircraft, the Madras High Court was informed on Wednesday. Responding to a public interest litigation petition filed by L.K. Venkat, who highlighted an incident wherein a physically disabled person, Rajiv Rajan, was not allowed to board an Air Sahara plane, the Centre said: "Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on the subject 'carriage by air of stretcher-borne passengers' already exists. This CAR is being suitably amended in consonance with the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Act) and necessary directions are contemplated to be issued to all the airliners." The amended CAR, defining physically disabled passengers, said all operators engaged in scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services for carriage of passengers should comply with the requirements. No airline should refuse to carry physically disabled passengers or incapacitated persons or persons with disabilities if they did not pose a threat to the safety of other passengers, their property, aircraft or the crew, it said. Among other facilities, the amended CAR stated that except in specific instances no medical clearance or special forms should be required for such physically disabled or incapacitated passengers, who only required special assistance for embarking/disembarking.
China's State Council, or cabinet, on approved in principle a draft law revision that means better education, better rehabilitation, a higher standard of living and more jobs for the country's disabled. The revision draft deepened the concept of putting people first and focused on improving or adding stipulations guaranteeing the rights and interests of the handicapped, the meeting said. Improvement include: -- Establishing and improving rehabilitation service system for the disabled; encouraging and supporting establishment of such institutions. -- Setting up educational institutions for the disabled and providing financial support for disabled students and children with poor disabled parents. -- Setting up more public welfare jobs for the disabled, providing free employment services, and encouraging employers to arrange job for the disabled. -- Adopting necessary aid measures for the disabled families who still suffered poverty though enjoying guarantee of subsistence allowances for urban residents. The draft also added stipulations on the improvement of the disabled- friendly facilities and the building of an easy environment for the handicapped to equally participate in social life, the meeting said, adding that the revision further made clear legal responsibilities for the infringement of disabled people's rights and interests.
Disablement, needless to say, significantly reduces the life quality of a person as it substantially diminishes their work ability. Assistive or adaptive technology, however, can bring back the individual's employability at an acceptable level. Unfortunately, most people, even the disabled themselves, in the third world countries are not aware that assistive technology may become their real friend in assisting them in everyday life. This article highlights some assistive technologies for different types of disabilities; before that it is worth mentioning what an assistive technology means. There is no specific definition of Assistive Technology (AT). It simply denotes any item, piece of equipment, or system that is used to increase, maintain or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. The definition does not necessarily imply that AT must include computers, or that it must be expensive, or that certain medical professionals can only prescribe it. This definition permits AT to be restricted by your own creativity and imagination. The followings represent samples of the many types of AT, grouped by the nature of a user's disability, that are available.
Moving in the direction of making Delhi accessible to all, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has in collaboration with Samarthya National Centre for Promotion of Barrier Free Environment for Disabled Persons identified 20 sites and services in the Capital, including 225 Delhi Transport Corporation bus queue shelters and New Delhi railway station, for making them barrier-free under its "Accessible Delhi" project. As part of the two-year project that seeks to develop Delhi as a "model barrier-free city", the Foundation had come out with a plan document, "Accessible Delhi -A Road Map for 2003-2008". The document identified bottlenecks to draw up appropriate design concepts and lay down an action strategy for all civic and government agencies involved in these areas. The Project Officer of Accessible Delhi project, Anjilee Agarwal, said the access audit of 18 of the 20 sites and services had already been completed and the reports submitted to their respective owning agencies. Of these sites and services, six pertain to the New Delhi Municipal Council, two to DTC, two to Indian Railways, one to the Archaeological Survey of India, one to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and eight to the Delhi Government.
Visually impaired women told the audience that they were treated like 'second-class citizens', at a meeting held to discuss their problems. All support that is offered to them takes the form of charity, rather than that of granting rights, they said, at the meeting organised by the Nandini Voice for the Deprived here on Saturday. A. Meenakshi Sundari, teacher, recalled that she was denied life insurance because she was visually impaired. Another speaker said several banks refused her loan for self-employment activity. An exclusive hostel for visually-impaired women was a common request. With a large number of these women being from the lower-income category, they are left without support in the event of a care-taker's death. Several are also from rural areas where opportunities for self-sufficiency are limited. Providing them a safe space in an urban area would be of great help, some said. Instances of physical molestation were several, they pointed out. Unemployment was another problem, with the private sector often denying employment. Most of the visually-impaired were employed under the government quotas. The proceedings of the meeting would be published as a booklet, he said. Recommendations would also be drafted for the government to consider.
Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Centre will organize the conference on Disability and Disasters in Bhubaneswar, India. This conference will initiate a global discussion/dialogue among governments, disabled people's organizations, human rights bodies, and those working on disasters and related issues. The main objective of the Conference is to identify the actions needed across all stakeholder groups to ensure the inclusion of disabled people in disaster preparedness, response, management and governance. The Conference also aims to explore required actions relevant to legislation, policies, programmes, service delivery and practices that would ensure the safety, health, well-being, and human rights of disabled peoples within the context of disasters.
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