Saturday, March 31, 2007

disability rights

The UK is to sign up to a Unitied National agreement on disability rights.The areas it covers include participation in culture and non-discrimination . I've got really mixed feelings about this. It seems in our society that those who shout the loudest are the ones who get what they want as far as disability is concerned. I read this to mean that there will be more pressure on employers to take quotas of people who are disabled but little attention will be given to the suitability of these people or the ways that their colleagues might have to carry them in competitive situations where they cannot cope as well because of their disability. On the other hand there are thousands of people with long term disabilities which get absolutely nothing from society and whose carers get absolutely nothing. This includes families with profoundly disabled children and elderly carers who look after relatives with chronic health problems. In reality both these groups of disabled people are getting less and less care as councils withdraw what little suppport or respite services there used to be. What I'm saying is not politically correct but in my job I've come across loads of long term disabled who are struggling to survive yet all the effort is going to go into helping a relatively small group of disabled people who are always complaining about their rights. No one is interested in those who cannot work or will never work. The irony is that 20 years ago some groups of disabled people were better supported than they are now. Non-discrimination is a myth; all that is happening is that the discrimination is being moved to a different group. The definition of discrimination is being changed to make it seem as if it has gone. It's not gone away. The loud mouthed millitants might be stopped from shouting but for the silent majority of disabled their needs are ignored.In fact their needs are not even acknowledged because we no longer have disabililty discimination.

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