The Hindu Business Line : How Europe cares for the disabled

Over three years ago, I had the opportunity of making my way to London's Curzon Soho for the debut screening of Kroko, a powerful German film featuring real-life disabled actors and teenage tearaways. The film is about a teenage girl who is sentenced to community service and ends up working with people with learning disabilities. The motion picture shows how an ostensibly out-of-control delinquent can be made to articulate with humanity and compassion after she strikes up interaction with disabled people.

Last week in London, I again had the fortuity to watch the repeat of I'm With Stupid. This six-part BBC comedy series is about a disabled loner who shares his sheltered accommodation with a homeless man off the street. More than half the cast are registered disabled.

As India continues to be one of the most disabled-unfriendly countries in the world, nations in Europe are getting ready to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first Human Rights Treaty to be signed by the European Communities as a legal entity.

This will ensure for the disabled, their right to gender-sensitive health and their civil, political, economic, social and cultural inclusion in society. Countries which ratify the convention will be legally obliged to treat people with disabilities as individuals with rights. These rights are clearly defined throughout 50 articles within the Convention's text.

Most countries in Europe already have disabled-friendly laws and people with disabilities are entitled to help and assistance to mitigate their problem.

The general goal is to overcome, as much as possible, the disability's effects and to enable the disabled to participate in all areas of society, especially in the labour market and in community life.

Legal Sources for Disabled Rights

The basic laws that provide rights and benefits for disabled people include that no person may be discriminated against because of his or her disability. Furthermore, these laws also have the goal of enabling all disabled people and their families to live a life that is as normal as possible, especially by promoting equal participation in all areas of life.

Degree of Disability

A person's disability is stated in degrees from 20-100. The degree is recognised in a formal procedure by the competent authorities. The administration has issued guidelines for the evaluation of disabilities and the recognition of disability degrees. If the disabled person's status improves, the degree of disability will be adjusted or totally revoked.

Workforce Quota

All employers (public and private) with a workforce of 20 or more are required to fill 5 per cent of their jobs with severely disabled employees. If an employer does not comply with the quota, he has to pay a monthly compensation penalty for each unfilled compulsory place.

Adequate Employment Conditions

The European law requires that the employer be obliged to ensure that the severely disabled employee is neither too little nor too much challenged by the job.

Special Workshops

For those disabled people who are not able to participate in the general labour market, workshops offer suitable vocational training and employment.

Education

In Germany, the education of disabled children is not a federal but a state responsibility. Many disabled children receive effective assistance in regular schools and are able to reach the educational goals.

However, this regularly requires additional special teaching by trained teachers and disability-suited facilities. Furthermore, the law provides that no more than a certain number of disabled children attend a class.

Universities are required, in the most feasible way, to take the special needs of disabled students into consideration to avoid discrimination against disabled students and to enable them participate in university activities without outside help. The same applies to university exams.

Special Schools

If disabled children cannot receive sufficient assistance in ordinary schools, special schools must help them achieve the educational aims that are within their capabilities. The aim is to help the disabled child obtain a general school-leaving qualification.

Education Funding

The assistance for appropriate school education is provided by the social assistance fund and the financial means are provided up to university education.

Unhindered Access

A key area of the Disabilities Laws in most of Europe is to provide `access' in all possible ways by creating a barrier-free environment. This aims at equal participation in community life for disabled people by eliminating obstacles to mobility in the areas of construction and transport and communication.

It is intended to create an obstacle-free, safe environment for the disabled to enable them to live without outside help as much as possible.

In most of Europe, all new buildings and major modifications of or add-ons to governmental buildings must be designed and constructed barrier-free according to the general technical standards laid out by the EU. This especially includes the requirement for wheel-chair ramps, extra-wide entrances, elevators and suitable restrooms and tactile signs.

Transportation

In most of Europe, all public transportation devices and means for public transportation are designed and constructed barrier-free.

Disabled people who are extraordinarily limited in their walking mobility (paraplegia, both thighs or lower legs amputated, or comparable disabilities) receive, in addition to the above mentioned benefits, 100 per cent relief on their motor vehicle tax, other tax relief, and they are entitled to use special parking spaces that are reserved for the handicapped.

Elections

Even voting rooms are barrier-free and equipped in such a way that the participation for disabled people and people with limitations of mobility are alleviated. People with sight disabilities have the right to use a stencil in the voting process.

Communication

In official procedures with any of the European federal administrative agencies, all speech- and hearing-impaired people are entitled to hearing and speech aids at no cost, especially to a sign-language interpreter.

In Germany, while many train stations have Braille guides for the visually-challenged, while shopping in my local corner store, I found even beer cans with Braille markings embossed on the top.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de

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