January 10, 2024
Writer: CJ Dumaguin, Kevin Miko Buac
Researcher: CJ Dumaguin, Kevin Miko Buac
Graphics: Jia Moaral, Krystle Labio
Tweet Chat Moderators: Tobey Fhar Isaac Calayo, Allysa Jane Fincle, Richardson Mojica
“Let us reaffirm our commitment to work together for an inclusive and equitable world, where the rights of people with disabilities are fully realized.” – Secretary-General António Guterres, United Nations (UN).
Recognized every January 4th, the day was proclaimed by the General Assembly last November, as a means of fully realizing the human rights of visually-impaired and partially-sighted people, and bringing written language to the forefront as a critical prerequisite for promoting fundamental freedoms.
Braille is a tactile language used by blind and partially sighted people. Combinations of raised dots represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols, so that books and periodicals can be read through touch.
The system was invented by Frenchman Louis Braille nearly 200 years ago. In a post on Twitter, the President of the UN General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, commended Braille as a tool for freedom of expression, access to information and social inclusion.
MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES AND DISABILITY
Things like picking up the phone or opening an email can fill someone with overwhelming anxiety, that they become impossible tasks. This may leave many people with mental health problems out of the loop – the very one designed to assist them. Even worse, it can cause further distress.
Population interventions can reduce health lost to some disabilities by addressing immediate causes, such as through improving work safety. More than 1 billion people worldwide have some form of visual impairment, including 41 million people who are blind, and yet 90% of visual impairment is preventable or treatable in a cost-effective way.
Hearing loss is one of the leading contributors to years lived with disability, affecting 1·57 billion people; expanding screening and treatment could substantially reduce the direct health burden of hearing loss, and educational disadvantage among children with hearing loss and the risk of social isolation among older adults.
Many disabilities are not preventable, however. People living with disabilities face poorer overall health outcomes than their peers without disability. The Missing Billion Report on access to health services for the billion people with disabilities found evidence from a range of countries that people with disabilities have a higher prevalence of conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, preterm birth, HIV, childhood malnutrition, and substance misuse. Disabilities interact with comorbid conditions and exposure to social determinants of ill-health to produce these health disadvantages.
People with disabilities are often excluded—through direct and indirect discrimination—from the workforce and from education. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of all people with disabilities are unable to afford health-care, compared with a third of people without disabilities.
People with disabilities commonly face barriers such as lack of transportation, inaccessible health-care facilities and non-disability-friendly equipment or procedures. Health-care providers too often lack the skills to meet the specific needs of people with disabilities or general awareness training to ensure that people are treated well and fairly.
Health-care workers may fail to look past a person’s disability to see other, unrelated health-care needs. These barriers can also exclude people with disabilities from preventive health activities—ranging from cancer screening and access to sanitation to the simple opportunity for physical exercise.
Its note on “COVID–19: Considerations for Children and Adults with Disabilities” addresses issues that include access to information; water, sanitation and hygiene; healthcare, education, child protection, and mental health and psychosocial support.
Mental health services are crucial to the visually impaired during the pandemic, particularly if people are feeling isolated. Everyone deserves (and is legally entitled to) the same accommodations and services, regardless of ability.
With the principle of universality to accessibility, disability inclusion allows for people with disabilities to take advantage of the benefits of the same health promotion and prevention activities experienced by people who do not have a disability.
PROMOTING INCLUSIVITY AND SOCIETAL SUPPORT
Disabilities include long-term sensory, mental, intellectual, or physical impairments that can impact people’s daily lives, health care, and support needs. The prevalence of disabilities will most certainly increase substantially in the coming decades as the global population ages. Nonetheless, people with disabilities are often neglected by health systems and experience profound inequalities in health and wellbeing outcomes.
Building back fairer after the pandemic offers an opportunity to rethink and end the neglect of people with disabilities in public health—this will be essential to meet the sustainable development goal ambition to leave no one behind. For Bonnie Swenor, “Until people with disabilities are included in all efforts to advance health equity, we will fall short in reaching this goal.”
As a first step, better data on the health inequalities facing people with disabilities are urgently needed to understand the epidemiology of disability and related social determinants of health. Moreover, disability awareness should be included in the curricula for those working in and researching health. Disability should no longer be an afterthought and needs to be included in all public health equity efforts.
There is a need to expand beyond the medical model of disability to the human rights model of disability. It is imperative to provide for the needs of individuals with disabilities proactively. From their experiences in society, their interactions with others, and their individual needs. Because they, like everyone else, have a right to health. So let’s remember to do our part in making the world more accessible to all!
Session Questions:
- How can we build a culture of inclusion for people with disabilities across various facets of life?
- How sustainable are the programs and free services for people with disabilities in the Philippines?
- How can existing policies be further improved to address the needs for individuals with disabilities?
REFERENCES:
[1] United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2019).First-Ever World Braille Day Fosters More Accessible and Disability-Inclusive Societies. Retrieved from https://social.desa.un.org/issues/disability/news/first-ever-world-braille-day-fosters-more-accessible-and-disability
[2] United Nations News (2022). World Braille Day: Pandemic shows Importance of Information Access to All. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/01/1109092
[3] The Lancet Public Health (2021). Disability – A Neglected Issue in Public Health. Retrieved from https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00109-2/fulltext
[4] United Nations Children’s Fund (2021), Discussion Paper. A Rights-Based Approach to Disability in the Context of Mental Health, New York. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/media/95836/file/A%20Rights-Based%20Approach%20to%20Disability%20in%20the%20Context%20of%20Mental%20Health.pdf
