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Are the rights of people with disabilities respected in Ukraine?
Every year, on May 5, the world community celebrates the International Day for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On this day in 1992, the first European action against equal rights and against discrimination against people with disabilities took place. It was conducted simultaneously by people with disabilities from 17 countries. Her motto was a message that no category of citizens should be left without the attention of the authorities, regardless of nationality, religion, property status, health status.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1 billion people worldwide have some form of disability that accounts for nearly 15% of the world’s population. More than 100 million disabled people are children. Moreover, disability rates are growing, which is associated with an aging population and the growth of chronic diseases.
According to official data, about 2.6 million people with disabilities live in Ukraine. Cash payments from the state are meager, and the public space is almost not adapted to the special needs of such people. But those who are born with disabilities have the hardest time, says social affairs expert Larysa Samsonova.
- A child born with a disability a priori has the right to education. And this is quite a difficult moment.After all, as it turns out, in our country, education, which is guaranteed by the Constitution to any child, is not really for everyone. There is a gradation and division of children between the Ministries of Education and Science and Social Protection. Neither the first nor the second ministry assumes any responsibility for the observance of the right to education of a child with special needs, especially with severe developmental disabilities. What is it about? In order for such a child to get into kindergarten or school, it is necessary to prove that he can be there. It is necessary to go through a humiliating procedure of psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation, which will confirm the diagnosis of the child (although all government officials declare that its conclusion is purely advisory). With this conclusion, the child’s parents go to school, which can not take the child to school. There are several reasons: the school is not equipped and not suitable for a child with special needs. School programs are not adapted to the needs of the child. Teachers are not ready to teach such a child. There are no student assistants in the list of professions. And in general, society is not ready to see such a child in school. And then - or back home, or recommended home schooling, which also takes place in four walls, or the child is recommended to visit a day care center (are they still these centers?), Which also does not take all children, because a lot of warnings for that. This is the only option for placing a child in an orphanage boarding school of the Ministry of Social Policy, - says Larisa Samsonova.
Another painful problem for people with special needs is employment. The law sets a 4% standard for the employment of persons with disabilities for enterprises of all forms of ownership. If the company employs 8 to 25 people, the employer must create one job for a person with a disability. If this does not happen, the company pays a "fine".
A person with a disability has certain benefits and additional social guarantees. Despite tax breaks, the lion’s share of employers are accustomed to paying fines rather than hiring people with special needs. Exceptions are well-known international companies that do business in Ukraine, and individual enterprising entrepreneurs who build their business, above all, on a conscious civic position.
But perhaps the biggest barrier to the employment of such people is the outdated and offensively unjust stereotype that disability is a disability.
The government’s actions to protect people with special needs are mainly aimed at ensuring that all social benefits are at least the subsistence level.
Public actions are currently aimed at the website of the Electronic Petitions of the President of Ukraine, where a petition has been created on a public initiative to increase social benefits for persons with disabilities of all categories to the level of the official minimum wage.
Author Kateryna Stebelska
Read also: Adult charity: who helps people over 18?
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The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1 billion people worldwide have some form of disability that accounts for nearly 15% of the world’s population. More than 100 million disabled people are children. Moreover, disability rates are growing, which is associated with an aging population and the growth of chronic diseases.
According to official data, about 2.6 million people with disabilities live in Ukraine. Cash payments from the state are meager, and the public space is almost not adapted to the special needs of such people. But those who are born with disabilities have the hardest time, says social affairs expert Larysa Samsonova.
- A child born with a disability a priori has the right to education. And this is quite a difficult moment.After all, as it turns out, in our country, education, which is guaranteed by the Constitution to any child, is not really for everyone. There is a gradation and division of children between the Ministries of Education and Science and Social Protection. Neither the first nor the second ministry assumes any responsibility for the observance of the right to education of a child with special needs, especially with severe developmental disabilities. What is it about? In order for such a child to get into kindergarten or school, it is necessary to prove that he can be there. It is necessary to go through a humiliating procedure of psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation, which will confirm the diagnosis of the child (although all government officials declare that its conclusion is purely advisory). With this conclusion, the child’s parents go to school, which can not take the child to school. There are several reasons: the school is not equipped and not suitable for a child with special needs. School programs are not adapted to the needs of the child. Teachers are not ready to teach such a child. There are no student assistants in the list of professions. And in general, society is not ready to see such a child in school. And then - or back home, or recommended home schooling, which also takes place in four walls, or the child is recommended to visit a day care center (are they still these centers?), Which also does not take all children, because a lot of warnings for that. This is the only option for placing a child in an orphanage boarding school of the Ministry of Social Policy, - says Larisa Samsonova.
Another painful problem for people with special needs is employment. The law sets a 4% standard for the employment of persons with disabilities for enterprises of all forms of ownership. If the company employs 8 to 25 people, the employer must create one job for a person with a disability. If this does not happen, the company pays a "fine". A person with a disability has certain benefits and additional social guarantees. Despite tax breaks, the lion’s share of employers are accustomed to paying fines rather than hiring people with special needs. Exceptions are well-known international companies that do business in Ukraine, and individual enterprising entrepreneurs who build their business, above all, on a conscious civic position.
But perhaps the biggest barrier to the employment of such people is the outdated and offensively unjust stereotype that disability is a disability.
The government’s actions to protect people with special needs are mainly aimed at ensuring that all social benefits are at least the subsistence level.
Public actions are currently aimed at the website of the Electronic Petitions of the President of Ukraine, where a petition has been created on a public initiative to increase social benefits for persons with disabilities of all categories to the level of the official minimum wage.
Author Kateryna Stebelska
Read also: Adult charity: who helps people over 18?
DONATION