Day: May 24, 2023

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Hello friends!

Being a mother to a special needs child, I have strongly felt the need that all parents with special needs children should be aware about their and their child’s basic rights and basic provisions of various laws related to disability. This knowledge not only gives confidence but also empowers them to deal with injustice, prejudice, discrimination etc faced by them due to lack of awareness in society.

In my last blog, I discussed about the ‘Provisions of Constitution of India with regard to Persons with Disabilities’
https://specialsaathi.com/2023/05/10/by-shivani-lohia/

Continuing with the same agenda, in today’s blog, I am discussing ‘Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ (CRPD). Today’s blog is an overview about CRPD. In the coming blogs, I shall be discussing the various provisions of CRPD in detail.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.
It got drafted on 13 December 2006 finally coming into force on 3 May 2008. As of January 2023, it has 164 signatories and 186 parties, 185 states and the European Union.
The convention is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its purpose is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

Guiding principles of the CRPD

The eight guiding principles that underlie the convention are as follows:
1. Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons
2. Non-discrimination
3. Full and effective participation and inclusion in society
4. Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity
5. Equality of opportunity
6. Accessibility
7. Equality between men and women
8. Respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities and respect for the right of children with disabilities to preserve their identities

Some important terms have been defined as follows by CRPD.

Disability
– CRPD does not define ‘Disability’ as such but adopts a Social Model of Disability.
– The Social Model of Disability identifies systemic barriers, derogatory attitudes, and social exclusion (intentional or inadvertent), which make it difficult or impossible for disabled people to attain their valued functionings.
– The social model of disability seeks to redefine disability to refer to the restrictions caused by society when it does not give equitable social and structural support according to disabled peoples’ structural needs.
– For example, if a person is unable to climb stairs, the social model tries to make stair-climbing unnecessary, such as by making society adapt to their needs, and assist them by replacing the stairs with a wheelchair-accessible ramp. According to the social model, the person remains disabled with respect to climbing stairs, but the disability is negligible and no longer disabling in that scenario, because the person can now get to the same locations without climbing any stairs.


Reasonable Accommodation
– A reasonable accommodation is necessary & appropriate modification and adjustments, made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on proven variable needs so that such person with disabilities can enjoy or exercise all human rights and fundamental freedoms equally with others.
– Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, or employment-related, and law often mandates them.
– Each country has its own system of reasonable accommodations.
– The United Nations use this term in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, saying refusal to make accommodation results in discrimination.


Accessibility
– Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities.
– The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).
– Accessibility can be grouped into three main groups.
o Physical accessibility
o Service accessibility
o Accessibility to communication and information.
– Accessibility can be viewed as the “ability to access” and benefit from some system or entity. The concept focuses on enabling access for people with disabilities, or enabling access through the use of assistive technology. An accessible society should eliminate digital divide or knowledge divide.
– Accessibility is not to be confused with usability, which is the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, convenience, or satisfaction in a specified context of use.
– Accessibility is also strongly related to universal design, which is the process of creating products that are usable by the widest possible range of people, operating within the widest possible range of situations. A universal design provides a single general solution that can accommodate people with disabilities as well as the rest of the population. By contrast, accessible design is focused on ensuring that there are no barriers to accessibility for all people, including those with disabilities.

You must have observed that the above three terms, Disability, Reasonable Accommodation and Accessibility, have been very widely defined and have practical applicability.

In the coming blogs, I shall be discussing more about CRPD.
Read ‘Importance of Financial Planning for Special Needs Families’ https://specialsaathi.com/2023/01/25/importance-of-financial-planning-financial-planning-series-blog-1/

In the meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts on WhatsApp number +919910353219 or email contact@autismfinancialplanning.com
Source: Wikipedia

Author Shivani Lohia

Shivani Lohia is a Chartered Accountant by profession and mother to 8 years old child on the autism spectrum. The cause of autism awareness is very close to her heart and she strongly believes in equal education for all & strongly advocates inclusion. She has been homeschooling her son since he was 5 years old.

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Creative representation for this blog is done by our extremely talented CreativeSaathi associate Vinayak Raj