29 January, 2010

Half of all adults with a disability have trouble coping with daily tasks - study


MORE THAN half of all adults living with a disability say they have experienced difficulties going shopping, getting away for a holiday, taking part in community life and socialising in public venues, according to a new study.
The National Disability Survey from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) also reveals that 56 per cent of people with a disability who live in their own homes get help with everyday activities.
Family members are the main source of support for people with disabilities living in the community with 42 per cent of individuals receiving assistance with routine tasks from relatives who live with them.
One-third of adults with a disability who live in private households said they experienced difficulties doing routine tasks inside their home because of their disability. A further 19 per cent said they had a lot of difficulty carrying out everyday activities on their own.
The study shows people living in nursing homes and hospitals had higher levels of difficulty doing everyday activities such as washing and cooking.
Some 86 per cent of adults living in healthcare settings are unable to take a bath or shower by themselves compared to 31 per cent of people who reside in their own homes.
While some adults with a disability said they had made improvements to their home to help assist them carry out tasks on their own, 52 per cent of adults in private households said a lack of money meant they were unable to adapt their homes.
People with a disability who live in their own homes are far more likely to take part in social activities than those residing in nursing homes.
However, more than half of people with disabilities in private households reported having had problems when out in public settings such as bars, restaurants and shops.
Three-quarters of people with disabilities in private households said they did not regularly use public transport with most saying this was because they experienced difficulties getting on and off buses, trains, the Dart or Luas. Many respondents also reported problems transferring from one service to another and to getting to transport hubs.
Fine Gael said the study findings showed that the Government was failing in its duty to offer assistance to people with disabilities.
‘‘The problems identified in this survey concern activities that most of us would consider integral to our daily lives. I see no reason why people with disabilities should be forced to face barriers like this in the 21st century,’’ said the party’s disability spokesman David Stanton.
‘‘It is very obvious that much more needs to be done to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The Government must fulfil its commitments to these people and their carers,’’ he added.

24 January, 2010

India: With more and ‘exclusive’ hands, disabled welfare dept overcomes its disability


Nearly 15 years after it was formed, the Department of Disabled Welfare of the state government has finally overcome its “disabilities”, as it will have its own officers posted in the districts.


So far, the responsibility of district disabled welfare officer was discharged by officers from the social welfare department.


The first batch of 25 disabled welfare officers, who have been recruited by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC), will be posted in 25 districts. The department hopes that by the end of the year, all 71 districts will have their disabled welfare officers.


On Wednesday, the 25 officers attended a sensitisation workshop in Lucknow along with director disabled welfare and other senior officials. The workshop was jointly organised by the state department and Sense International (India), a Gujarat-based NGO working on multi-disabilities.

03 January, 2010

New rules aim to help Ontarians with disabilities


A new law took effect Friday in Ontario regulating how public bodies provide customer service to people with disabilities, part of a broader push to have the province be completely accessible by 2025.
But the new standards, which will eventually apply to the private sector as well, fall short of the changes that people with disabilities need to eliminate barriers in their day-to-day lives, several advocates said.
'Without enforcement these standards mean nothing... and that's why the vote is still out as to how positive the standards will actually be.'—Human rights lawyer Terrance Green
The new regulation requires all provincial agencies furnishing goods or services to the public to ensure that they generally do so on an integrated and equal basis for people with disabilities, that they permit — with some exceptions — service animals and support people on their premises, and that they have policies and training in place to guarantee as much. The measures were implemented under the Ontario Liberals' 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Public bodies ranging from hospitals, universities and school boards to the Landlord and Tenant Board and the Ontario Securities Commission have to instruct their staff on how to "interact and communicate with persons with various types of disability" and how to use any special equipment to do so, which could include a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD), for example.
Private companies will be subject to the same conditions starting Jan. 1, 2012.
Toronto lawyer David Lepofsky says rules requiring businesses and public bodies to be more accessible to people with disabilities are ultimately good for everyone.Toronto lawyer David Lepofsky says rules requiring businesses and public bodies to be more accessible to people with disabilities are ultimately good for everyone.
"This standard will help people of every ability gain equal access to customer services across the province," Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur said in a statement. "Many businesses and organizations in Ontario have already made great strides to ensure their doors — and their services — are open to everyone. And I applaud these efforts."
Advocates, however, said they remain concerned that the rules don't have clear enforcement terms and aren't detailed enough.
"Generally speaking, people are optimistic that it will make a real difference, that currently differences are being noted in customer service," said Terrance Green, an Ottawa human rights lawyer and chairperson of Citizens With Disabilities – Ontario, a public-education organization.
"But without enforcement these standards mean nothing … and that's why the vote is still out as to how positive the standards will actually be."
"We are concerned that the standard doesn't go far enough," said David Lepofsky, the chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. "It tells them to develop a policy, to develop their staff, certain principles, but it doesn't go into the details that we would like."
The government says enforcement methods will be detailed in a separate regulation, but so far it hasn't been implemented.

Barrier-free by 2025

The customer service regulations are the first of several accessibility standards the province is aiming to implement. Others, which are in various stages of development, deal with public transit, employment, the environment and access to information and communications. The government's stated goal is to make Ontario barrier-free for people with disabilities by 2025.
Lepofsky, a Toronto lawyer whose decade-long legal battle forced the city's public transit to announce subway and bus stops, said Ontarians with disabilities still face many kinds of barriers beyond the stereotype of the ramp-less restaurant or subway stop without an elevator.
"Some are informational," like websites that aren't designed to standards that allow people who are blind or have difficulties with text to access them with screen-reading software, he said. Others are communicational.
"It's been against the law to have these barriers for over a quarter of a century — it's in the Human Rights Code. But that has not led to all the barriers being removed, because the way all those rights were enforced was you had to sue all the barriers one at a time."
Lepofsky gave an example of a relatively simple accessibility measure he uses all the time: Many, but not all, bank machines have a headphone jack so blind customers can operate them.
Removing these kinds of barriers, Lepofsky said, is about fundamental human rights, but it's also ultimately good for everyone, including business.
"They're all things that make a company or an organization serve a broader customer base. And in the case of employment, it opens them up to more employees, so it's in their business interest.... Any restaurant that doesn't accommodate people with disabilities is losing a lot of customers."
The government estimates that more than 1.8 million Ontarians have a disability, and the number is growing as the population ages.
That may be why so far, according to Green, businesses have been receptive to the new customer-service standards.
"Chambers of commerce across the province have been conducting workshops on how to implement effectively the customer service standards, as a good-for-the-bottom-line type approach, and because of that, particularly in the small business sector, customer service has improved."
Ultimately, the new standards are about crafting a more just society for all, Lepofsky said.
"Disability comes with age, so it affects all of us. This helps everyone."