AMMAN — There
are 1.2 million persons with disabilities in Jordan, comprising 11.2% of the
population, yet this significant portion of the population faces numerous
obstacles that prevent them from being integrated into the community.
اضافة اعلان
Media
spokesperson for the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (
HCD) Raafat Al-Zitawi told
Jordan News that this number excludes those
under five years of age.
The challenges
facing persons with disabilities include physical limitations in addition to
the environmental and behavioral barriers that disabled persons face, Zitawi
explained.
The first
obstacle he identified is environmental, meaning the accessibility of the
nation’s infrastructure.
“Buildings
need to be accessible for persons with disabilities and be up-to-code,” said
Zitawi. “This would ease their integration into all sectors: the
workforce,
health sector, the education system.”
To make
buildings accessible, engineers must be trained on these building codes and
nation-wide requirements for infrastructure including schools, shopping areas,
mosques, churches, streets, and parks must be set up.
Another
obstacle is the societal acceptance of persons with disabilities. This includes
their integration in the learning sector and even the workforce, according to
the spokesperson.
“Teachers
are not trained to communicate with persons with disabilities, and other
students are not used to interacting with them,” he said. “If children are
exposed to curricula that address persons with disabilities and their rights,
and see them in the classroom, the next generation would be more accepting.”
Business
owners are often unaware that if appropriate measures and relevant technology
is provided, persons with disabilities can perform as well as anyone.
"We
define them as persons with disabilities, but they are able if we
provide them with the assistive tools or the accessibility that they need,”
said disability-inclusive initiative Natahadda (we’re up to the challenge) co-founder
Rami Awwad in an interview with
Jordan News.
Yet, there
is a social stigma regarding persons with disabilities that stems from a lack
of awareness.
“A lot of
people are afraid to add that they have a disability in their job applications
and CV because many companies exclude them right away upon seeing that.”
He
described working with several persons with disabilities throughout the country
who were able to excel when given the proper tools and support. This includes a
girl who earned her master’s degree this year, despite having no hands to write
with.
“We are
raising awareness using these people, to show other parents that even if their
child has a disability, they can achieve their goals,” Awwad added. “It is also
important that we give them proper tools and technologies to help them be
independent.”
A lack of
access to information is yet another obstacle preventing persons with
disabilities to reach their potential.
“A blind
person, for example, needs suitable technology to ease their access to
information,” said Zitawi. “The deaf community needs sign language translations
and those with learning disabilities need simplified texts.” These are not so
easily found across the Kingdom.
While
persons with disabilities call for immediate change, Zitawi explains that the
impact of any policy will be gradual.
“There is
change; it is slow, but it is important to note that nations that are more
advanced in accessibility started working on this decades ago,” he said. “We
need time, at least 10 years, for the impacts of what we are doing to show.”
The Persons
with Disabilities Rights Law, set up in 2017, proposed three 10-year plans to
address these obstacles. Each project is assigned to appropriate institutions
and will be executed with the support of the HCD, Zitawi said.
The high number
of persons with disability in the Kingdom only stresses the importance of
eliminating these obstacles, he said, and integration will transform them into
assets.
“When we
update frameworks and integrate tools, persons with disabilities will be able
to produce, to participate in building the community and will have a greater
role in the nation.”
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