“My wish list for Building Back Better…” – Ways forward to build an inclusive world for people with disabilities

The United Nations theme for International Day for Persons with Disabilities 2020 focuses on ways to build a more inclusive world for people with disabilities in the post Covid scenario. What will it take to do that? Here are some views.

The pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of people with disabilities but also cast a spotlight on people and organisations that came forward in a big way to support the community.

We speak to some of them about how the pandemic changed their lives and the change they would like to see.

Diethono Dee Nakhro, Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Nagaland

This pandemic situation has made me wary of social contact. I find I’m looking at everyone outside of my immediate household with suspicion, like they are a threat to me, which I guess we all are to each other in these trying times.

Accommodations for remote learning and working for disabled people who require it must continue and strengthened. Policies must be put in place urgently to bridge digital divides.

Shishir Joshi, CEO-Founder, Project Mumbai, Winner – UN Solidarity Action Award 2020 for humanitarian work during COVID 19

Several issues and vulnerabilities pertaining to communities and persons with special needs got amplified and highlighted at a national level. This has also led to scores of initiatives being launched, support groups getting built and outreach platforms getting created.

The challenge now is to sustain these initiatives into an inclusive set of guidelines which are real and practiced. Should we wait for another catastrophe to highlight the plight of the PwD?

Accessibility remains a challenge

Amar Jain, Corporate Lawyer & Winner, NCPEDP Mphasis Javed Abidi Public Policy Award 2018

The good thing is that delivery pf services through digital means has exponentially increased. The B2B segment has also gone up in many ways. This is good from the perspective of visually impaired people like me given the mobility challenges.

However, accessibility is still missing and even in this situation when we are digitising so fast, we are developing bad codes and websites which don’t conform to use-ability, forget accessibility for disabled.

Jasmina Khanna, Systems Engineer & Co-founder, Access to Hope

Covid has made me more of a home bound person. Life had almost come to a standstill when it comes to fighting for the rights of persons with disability.

Infrastructure accessibility is very important when it comes making the world more inclusive. I aim to make my city Mumbai more accessible post Covid.

Kailash Tandel, IIT Researcher who helped raise funds for fishing community during Covid

My mobility has been affected due to Covid in a major way. This is true for all persons with disabilities and visually impaired people like us are especially vulnerable.

I would like to see more efforts towards building awareness. Inclusion is not awareness. You can have all the policies in place but without awareness this will not amount to anything.

Also Read:

• World Disability Day 2020 – Challenges & opportunities in making the world more inclusive for people with disabilities post Covid