Category: Let's talk
So, per another topic in this board, I've decided, just out of curiosity, to post this one...and the question is:
Is your country a disability-friendly country?
What is the general attitude surrounding persons with disabilities?
Are there plenty of opportunities for meeting educational & vocational goals? Are workplaces & colleges aware of & willing to make accomodations for persons with disabilities?
For those of us who are parents, what is the general attitude regarding parenting with a disability?
What about access to public transportation? Can you get around fairly easily in your country using buses/trains/cabs? What about the general public's attitude when it comes to customer service? For example: Do restaurants have Braille menus, if not, are the wait staff willing to read the menu to you? Are there a lot of resources for housing, suplemental income & medical care?
Obviously, I don't expect you to answerall of these. Theseare just things that I'm curious about other countries.
Hi, here in Scotland they have not long ago got announcements on the trains so a blind person knows where they are. They are working on the same for buses. As far as I am concerned England does better than Scotland for disabled people. Because in terms of education there is only 1 blind School left in Scotland for blind people up in Edinburgh in the east of Scotland. I went to it. There is no colleges or universities for blind people in Scotland. I went to The Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford on the Welsh Border.
that's a very interesting question. I come from a small island, where disability is not even spoken of and there is only one fledgling blind organisation which is hamstrung for lack of funds. I have however lived in England, Spain, Germany and have visited France a lot, so here's my 2p worth. English is quite good, you can get assistance on trains, the underground and disability benefits are reasonable if a bit overburocratic. The big cities, I'm thinking here mainly of birmingham have good public transport and attitudes toward VI people are improving slowly. France goes a bit overboard on the socialist disability benefits thing and French blind people are largely unemployed, because they earn more through benefits than working, I think this may not be a positive step in the disability discrimination fight though I know loads of French blind people who would not agree. In Spain, I think there are only 2 or 3 blind schools left, which is good because the integration there works so well. I had the chance to work with the ONCE, the national blind organisation there and I was simply blown away by how good they were, how well blind people could navigate a huge city like Barcelona, where I lived and how easy it all was for me to obtain mobility training and support for my job. Long live good integration!
Germany is also on the up and up. All the public transport I used when living in Bavaria was good, the trains have something called a Blindenkarte I think its called, which lets blind people travel on the slow ones for free. I used someone's Blindenkarte to get across the entire country without paying a cent. The Germans are somewhat less likely to help you on the street, because the German manner is often brusk and to the point, but they will help out if asked, which I like.
So there you go, 4 European countries for the price of one post. :d
MJ
Wow MJ. That was an awesome, educational post. Thank you!
As India is a developing country, as per the accessibilities for disabled is still under development.
No proper footpaths. no announcements in the busses, no guide dogs, no audio traffic signals to my knowledge other than one or two in the capital city as I've heard.
As per the employment opportunity, India is allotting 3% one each for orthopaedic, deaf and dumb and for the blind in the government organisations. but, they are not strictly following that as per the law. Sometimes, they will deny the quota by telling that these jobs cannot be done by you people.
No any financial helps are given even if a disabled is unemployed. No SSI or something similar to that. No any medical benefits either. unless if you are paying for your own insurance policy. As per the life insurance, we have to pay a bit more with every premium for being a disabled. They say blind people are more risky.
Raaj.
I can go on writing but in short, India is not disabled friendly.
wow. Blind people having to pay higher premiums on life insurance is really not cool. Just my thoughts. Although, many countries are not very educated, and don't wish to be. although I disagree with that way of thinking, it's just the way it is sometimes, and it's our job to get out there and show them otherwise. Both Canada and the US are pretty good, although they have their quirks. They're minor, and compared to what some other people have to go through it's nothing, but they can add up after awhile. Inaccessible debit machines, a lack of braille menus in some restaurants, the general aditude of some businesses when it comes to hiring us just to name a few that come to mind. I find the bigger the city, the better the services.
That makes sense. It's easy to get discouraged when you're like me and live way out in the country, where there's no public transportation and a lot of the people I run into are ignorant assholes who want to pray over me. I'm saving money so that I'll be able to move to a more populated area, not only to improve my prospects but also my attitude. But anyway, I've heard that the UK is more disability-friendly than the US, but not having anything concrete to base that on I'll leave it at that for now and let this discussion unfold further. It's quite interesting to see both sides of the coin, and to put things into perspective that sometimes we don't have it as bad as we think we do here in the US.
From what I've heard chatting to American friends, the UK definitely has it better than you all do. But afterall we are a smaller country so in some ways that makes sense.
It's easy to complain when we have nothing to compare to.
However I do think that sometimes more "disability friendly" leads to less independence, of sorts.
I grew up in South Africa and there disability rights are definitely less. Over here if you get a job the government will assiste in the purchase of adaptive technology to enable you to do your job properly. In south Africa no such scheme is available. Over here you are entitled to various disability benefits, in South Africa you either get a job, or you starve.
And here's where the problem lies for me - the fact that disability benefits here are so widely atainable means that the number of disabled out of work is probably greater than in countries where there are no such benefits, and the reason for that is generally not because the disabled can't work, but because the state allows them not to. All of my blind friends in South Africa have jobs, no they might not be high-flying careers but they are jobs none the less. And yet if you look at the number of blind people over here who do not work, and who in fact choose not to work then the figures are astounding.
I agree that we should live in a country where disability rights and access are equal to those of the able-bodied. However I do think it is inherrently wrong to essentially encourage the disabled to not have to work for a living by facilitating their lifestyles with benefits. Where's the self-respect in that?
I agree with the last post although I feel that there should be help for families where the parent is disabled. I'm forced to sit at home on SSI instead of being able to get free or low-cost childcare simply because I'm receiving SSI & not welfare in my own name. My kids did receive welfare but I got rid of that as soon as hubby started working. It's nice that he has a job, but I want a job too where I can go & be apart of the community & let the kids be in a more social setting. But programs like child action & all the programs that help with childcare say you have to already be working to receive it. Bleh.
Anyway, the reason for posting this topic was to educate & to put things in to perspective. (ure, you're right. We don't know how good we have it, we have it too good in a lot of ways, but we also seem to be sliding down a slippery slope as far as the U.S. goes.
I definitely agree that the policy on who can receive benefits should be more strict. I personally believe that you should not be able to receive them unless you are physically unable to work, or you are actively doing everything you can to find work. I do, however, agree with the government providing us with adaptive tech for our jobs, provided this help puts us on equal grounds and not above anyone else.
I would agree with posts 9 and 11. I sometimes the availability of disability benefits often leads to an I don't have to work mentality. It may also contribute to an I don't have to hire you mentality. I agree with all the help our government gives for adaptive tech. But there are times when I wish SSI and other benefits would be more strictly allotted. Like all other welfare programs, I think there's a risk of making it easier for people to stay in poverty. As a newly employed person, I absolutely love working. I thank God I am fortunate to have a job, and wish all blind people could work who were able to. There's nothing like the dignity of earning your own paycheck.
On another note, why is the lack of blind schools seen as a negative? I was raised in public schools, and credit them with helping me to shape my independence, and success in the sighted world. I realize though, that not all countries are like the U.S. in that regard.
I agree with claire.
I live in a pretty friendly country, but I'd like to see the government do something like get the disabled to do volunteer work in order to actually qualify for their benifits, because at least it means they are doing something useful for the community. if the unemployed here have to do it, why not us?
I'm totally in favor of a similar program here in the U.S. In my state, most TANF and food stamp recipients have to do a certain amount of volunteer work to maintain their benefits. This is only fair. They're contributing to society while also learning valuable work skills. I no longer receive SSI, but I would have apreciated getting some work experience a bit earlier than I did. For us as blind people, this could really be advantageous, as there would be little to no cost to the potential employer at first. What a good way to show them that you're willing and able to do a job. I know a few sighted people who've benefitted from work programs like WEA, and Colorado Works, why not us?
I totally agree! In the federal & state Government mindset, it's believed that blind people can't work. If SSI operated similarly to TANF & SNAP (foodstamps) programs, then my kids would be able to go to daycare, I'd get free bus passes & ADA paratransit passes AND job skills & be able to get out there & help my community.
Hi, I don't know what state you're from, but could your DVR help you out with some transportation? My state used to have a program to help parents who were working or in school to find and subsidize daycare. I was an intern in that office in college. This might be off topic, but since you're in college, do yourself a favor and get those job skills where you can. I do think the federal and state government contributes in a way to the mindset that blind people can't work. Although my DVR has given me anything I need to do a job, I know they're not all like that. I also think that system needs to be streamlined. It would make things a heck of a lot easier for employers and employees. Could TANF help you pay for daycare or transportation?
after living in both China, and Japan as well as in Kashmir, I can tell you how they have here in the US is pretty good. for example in China, if you were blind, it was assumed and accepted that you would stay at home, out of the way for your sighted peers and so on.
Japan had a more friendly system in place but still no where near the US so too me, I am extremely thankful with the services that are provided here. You don't realize how amazing system thing unless you have had worse than what you are getting.
In my opinion, they should in fact dumb SSI for people who are abled body, meaning, the ones who are just blind and nothing more or less. These are people who are physically capable of getting employment, or training or education to aid in them obtaining employment. I'm sorry if your one of these SSI reliant individual who will for certain disagree with me here but this is just my opinion.
Interesting posts thus far... I've lived in the states as well as England during and after university and I'd say that the blind/vi in the UK have it better than the US the majority of the time, but that is just my opinion. I found people to be more friendly and helpful most of the time. Regarding services available, this is just what I observed because only being on a student visa and then a work visa, I was not eligible for most of this. It seemed to me that various services were easier to get; not so much red tape and it seemed to happen a lot quicker. Things like mobility training, college/uni support, etc. (Those are the two I had first hand experience with.) It seems like they can recieve more benifits while being allowed to work, to a certain point. I think this is much better than in the states where SSI is usually not enough to live on but most jobs that the blind population seem to get pay quite poorly. It's almost as if you are being chastized for trying to have some sort of employment, until they can kick you off entirely. In the UK, it seems so much easier to get housing, whether it be a flat or a house. That sort of astounded me, and still does. It sort of pisses me off too as I work as much as I can with the economy the way it is, and almost all of my money goes to pay the rent on a crappy small apartment. I've been paying full rent since coming back to the states years ago to dirt bag landlords and it's demoralizing. it's not an investment, it's a flat out financial loss. That is sort of another discussion though so I'll move on... So it seemed like they had/have subsidized housing, but not in the hood. Also, if you want to move, you can request a house swap, even if you live in a house? Someone please clarify that if possible. many places used to have subsidized housing here, apartments I believe, but, if you ever did get it, you'd be stuck with drug dealers and other types, usually in really bad areas that were not safe. Most of those programs have been shut down or suspended for years now regarding most metro areas at least. I never had subsidized housing, but that is what I've gathered from talking with people who did have it and reading various things etc. Other things that were better there were the universal health insurance and better public transit. Now, keep in mind that things may have changed since I lived there, and, as an outsider, I may have seen things differently than those who grew up there. Still, I'd be fine with paying more taxes to give others more help. Finally, I do agree with the volanteer idea if one can't find paid work. however, most places are not interested in having a blind person working there in the first place. It's a hinderence and not a benifit in their minds. Just like with proper employment, that is still a big problem in my opinion/experience.
It is good to hear how other countries help disabled people especially in assian countries and how some don't have guide dogs.
Where the American system falls down is for anyone in between jobs: You are laid off, or lose your business, you are out. It takes 9 months of no work before you will get any disability insurance in this country, and unfortunately we can't just run down to the store and get a cashier job, or a taxi driving job, etc. Even the lowest-paid cubicle sweatshop customer service jobs which India used to take but now is desperate to outsource somewhere else, the blind person must come aboard with capacity to modify their own work environment or wait for months for help from an agency.
My memory is not dim: I simply did not have tons of time to go through red tape, I had a wife and family to support. Unfortunately, the food vending program is far from profitable, and that is not a criticism of anybody in it. The numberssimply don't add up. The so-called entitlement, or so-called not-wanting-to-work I find hard to believe.
The laziest blind person I have met cannot hold a candle to the laziness my friend ran into, when he worked in the Employment division for the Wellfare to Work program in the late 90s. These were multigenerational wellfare recipients who were more expensive to put to work ultimately, than they were to just feed. Given the choice, after the stories he told, I'd rather spend my tax dollars feeding them than have to hire them.
On the contrary, I'm betting every one of you on SSI on here or SSDI for that matter, if you're of working age, would without complaint do whatever community efforts were required to maintain your benefits. I actually think that's a very good idea. Although I worked six days a week in the blind vending program, I took home so little I was using Disability insurance, and know the quite humiliating experience it is to take from the public titty. But if public relief funds were given in exchange for community efforts (which save the government money), it would be an improvement. The impoverished blind I do know who are on government assistance, almost without exception, are engaged in some form of community volunteer efforts without any government requirements to do so.
I agree. I highly doubt that there is this huge number of blind/vi individuals out there that don't want a job and/or don't want to go to college etc compared to the percentage of the non disabled population that can't be bothered to look for work and/or don't care about furthering their education. The fact of the matter is that most employers do not want a blind employee. The majority of the work I've done since college has been part time jobs and internships as well as freelance work. I do need to go back on SSI from time to time when things really slow down and when I tell the SSI case worker the work I have had and that I've had my own apartment for however many years it's been now, they treat me as though I'm a crook, somehow trying to cheat the system. (They also tell me most of the work I've had does not count towards SSDI.) My main goal right now is just to get by and put a little money away here and there so I can start my own business. (Which with the economy the way it's been the past couple years, I don't have much saved up as it is.) Most of the stuff I own is second hand/used, furniture is mostly from good will or craigs list, and I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in over a year and a half. And yet, they pull this crap with me every time I have to deal with them, like I'm trying to do something crafty. Meanwhile, I remember growing up in a not too nice part of rural northern new york that had a ton of white trash around. These people would have three or four kids and you'd find out that the mother was pregnant again, the father was always at the bar or drinking on the front porch, getting arrested for drunk driving or bar fights etc, and they lived on welfair. Did I also mention that many of them had new cars in their driveway? And they weren't living in an apartment, many of them had small houses or pre fab houses with a little bit of land. And then there is the crystal meth problem but that's another story. Meanwhile, I'm a college grad with a pretty good resume, good skill set, and good communication skills, it's just not easy to find work. I don't know why they don't go after the people cheating the welfair system first. I'm sure it's a bigger problem than anyone cheating SSI. not that one could do much with six fifty a month. They are down right rude when I talk to them and it's not right. I pay my damn taxes when I am working, I've always filed my taxes on time, and I pay sales tax etc even when I'm not working obviously. So I've helped contribute to their freaking salary at one time or another. The least they could do is treat me decently. Wow, sorry, that rant went a bit longer than expected.
I would agree with the last post. Leo Guardian, I'm glad the blind people you know aren't lazy. A few of the ones I happen to know in my town are in my oppinion, quite unmotivated. Again, these are just the ones I happen to know, and by no means represent the whole blind population. I agree that a lot of employers are hesitant about hiring blind people. That's why I think more of an effort should be made to educate them about disabled individuals. I had the same problem as the last poster. I now have a job, but spent a lot of time doing internships, part-time work, and two years in AmeriCorps. I have a degree, and felt like I was definitely underemployed. Volunteer work is great, but even that doesn't always appeal to employers. Before I was hired, I worked as an intern for the company I work for. I made it very clear to my Voc Rehab Outreach Specialist that I wanted a temporary position, that way I could apply for a "real job". Luckily, I got offered a position. Still part-time, but the salary is good. If I hadn't been offered this position, I would have considered a major career change. To the last poster, keep your options open, and just keep trying. Something will probably come along eventually.
yeah, dark empiror said what I was going to say, I've only lived in China for a couple years though but my family hang around chinese family and communities so I know a little bit.
and we all know about the us so, I won't elaborate. I take the republican stance on ssi about abolishing it stop taking money out of taxpayers pockets.