Comments on: Disabled, But Not Dissuaded

By: Jehan Aziz

Jehan Aziz — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:06:01 +0000

I recently had a baby and the delivery left me so weakened that I couldn’t carry my baby’s stroller up and down stairs. This forced me to look for all the wheel chair accessible entrances to buildings. I was suprised to learn that not all buildings are wheel chair accessible where I live in Toronto, Canada. Many times, I had to go through service entrances which meant walking through smelly laundry and garbage rooms! This really opened my eyes to what others must go through on a permanent basis. I had always thought that a big city like Toronto better accomodated mobility challenged people.

By: Mumtaz Shireen

Mumtaz Shireen — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 04:30:51 +0000

I am a hearing impaired woman, and I feel as if every word of this article describes my life. Despite having wonderful educated parents, they always tried to hide my disability. I went to Fatima Jinnah medical College, learning from books what I could not learn from lectures but in the clinical classes, I gave up and quit in the fourth year. I used to feel like an idiot in the wards trying to pretend I know what the professor is saying, and not daring to tell them about my problem. After I got married and left the country, I got enough courage to tell people around me that I am hearing impaired and it opened up the world to me. Americans are so much more receptive and kind to disabled’s needs. What a shame our own culture does not do that.

By: Roshan Malik

Roshan Malik — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:38:17 +0000

Wonderful article and higly reflective about the feelings of a person with having gone through that experience and shows a great deal of resilience which i believe is a strength perspective. The people with disabilities and development delays have been ingnored our in mainstream society. There are some initiatives by the government like certains job quotas for for disables. But hardly have been any efforts to encourage and enhance their abilility to be a part of mainstream society. I think its a lack of political will and priority on the part of government and civil society and nation as a whole. We firmly believe that national security is our top most agenda and we have political will and proirity to spend more than our affordability on our defence budget. No doubt it takes time, patience, energy and resources to bring the people with disabilities into the society by eliminating discriminition. Yet we have not initiated a process to think about their issues. Have a look on the US proecess of legislation since 1917 with so many amendments till 1998. Of course it takes time but it brings a great deal of change. US Legislation in Rehabilitation and Social Security: Smith Hughes Act (1917) Soldier's Rehabilitation Act of 1918 (Smith-Sears Act) Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1920 (Smith-Fess Act) Social Security Act of 1935 Randolph-Sheppard Act of 1936 Wagner Oâ€Day Act of 1938 Barden-LaFollette Act of 1943 Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1954 (Hill-Burton Act) Social Security Act Amendments 1956 Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1965 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 501 - Affirmative Action in Federal Hiring Section 502 - Accessibility of Public Facilities Section 503 - Affirmative Action by Federal Contract Recipients Section 504 - Equal Opportunities