The Role of Organisations in Pressing for Specific Legislation to Promote Visually Impaired People’s Employment
by Tommaso Daniele
I consider my participation in this conference as a great opportunity. It is in fact a conference with a very attractive theme such as the role of visual impairment associations in promoting blind and partially sighted people’s employment. At this point of the conference the matter has already been dealt with in-depth and therefore there is a danger that I will repeat what has already been said. I am not worried, though, because repeating things is often very useful. "Repetita juvant", as the ancient Romans said.
I am going to talk about the role of associations in the field of employment and social integration of visually impaired people. This is an easy task for me to carry out because I strongly believe in the importance of associations not only in the field of employment but also in the whole process of visually impaired people’s emancipation.
Without their representative associations, blind and partially sighted people would still live as in the Middle Ages. This opinion is nowadays widely spread in Europe and the whole world, above all amongst the people who are here today.
Yet, I think it is useful to once again reaffirm what I consider to be a self-evident truth. Unfortunately, in fact, a different idea still finds agreement especially amongst young people, namely the idea that the progress of blind people can be achieved by entrusting the advocacy of their interests to human rights associations, religious associations, trade unions or in the best of cases to cross-disability organisations.
These persons wish to appear the same as the others. To this purpose they try to camouflage themselves into other social groups. By doing so, they deceive themselves with the belief that they are able to exorcize the severity of their impairment and the resulting disabilities.
As far as I am concerned, I appreciate the cultural effort of those who prefer to highlight impaired people’s residual abilities, on condition that they do not claim that a half-empty glass is the same as a full glass. Moreover, we must not underestimate the severity of some disabilities because it could turn out to be the perfect alibi for those politicians who want to cut the benefits that disabled persons are entitled to, in order to reduce public expenditure.
Luckily, only a few blind persons try to hide their impairments and want to be called non-sighted persons or persons with sight problems. The vast majority of them, in fact, serenely accept themselves and their disability. They are aware that they must be members of an association of the blind in their own countries and contribute towards enhancing group awareness as well as fight in order that blindness becomes a social issue. They realize that this approach only will allow them to escape from marginalisation.
The history of the blind movement in Europe and the world gives evidence of all this. It would be good and interesting to explore and analyse such history but a whole book would be necessary, not a short presentation.
It would be interesting to explore and analyse at least the history of Italian blind people but due to the short time I am allowed, I will limit myself to a quick insight into it.
Before the Italian Union of the Blind was established in 1920, the position of blind people in Italy was really disastrous, humiliating, and painful. They were confined to ignorance, poverty and misery, i.e. to total marginalisation. The Civil Code considered them to be persons with diminished responsibility. They could only rely on charity and philanthropy.
This situation hit the mind and heart of Aurelio Nicolodi, a war blinded man and hero of the time, who found three great solutions to be able to get out of the ghetto. Firstly, blind people must unite under one flag in order to escape marginalisation. Secondly, blind people must live among all other people. Finally, the improvement of the status of blind people can come only from blind people themselves.
As a consequence, the Italian Union of the Blind was established. Its political manifesto and action programme were developed with the aim to attain the right to assistance through political commitment and fight.
The first schools for blind people, the Braille Printing House, the Library for the Blind were set up in Italy. As it was impossible to employ blind people in mainstream factories due to unwillingness of the employers, the Italian Union of the Blind created special factories for the blind where also sighted workers were employed. These factories were constituted into the National Body for the Employment of the Blind, which manufactured knitted pullovers, socks, shoes, chairs, brooms etc.
In the course of time other goals were achieved: pensions, blindness allowances, the reform of the Civil Code, which gave back dignity to blind people, the laws on protected employment for blind switchboard operators and physiotherapists as well as the presence of blind people in state schools as teachers and principals. All this has happened over the last 80 years of history, which have deeply changed the destiny of blind people in Italy.
"From being persons with diminished responsibility to being makers of their own history and destiny", from beggary to factories, public or private offices, and universities. It was a long and difficult journey towards equal dignity, equal opportunities, equal citizenship, and equal responsibilities.
With hard work, Italian blind people managed to remove most mountains of prejudice and can now walk proudly within society with their diplomas, university degrees, and professional abilities. Ten thousand switchboard operators, two thousand five hundred physiotherapists, three thousand teachers, as well as hundreds of principals and independent workers are the most brilliant achievement of an association which has had the merit of remaining united even in difficult times, the merit of knowing the needs of blind people at any time, the merit of effectively representing them towards the politicians, trade unions, and society at large.
Therefore, the secret of success lied and still lies in unity within the association. Unity within the association is a precious value. Without unity, no harmony is possible. Without harmony, there is only noise. History teaches that when blind people march together under one flag, excellent results will follow. When, on the contrary, representation is dispersed in too many fragments, when flags multiply like rabbits, results are either partial or even non-existent.
In my 18 years as the President of the Italian Union of the Blind, unity within the association has been my fundamental belief, almost a religion. I have strenuously defended it against any form of individualism, protagonism, and narcissism. And even more than that; on the basis of this conviction I have built cooperative unity among all the bodies carrying out activities in favour of the blind: the "Regina Margherita" Italian Library for the Blind in Monza, the National Federation of Institutions for the Blind, the Institute for Research, Vocational Training and Rehabilitation, the Italian Committee of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the Italian Union of Volunteers for the Blind, the National Talking Book Centre. All these bodies meet regularly to co-ordinate their activities so avoiding duplications and overlappings. This results in the saving of human and organizational resources.
But the blind people’s "march through the desert" has not ended yet. The achievement of equal opportunities is still a far-off goal, almost a mirage, and a forbidden dream. Soon blind people will have to face the current philosophy characterized by globalisation that has been made possible by the astounding array of technological miracles that are flooding into the world.
Globalisation means a global village, instant communication through the infinite highways of the Internet, a deep change in the space and time categories. Globalisation, though, means also supremacy of economy over politics, triumph of the laws of the market, profit at all costs, and wild, ruthless competition. Globalisation means even the risk of neglecting deeply rooted values in the Mediterranean civilization such as solidarity and human dignity.
In this light, the advocacy of the most disadvantaged becomes more and more difficult. The pathways that blind people with hard work designed in the past to access education, culture, the built environment and leisure time activities are questioned by the new digital technologies.
These are undoubtedly a great resource for disabled people, and for the blind in particular, by opening up wide spaces of independence and freedom for them. Once again the unlimited expanse of the Internet comes to my mind.
Nonetheless, such technology may become a more sophisticated new source of marginalisation and exclusion if it is not made accessible to all. Blind and partially sighted people have a new challenge in front of them, another bet to win in order not to miss the opportunity of changing for the best. They cannot afford the luxury to sit on the riverbank looking at the stream flowing by. On the contrary, they must dive into it and swim, even upstream. They should not be passive spectators during times of super rapidly advancing new technology. They must become one of the main engines. "It is better to light a candle than cursing darkness".
In order to win this new challenge, the organisations of blind and partially sighted people must change, and make a quality leap towards a better functioning of their structural and organisational facilities. They must above all become aware of the changes and conform their strategies to the current situation.
The centre of gravity of political activities has now moved away from the centre in favour of periphery. Central governments, parliaments, central ministries were until recently the main "opponents" of blind and partially sighted associations. Nowadays the decision-making process is carried out by local governments (regions, provinces, municipalities).
This means that the representation and advocacy of blind and partially sighted people’s needs no longer take place only at the national level but also and above all at the local level where the associations are still unprepared to undertake these new tasks.
We therefore need strong blind and partially sighted people’s associations in order to win. We must defend the right to education, which is threatened by the increasing presence of inaccessible
multimedia activities in schools. We must advocate switchboard operators’ and physiotherapists’ right to employment, which is threatened by new-sophisticated devices inaccessible to the visually impaired. We must advocate protected employment for visually impaired people opposing those people who would like to abandon our younger members to the wild competition of the labour market.
Numbers, not words, tell us that wherever protective laws do not exist only a few blind persons have a job. One revealing example: the average unemployment rate in USA is 4%, while unemployed blind persons are 70%. We must unfasten the straitjacket in which the traditional jobs have put blind people, with a view to widening the range of jobs made possible by new digital technologies. To this purpose UIC has established - thanks to funding from the State - the Institute for Research, Vocational Training and Rehabilitation (IRIFOR), which has obtained brilliant results in this field. We must advocate the right to information, which is threatened by inaccessible web sites. We must actively claim the right to audio information, which is being increasingly replaced by visual language.
Finally, in this European Year of People with Disabilities we must raise awareness on these issues, make them clearly visible, and urge governments to move away from rights-in-principle in favour of rights-in-practice.
From this perspective a number of things are vital:
1. The Directive on Non Discrimination in the Field of Employment must be transposed into the national legislations of all European countries;
2. EU must approve a specific disability directive;
3. The Convention EU is preparing must take account of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights adopted in the European Summit in Nice in 2000 as well as article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty;
4. EU must play an active role within the UN ad-hoc Committee for the quick adoption of an international convention able to make the principles set in the UN Standard Rules mandatory;
5. EBU must defend the specific needs of visually impaired people towards all international bodies.
An eminent Italian educator said that there is no greater injustice than giving equal shares to people who are not equal.
Therefore, still a long way uphill to achieve the full integration of visually impaired people.
Yet, united we have always succeeded. United, we shall succeed again.
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