In the run-up to the International Day of People with Disabilities, NGOs and organizations for people with disabilities sent out messages demanding more rights and opportunities for participation.
A need for improvement is seen in all areas from disabled-accessible construction to work and education. The Ombudsman Board is also appealing to politicians to remove barriers. In Austria, 18.4 percent of the population have a disability, that is 1.3 million people.
The Ombudsman’s Office reports regular complaints regarding problems with structural accessibility and too few offers of personal assistance and sign language interpreters. In the schools, inclusive education is “in many cases just an empty promise”, in facilities for people with disabilities human rights violations occur mainly due to a lack of staff.
The Disability Council once once more demands the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Council considers it “particularly shameful and fatal” that children and young people with disabilities are still not taught across the board with students without disabilities.
Separation of students with disabilities
Austria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 14 years ago and thus committed itself to inclusion. But that hasn’t changed anything regarding the selection of students with disabilities, complained the Bizeps organization for the disabled.
The aim must be a school system in which “every student is prepared to lead a self-determined and independent life”.
Instead, according to the Independent Monitoring Committee, which monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Austria, fewer and fewer resources are being made available for inclusive teaching, while at the same time money is flowing into existing and new special schools.
