From the MT:
“Beyond
Moscow: People With Disabilities Are Stepping Out”
With the baby
carriage I can go to the store but not to the pharmacy, because there is no
ramp. That was part of my daily planning when I became a mother. Life with a
baby carriage was sometimes complicated, but the lives of many disabled people,
especially in smaller Russian cities and towns, often shrinks to four walls of
the apartment. According to the Federal Register of Disabled Persons, as of
October 1, 2019, there were almost 12 million disabled people in Russia. The
“Accessible Environment” state program looks good on paper, but it doesn’t work
everywhere, especially in small Russian cities, including Lipetsk. But even
where it does function well, there are problems that ramps and audible
pedestrian crossing signals can’t solve.
A new
perspective for people with disabilities Denise Roza is the head of
Perspektiva, a Russian disability non-governmental organization. In the 1990s
at the start of Roza’s work in Russia, when a group of young people with
disabilities marched in Novgorod in 1999, people thought they were crazy. And
when a Perspektiva employee who used a wheelchair tried to go on a business
trip, airport officials wouldn’t let her on the plane. Now with a staff
of about 80 employees, half with disabilities, some of the basic issues have
been solved, but there is still much to be done. “If a person good at
his or her job, there is no problem,” Denis Roza told The Moscow Times.
“However, disabled people often lack skills and don’t have work experience, so
employers are afraid to hire them.”
Perspektiva
conducts a variety of programs to facilitate greater inclusion: job training
and placement assistance, inclusive education and sports, development of
leadership qualities, and several creative projects, such as Theater
Perspektiva where young people write plays with the help of professional
playwrights and then see them staged by famous directors and actors. Another
program, supports "universal design" that is suitable for everyone:
people with various forms of disability, senior citizens, parents with baby
carriages. For this project, the team conducts seminars, audits of existing
facilities, festivals, and competitions among designers and architects. “In
1997, we began to conduct “kindness lessons” where people with disabilities
went to schools and tried to break down physical and psychological barriers.
Since we began our work, the situation has changed for the better,” Roza said.
Living
independent lives Perspektiva has partner organizations in approximately 30
regions, and although things are changing, the pace is slow. In Lipetsk,
Solnechny Mir (Sunny World) joins together about 150 families with children who
have Down syndrome or autism. “As a mother of a ten-year-old son with Down
syndrome, I understand what it feels like when the doctor says that your child
will not live a productive life,” Lilia Pedan, a leader of the organization,
told The Moscow Times. The goal of her work is to teach children to become
independent. With funding from two state grants, the group has provided
training for parents and allowed them to hire specialists: a psychologist, a
specialist in developmental and physical disabilities, and a speech-language
therapist. Children play sports, dance, and develop different kinds of crafts
that expand their capabilities. To move toward Pedan’s goal of helping people
with Down syndrome live on their own, students are getting an education through
the Lipetsk Center for Education, Rehabilitation and Wellness.
Another group,
the “Lestnitsa” (Staircase) Special Folk Theater, welcomes adults with any kind
of disability. “Our life is a staircase, but some people decide to rise, and
someone decide to descend. Our artists try to rise,” director Marina Ralina
said. With a grant from the city, the theater started its work, giving
roles to match abilities, so if someone can’t remember many lines, he’s given a
cameo role, and someone who can’t stand has a role that allows her to sit.
Progress may be slow, but it’s very gratifying. When Victor Rodionov came to
the theater, he could barely say simple phrases. Now he plays the leading
roles. Although Ralina would like more teachers, the real problem is
that they are ‘preaching to the choir’ — to an audience made up of people with
disabilities, veterans, and sometimes a few high school students.
Being part
of the community Yelena Kosenko started the Parallels dance troupe with the
“unusual” premise that people with and without disabilities could dance
together. With space in the Gorodskoi House of Children’s Creativity in
Lipetsk, the troupe has grown from a dance group to a theater. Virtually
anyone can join. Kosenko teaches the choreography to children without
disabilities, and then it’s adapted for the children using wheelchairs. Kids
with hearing impairment are taught according to a special program that is based
on modern choreography with techniques of contact and non-contact
improvisation. Children with autism joined two years ago, and after a period of
adjustment, are now dancing on their own. This year the theater won an award at the
All-Russian Competition of Inclusive Performances. There is no problem with integration. The
only problem is that they now have too many dancers to fit in their small dance
hall.
Full
employment is still far down the road Just over a quarter of disabled Russian
people of working age have a job. In Lipetsk, there are a few organizations
dedicated to improving this situation. One is Sosnovy Bor that helps people who
have become disabled after an accident or health condition. Some people
come to them for psychological and medical rehabilitation, but Sofia
Vorontsova, head of the department of social rehabilitation, says that
employees of the center try to provide them with employable skills. Almost
everyone who has attended the center has found employment, ranging from
photography to computer programming. Roman Bobylev opened the enterprise
Lozaholding, where people with disabilities make wicker objects. With a state
grant, he began to create electric scooters for the disabled that are faster
and more maneuverable than wheelchairs. He also repairs wheelchairs damaged on
rough roads and entries without ramps. Besides all this, he created a small
framing workshop where people with disabilities work. Roman Bobylev and
his colleagues are creating an urban environment that is more accessible and
helping people with disabilities navigate it. Society only has to accept them.
As Denise Roza said, "Integrating disabled people into society is a
two-way street."
^ While there is
still a very long way to go for both the disabled and the non-disabled in
Russia it is nice to see that there are groups that are working hard to change
centuries-old bad stereotypes that the vast majority of Russians have regarding
the disabled and that the disabled in Russia are no longer simply hiding
themselves. The non-disabled in Russia need to see the disabled every day since
that is the only way they (the non-disabled) will start to see them (the
disabled) as human beings. ^
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