Update February 2006

EUD President Helga STEVENS participated at the 2 nd Arab Parliamentary Symposium regarding the rights of disabled persons in Beirut ( Lebanon). She was invited by the UN Special Reporteur for People with Disabilities, Ms Khalifa bin AHMED-AL-THANI. The theme of this specific Symposium was “Equal Opportunities in Education and Employment”.

“In Beirut I especially asked to keep deaf and hard of hearing people in mind as a minority group, because people often tend to forget them. When people think about people with disabilities, they often ignore this group who mostly faces communication problems.

At the Parliamentary Symposium lots of members of parliament were present. But also representatives from organisations; 5 blind or partially sighted persons, lots of wheelchair users and a few persons with a physical disability, also some parents of mentally disabled persons. But only one woman who had Down syndrome and only one Deaf person: Hussain ISMAIL from Beirut. It really struck me to see so many blind attendants, and so few deaf participants. But I also knew the explanation for this: deaf people in the Arab world have very limited access to education and they have to cope with language problems and the shortage of sign language interpreters. Blind people on the other hand, have more chances of benefiting from education. Contrary to deaf people, blind people have less problems when it comes to learning the spoken language and to communicating with other people. Blind people don’t need support or intermediary persons when they want to talk with others, eg. members of parliament.

I was planning to give a lecture about the access to higher education for deaf people. But when I was learnt what the situation in the Arab countries was, I decided it was not very useful to do this. Because, moving up to higher education, supposes that deaf children first would have the chance to go to primary school! I pointed out to my fellow members of parliament that they have the duty to help deaf children to get a diploma and to earmark a budget for doing this. Because deaf children and adults are equally as intelligent, or unintelligent, as hearing children and adults. People do not have the right to deny them access to education. Arab countries should also recognise the indigenous sign languages and invest in training for sign language interpreters in order that deaf people can participate as fully equal citizens at the Arab society.”