Author: Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate – Università degli Studi di Verona (Italy)
Francesca Albi Profile Picture
Accessibility is one of the general principles embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and it is explicitly affirmed by Article 3 (f), Article 9 and other provisions of the Convention. Accessibility must be understood as “the right to use goods, services and facilities available to the public without discrimination, and obtain an equal benefit from them” (Broderick and Ferri, 2019, p. 140). Accordingly, accessibility is strictly linked to the concept of “universal design”, which is an expression of the paradigm-shift embraced by the CRPD (Cera, 2017, pp. 107-118) and which is defined in Article 2 of the CRPD as the “design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”.
Addressing the topic of sexuality and disability means uncovering issues capable of questioning our stereotypes, our bodies, the construction of our desires, and our ideas on desirability. Sexuality is an issue that touches the core of our relational selves, of our identities as persons. Anne Finger, a prominent writer, and disability activist, defined sexuality for people with disabilities as “the source of our deepest oppression; (…) the source of our deepest pain.” (Finger, 1992).
In a post published on this blog, while discussing sexuality and disability from a psychological/social perspective, Mohamed Maalim used the expression “loud silence”. I was deeply moved by these words, as the same loud silence dominates the legal sphere of sexuality and disability as well.
This short post has the purpose of engaging in an interdisciplinary dialogue, to better understand how, from different perspectives, scholars, activists, and professionals can create a positive approach to and constructive debate on people with disabilities’ sexualities.
Author: Clíona de Bhailís is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy (CDLP), NUI Galway. She has received Irish Research Council funding for her research focusing on Article 12 UNCRPD and young people with disabilities. In her previous role she worked as a Research Assistant on the European Research Council funded ‘Voices of Individuals: Collectively Exploring Self-determination (VOICES)’ project.
Clíona de Bhailís
In 2021 World Youth Skills Day celebrates the creativity and resilience of youth during the COVID 19 pandemic. Young people with disabilities have been particularly impacted by the crisis with schools and services closed, supports limited, and reopening creating additional barriers in accessing many public spaces. Through it all however, they have shown remarkable creativity, resilience and adaptability. This is despite not being consulted or at times even considered by decision makers.
The importance of participation in decision making is often mentioned when discussing research and policy which relates to children and young people. Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is well known in this regard and guarantees children who are ‘capable of forming a view’ the right to express their views on matters which affect them. Their views must then be given due weight based on the child’s age and maturity. The applicability of this right to children with disabilities is reinforced by Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) with two notable differences. These are the absence of the requirement for a child to be ‘capable of forming a view’ and an obligation on States Parties to provide ‘disability and age appropriate assistance’ to support disabled children and young people to express those views. Therefore, all children and young people, regardless of cognitive ability, should be allowed to express their views on matters affecting them, their views should be given due weight and they should have access to the support if necessary. Further, General Comment No. 7 of the UNCRPD clearly outlines that States Parties have a duty to consult with children and young people with disabilities and their representative organisations about policy development and the implementation of the Convention.
Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher, of the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University
Mohamed Maalim
11th of July is celebrated as World Population day to highlight global issues on sexual and reproductive health and rights gender equality and the right to family life. Personally, as a husband and father to five children, am blessed and privileged to be able to exercise this fundamental human right to family life and family unity as enshrined in international and European human rights provisions. Many people, however, including people with disabilities, refugees, and others requiring international protection do not enjoy the right to adequate sexual and reproductive health in particular.
In this piece, I will discuss sexuality issues for people with disabilities from the perspectives of personal understanding and professional practice both as a research student and a registered Occupational Therapist. From an Occupational Therapy point of view, sexuality is considered an activity of daily living (ADL) by the American Association of Occupational Therapists. Occupational therapists may include sexuality as part of a routine evaluation of clients and address this area in occupational therapy interventions. Sexual activity and intimate social participation are part of meaningful occupational participation contributing to personal satisfaction while sharing intimate relationships may potentially impact one’s wellbeing and quality of life. Sexuality should not be misconstrued to mean only physical intimacy but as a holistic concept encompassing sexual activity, decisions, communication, identity, and choice.
Author: Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate – Università degli Studi di Verona (Italy)
Francesca Albi
Persons with disabilities represent human diversity and their inherent dignity must be recognised. In legal terms, the protection of human dignity is linked to the recognition and respect of the right to legal capacity, which is established by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). According to this provision, persons with disabilities have the right to legally act on an equal basis with others. Even though they may need support and reasonable accommodations, disability cannot be used to justify the denial of the right of persons with disabilities to make their own choices concerning their lives. To this aim, supported (and not substituted) decision-making mechanisms must be provided to help them in decision-making processes.
Since international mobility of adults (including those with disabilities) is an increasing phenomenon in the contemporary globalized world, international human rights instruments acquire special relevance regarding the exercise of civil rights in transnational situations. In that connection private international law, which has been defined as ‘the body of conventions, model laws, national laws, legal guides, and other documents and instruments that regulate private relationships across national borders’, must be read in conjunction with international human rights norms. To this end, legal scholars (Franzina, 2012; Franzina, 2015; Franzina and Long, 2016, 106-177; Franzina, 2019; Long, 2013) who investigate the transnational protection of the rights of adults with disabilities speak of “integral approach” to identify the mutual influence of international human rights and private international law.
Authors: Shauna Louise Byrne, Sales Assistant, studying Sign Language and QQI Level 5 Medical Terminology & Kimberly Wright, Postgraduate LLM student Global Legal Studies
Shauna Louise Byrne (LHS) Kimberly Wright (RHS)
“My name is Shauna Louise, and I was diagnosed with profound hearing loss at the age of 2. I contracted Scarlet Fever and have since lost 100 per cent of my ability to hear high frequency sounds. Throughout childhood, my teenage years and continuing into adulthood, my only form of communication is lip-reading.
The pandemic has highlighted just how much I rely on lip-reading as a primary method of communication in addition to the struggle of those around me to accommodate me by removing their face masks. Although, many deemed this as high-risk and left me feeling extremely isolated in my social and work life, resulting in me feeling as though I was a burden to those around me.
Consequently, I feel no other choice but to remove myself from social gatherings while it is required to wear a mask in public. The risk of asking someone to remove their masks when speaking to me isn’t a responsibility I want to bear. This goes as far as saying that I will only engage with people on video call as I can see their lips and it is safer, thereby lessening my physical social interactions where possible.
I have no shame in being Deaf and I embrace it as much as I can. I recently purchased hearing aids which allows me to pick up background noises. Furthermore, it has allowed me to connect to my phone where I can video call with ease, listen to music and has even allowed me to connect to my laptop so I can achieve my dream of completing an online course. This would have not been made possible without such hearing assistive technologies. Nevertheless, it does not provide me with the ability to communicate with others.
I think more awareness needs to be echoed in terms of accommodating those who are Deaf and hard of hearing. For instance, cinemas have their hearing aid loop signs to help those who wear hearing aids. I think all establishments should adopt similar strategies to allow those who are Deaf to have access to different ways of communication. In addition, I strongly believe that sign language should be provided as an optional language alongside Spanish, French, German, and others. It gives the opportunity to enable everyone to engage in a form of communication between the hearing world and the Deaf world” –Shauna Louise Byrne.
Shauna’s experience has prompted me to reflect on the rights of persons with disabilities, and on the need to value their diversity.
Author: Nicola Posteraro, Qualified Italian Lawyer, Post-Doctoral Research fellow in Administrative Law, University of Milan, Qualified as Associate Professor of Administrative Law
Social Structures
Dr Nicola Posteraro
According to data compiled by the National Association of Workers with health conditions or impairments (ANMIL), there are cities in Italy where people with disabilities can live their life and exercise their free movement right on an equal basis with others, and other cities that are still very hostile. Accessibility interventions, when undertaken, are often inadequate. This is due to the lack or limitation of public funding available, and to the regulatory fragmentation, which certainly does not help those who have to apply the legal provisions on accessibility. Not all residents are able to have equal access to the services of the city, to participate in municipal decision-making processes and to benefit from the economic growth of the city. This is a problem that negatively impacts on the fundamental right to health of people with disabilities: in fact, being able to access places and public facilities allows mobility and amplifies the network of social relations. While the data above concerns Italy, a similar situation can be found in many other countries.
Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher, of the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University
The Zero Discrimination day is celebrated annually on the 1st day of March, to reflect on our rich human diversity and the need for equal opportunity to enjoy fundamental human rights, and to fight against discrimination in all its forms and manifestations. This year, above all previous, the ongoing global COVID-19 Pandemic with all its disruptive nature and the misfortune it has brought and caused, has also offered humanity a glimpse of its ‘non-discrimination’ attribute. The advent of COVID-19 reinforced upon us that we are all equal as humans in our susceptibility, our fear and concern for self and others, and indeed in our hope of getting back to as ‘normal life’ as possible or whatever that ‘normal’ means.
Additionally, with Covid-19, we have adopted a common enemy enforcing upon us an almost military-type operation to fight back. The nations of the world in an unprecedented fashion formed ‘NATO’ type alliances and collaborative networks with the ‘Big Tech’ and ‘Big Pharma’ in a concerted effort to develop digital contact tracing and tracking apps‘ and vaccines, respectively. Individual governments assumed the role of commanding officers alongside senior health personnel, frontline healthcare workers, and other so called ‘essential’ workers as the foot soldiers of the operation, while the general public’s hearts and minds were won by calls to stay at home to suppress the virus.
The World Braille Day: Celebrating the Importance of Braille for the Full Realization of Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities – in Maynooth University, Ireland. Voiced by Hilary Hooks.
