Globally, 1.5 billion people live with some degree of hearing loss. Get the key facts on this condition.
Disabled persons
Erin Brown lost her leg to osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that affects primarily young people and children. In 2010, she started her company to focus on encouraging people with disabilities to get involved in sports. It has since morphed into an enterprise that helps people with disabilities who are trying to find employment, trains people in disability accommodations within workplaces, and advocates for making health care services more accessible for people with disabilities. In 2018, she was involved in a universal health campaign undertaken by the WHO and PAHO for World Health Day. Now she’s working with the Ministry of Health in the Bahamas, trying to build awareness not only about accessibility but about employment within the health sector so that people with disabilities “have a seat at the table.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how critically important it is to produce essential information accessible to all, including in Braille and audible formats. It has also focused attention on the need to intensify activities related to digital accessibility to ensure inclusion of all people. To raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted persons, we observe World Braille Day!
10 playful activities for children with disabilities
Keeping little ones busy can be a full-time job. The best way for children to learn, no matter their abilities, is through play. Here are 10 stimulating activities that you can do indoors with your child. Be patient, listen and enjoy spending time and learning together!
While on their way to school, a terrible bicycle accident left Avni visually-impaired and eventually unable to return to school with her older sister Bina.
Hand over the mic: Women on the front lines of violence against women during COVID-19
Sitting at her laptop in Jakarta, Indonesia, Laura Lesmana Wijaya is busy building her first online shop. The portal will be used to promote and sell household products made by local blind and deaf people. The 29-year-old, who is herself deaf, was one of 19 people with disabilities selected to take part in ILO training programmes on creating online shop applications and online shop administration. The aim was to improve incomes and create more sustainable livelihoods in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even under normal circumstances, persons with disabilities face discrimination, high rates of gender-based violence, and exclusion from services and decision-making. Today, as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, the vulnerabilities and barriers faced by people with disabilities are only growing. The pandemic and responses to it are projected to have a significant impact on women and girls, including higher incidence of gender-based violence and loss of access to life-saving health services. Protection from gender-based violence must be a priority for persons with disabilities.
Move, Play, Live: How wheelchairs are impacting the lives of a Yemeni brother and sister
Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols. This writing system is used by thousands of blind and partially sighted persons all over the world in their native languages. As a means of communication, Braille contributes to the diversity of languages and cultures, as well as the full realization of human rights. In 2018 the General Assembly decided to proclaim 4 January as World Braille Day.
Going the Distance: A Disability Rights Activist Races Towards Equality
Marlee Matin, a long-time advocate on disability inclusion, calls for a concerted effort to tackle discrimination towards people with disabilities at workplaces. She says it is on us to make our world of work truly progressive, inclusive and inspiring.
Maria Alexandrova became Bulgaria's first adolescent living with cerebral palsy to take the prestigious Cambridge Assessment in English. Her advocacy led to the local exam centre agreeing to change the timing of the test and let her use a computer.
Still, many invalid opinions hold back millions of people with disabilities globally from entering and progressing in the workplace. Oftentimes, people with disabilities continue to be dismissed, judged or belittled.