“You feel that when there is a step at the door it is as if they put a prohibited sign on you and you cannot pass”. For Cristina, a psychologist who must use a wheelchair due to her cerebral palsy, finding a flight of stairs, no matter how short, just when entering a cafeteria, a store or a museum means that her party ends there. "Okay, this place is not for you," she adds.
The million blind people with a visual impairment in Spain feel something similar when they try to browse most of the websites and discover that they have not been made with those who cannot see in mind. These are just two examples of the many and diverse barriers that stand in the way of autonomy for people with physical or cognitive disabilities. Because, although accessibility is directly associated with the need to remove physical obstacles, the reality is that emotional ballast also weighs.
It is due to exclusion, segregation and even stereotypes and prejudices that lead us to excessive and limiting paternalism. Xavier Capdevila, a psychologist who works with people with deafblindness at APSOCECAT and FESOCE, explains it in this podcast. We have talked with him about how people with disabilities experience it and what changes are necessary to facilitate their participation in all spheres of society.
Those walls are being knocked down with the help of technology and social policies. First of all, we must talk about robotization, Artificial Intelligence and other equipment and programs that, whether because they facilitate mobility, increase vision or enhance communication skills, manage to dismantle some inertia or roles that have traditionally harmed people with disabilities. .
In the second, the approval of the Spanish Strategy on Disability 2022-2030 -which follows in the wake of the European Union, which has just adopted a similar framework for the same period- seeks to expand the rights of people with disabilities in key areas such as access to public services, housing, education, health or culture.
According to data from the International Labor Organization, more than 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed. This is equivalent to saying that 7 out of 10 people are not active and that, therefore, a high percentage of the population with talent and desire is left without job opportunities.
For this reason, on this path that should lead us to make the labor inclusion of people with physical or intellectual disabilities real, we must not ignore the business commitment. Capdevila insists that there is a real opportunity to promote change within organizations, increasing their awareness and reinforcing their CSR policies and their diversity, equity and inclusion strategies.
