"An Open Letter to the Elected Councillors in Mayo"
The Barcelona Declaration – 10 year on
The Barcelona Declaration was launched in 1995. Those who sign up to it agree to:
Promote disability awareness and ensure the rights of people with disabilities to be different and their right to receive personal attention.
Promote policies and have an equal/disability proof decision-making process.
Consult people with disabilities.
Ensure that people with disabilities have access to the social and physical environments as well as services.
Provide training programmes dealing with equality/disability issues.
Develop monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment procedures for actions, projects, and policies regarding equality/disability issues.
However, almost 10 years later, no concrete evidence exists to show that Local Authorities, through planning, building programmes and elsewhere, are taking the issues of equality seriously enough.
On the contrary, the experience of people such as myself does not inspire confidence that the situation is likely to change for the better any time soon. For example, the existing building regulations are been flouted and no one is being held to account.
Some Networks have attempted to open dialogue with Local Authorities with a view to having a positive input and indicating how a more inclusive approach to disability could assist all elements of the community. Our experience has not been encouraging.
Serious questions must now be asked as to why as many as 75% of Local Authorities have signed up to the Barcelona Agreement, yet so little seems to be changing for people with disabilities. Signing up internationally for high standards of equality is one thing. It is actions on the ground at local level that will determine whether the Barcelona Agreement really means anything.
The fact is that when it comes to disability we are still in the dark ages. Progress has been minimal yet new buildings are popping up here and there that are supposed to be wheelchair accessible. Leader Boards, Clar, Mayo Enterprise Board and any organisation that can get their picture in the paper have issued grants. The sad part about them is when they are officially opened by Cathaoirleachs there is no audit report carried out so that the place complies with the "Building Regulations 2000, Technical Guidance Document M, access for People with Disabilities".
I put it to all Local Authorities across the county publish a list of actions each has taken to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities since signing up to the international Barcelona Agreement. And it is up to you; the local representative to exert as much pressure as you can, locally and nationally, to insure that real change for the better begins to happen.
Tourism is missing out on millions of euros annually, because its failure to cater for the needs of the disabled. A survey by the charity Capability, has found that while some tourist offices might be accessible, there is a lack of information about where disabled tourist can visit, stay or eat.
The survey found that while staff, at tourist offices were helpful, less than half could offer useful advice. Disabled visitors are left to hope for the best, the charity warned. It added that not only is it bad for the tourist, it is bad for business.
Many critics in Ireland have called on the tourist trade here to wake up to the fact that disabled tourists are lucrative customers. Research indicates that there are over 37 million people with disability resident in the European Union alone.
That figure pointed to the potential size of the market. For disabled tourists facing into a journey, fear of the unknown is often a key element. Not been aware of the accessibility status of places and venues can easily undermine the will to travel.
Westport has the only tourist Office in Mayo that opens 52 weeks of the year and it itself is not wheelchair friendly; although I have been working with the relevant parties carry out works.
The life of a disabled person such as I is effectively controlled by that of the able bodied world. But what is the right of a disabled person? Are we safe having our lives structured, or can we also leaders of such vital legislation? What is it you, as a person with a disability, want from your life?
Are we not rulers of our destiny, citizens of this state who must insure our right to self-empowerment? People with disabilities are not an election manifesto to be forgotten on the eighth day after the election. We are not a separate legislation but part of the community. If 350,00 people want to be heard, we must make our own noise.
We must seek to empower ourselves, take responsibility, and be politicians, decision makers, doctors, nurses, inventors, and engineers, building designers, teachers, judges, police, priests, farmers and anything between. We are only limited by others’ imaginations and now are the time to ask for what is right.
What’s the point in dressing up and nowhere to go? By this I mean are the pubs, toilets, hotels, swimming pool, cinema, B/Bs, wheelchair taxis, take-away, GAA pitch public toilets and all public buildings accessible to wheelchair users.
We must also be able to welcome our disabled friends from all walks of life into the town. It is a basic right that we are all treated as equals because behind everyone with a disability there is a person.
Disabled people need to talk to non-disabled people. They need to work and participate generally in the normal activities of a full life. In recognising these needs, you are taking the first step towards the acceptance of disabled people as people having a part to play in and a contribution to make to society.
"As people with disabilities, we must also accept the responsibilities that are associated with the ups, as well as the downs, of life." "We do not want to be singled out for special attention, just to be treated as equals and to enjoy the benefits other citizens expect as a right".
"If you have come to help me, then you can go home. But if you see my struggle as part of your own survival then perhaps we can work together.
You got our vote, now I await your reply.
Kindest Regards.
Tom Chambers,
"The Billy Ranch"
Knocknageeha,
Newport,
Co. Mayo,