Disability Rights
Disability rights have been promoted by movements. These movements are more active and successful for persons with physical than those with developmental impairments. Public awareness for people with developmental impairment remains limited and the stigma and the notion that these people are dependent on others remains common in the community. The primary issues for people with persons with physical impairment is accessibility and safety. Access to public places such as city streets and public buildings and restrooms are some of the changes brought about in recent times. Access to education and employment have also been a major focus for this group. Disability Transport is accessibility to transport especially public transport by persons with impairments. Access to public transport is crucial to persons with impairments and their families and care givers in order to participate in community life. However, in Zambia standards set in relation to issues such as access paths, ramps and boarding devices allocated spaces, handrails and other provisions for persons with impairments are in inadequate. In new and modern buildings provisions for accessibility for persons with impairment have been made. Old public buildings which are the majority in Zambia do not have the provisions for accessibility for persons with impairments. However, the Agency in charge of persons with impairments may order an organisation to make adjustments to a building so that it is accessible to persons with impairments. Prominent Personalities According to the wikipedia the prominent personalities who promoted the movement include the following: • Ed Roberts is often referred to as the father of the disability right movements. His efforts to get into college succeeded in his admission to University College Berkeley in 1962. His fight for access at Berkeley spread into seeking access in the community and the development of the first Centre for Independent Living. • Judith Heumann co-founded the World Institute on Disability with Ed Roberts, and served as its co-director from 1983 to 1993. She is now the World Bank Group's advisor on disability and development. • John Tyler was an advocate for the rights of the disabled who was himself disabled with severe polio. He parked his wheelchair in front of Metro buses in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. in the late 1970s and performed other actions to make sure that the proper wheelchair lifts, not the "folding camel" lifts, would be put onto the public transit buses. The original lifts could potentially dump people in wheelchairs, and also break down more easily. After his death from suicide on December 24, 1984, he was remembered at Centre Park in Seattle, Washington, the first apartment building built in the United States specifically for people in wheelchairs. • Jeff Moyer is an important and unique musician to the Disability Rights Movement. He began his work as the resident musician of the 504 protests in San Francisco, circa 1977. • Gabriela Brimmer, a poet whose life was chronicled in the film Gaby -- A True Story, overcame cerebral palsy to form a disability rights organization in her native Mexico
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