“This is something we can feel nothing but good about,” - AAPD’s President and CEO, Andy Imparato, said about his recent trip to Mongolia. His invitation to Mongolia was part of the US Department of State Speaker Program. Andy spoke with disability leaders and advocates as well as Government officials and disabled citizens of Mongolia to offer AAPD’s assistance to Mongolia in its work to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
The UN Convention marks a global shift in thoughts and attitudes towards people with disabilities world-wide. The vision of the UN Convention is a world where people with disabilities are regarded as “perfectly capable of claiming [their] rights and making their own decisions based on their free, and informed consent as well as being active members of society.” Andy and AAPD are committed to working with the US State Department to help nations consider, implement, and achieve the vision of the UN Convention. The trip was organized by a former US Fulbright participant, Uyanga Erdenbold—a blind woman who served as Andy’s primary translator and liaison to the Mongolian leadership and people.
“The overall agenda was to share from the American experience how organizations like AAPD work together with other non-government organizations (NGOs) and the US government to achieve our goals and advance our cause,” Andy explains.
Andy’s trip ended Friday night with a dinner held in his honor at the residence of the American Ambassador to Mongolia with members of Parliament and disability leaders.
Divine Intervention
“One of my favorite interactions was visiting a nomadic family in the steppes of Mongolia and happening upon a father who had recently lost part of his leg in an auto accident. I just felt like that was divine intervention as well as a uniquely human experience. He was newly disabled, but he wasn’t letting his disability stop him.”
Mongolia’s Disabilities
Mongolia ratified The UN Convention in 2008 and has since passed laws that are intended to give people with disabilities equal access under the law. These laws, to a great extent, are not being enforced. Physical and communications access is a real challenge; indeed, 95% of Mongolian buildings are inaccessible to people with physical disabilities.
Mongolian leadership also experiences a disparity regarding disability in the workplace and in education: Teachers lack the skills and the willingness to work with disabled children; government organizations refuse to pay the fines as stated by law, claiming that providing accessible government services to people with disabilities were not included in the budget; people with disabilities claim that politicians pay little to no attention to them and their concerns on the whole.
Andy gives us one example from his recent trip, regarding his guide, Uyanga:
“Uyanga has the first service dog in Mongolia and is constantly running into people, whether in restaurants or stores, that say dogs are not allowed and will not make an accommodation for her service dog. I had a meeting with a member of parliament in the Government House where they also have a ‘no dogs’ rule. The Embassy had worked out ahead of time with the Chief of Protocol to allow Uyanga’s service dog in the building; however, the Protocol Office had somehow left out the Parliamentary Medical Officer who, upon our arrival, would not let us in. We literally were being held up on the steps of the Government House.
“They were having a hard time understanding why someone who is blind should have a dog as opposed to a cane,” Andy explains as a few days later the same situation happened to him when he met with the Vice Mayor of Ulaanbaatar. Ultimately, Andy and Uyanga met with members of the media and were able to share her story, stressing the importance of service dogs to blind and low-vision individuals.
Andy also met with various NGOs, disabled persons organizations and business leaders. One Vice Minister for labor told Andy the government was trying to draw a distinction between disabled people who can work independently and those who cannot work without helpful accommodations.
“I was encouraging them not to try to make that distinction because I think most people with disabilities can work. It’s really a question of what interests drive an individual to want to work and whether a society wants to support them to make a contribution to the economy.”
What’s Happening in Mongolia Now
“All the government officials seemed very open to idea and hungry to learn and were generally very interested in the American perspective from someone who has worked in the disability civil rights movement for almost 20 years,” said Andy. “It is important for us as Americans to remember that other countries still look to America to set the standards for civil and human rights.”
What it Means to Us
“The trip relates to work here [in America] because we live in an increasingly global context. America is a global leader and we are spending money all over the world so I think we have a responsibility, those of us who work in the disability movement in the United States, to share our experiences with countries that are trying to learn from us, and to help inform our own government about political movements in the other parts of the world.
“This was a valuable experience and I learned a lot. It is very interesting how similar our issues are in a dramatically different culture, and this trip reinforced my belief that we are all part of a global movement”
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2 comments:
Thanks for that article. I must smile though at the american way of thinking that they are nr. one. :-)
I hope Mongolians will also develop this sort of self esteem!!
I believe so :) otherwise we will always complaint but no decision and solution.
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