Intellectual disability is the one that faces the most barriers to inclusion, warned the president of HUMANITAS – Portuguese Federation of Mental Disabilities, justifying the need for a specific day to discuss the needs of these people.
This Friday, the National Day of People with Intellectual Disabilities is celebrated for the first time, after HUMANITAS collected more than 10,200 signatures through a public petition that it took to Parliament last year.
In an interview with Lusa, the president of HUMANITAS defended the importance of this day, separate from the celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on December 3, given the need that people with intellectual disabilities need “more than ever ” own spaces to be discussed, deepened and known.
“Intellectual disability is the one that presents the most barriers to inclusion today because it has certain specificities that the common citizen is unaware of,” said Helena Albuquerque.
In the opinion of the person in charge, who is also president of the Portuguese Association of Parents and Friends of Citizens with Mental Disabilities (APPACDM) of Coimbra, intellectual disability is invisible to the eyes of the average citizen, which generates “little empathy” towards those people. and their problems.
“Anyone can understand what it’s like to be in a wheelchair or what it’s like not to see. Intellectual disability is most of the time invisible, that is, people see a seemingly normal person and then do not understand some disruptive behaviors”, which is “scary”.
With fear “there is isolation and with isolation there is necessarily exclusion,” he warned.
Helena Albuquerque stated that this Friday will be marked by initiatives throughout the country, “precisely prepared to reach certain social sectors that are not so permeable to intellectual disability, such as health and education.”
According to the person in charge, these are awareness initiatives in these areas, which also include justice, in which there is still “a long way to go.”
In relation to justice, the president of HUMANITAS maintained that it is necessary to raise awareness and raise awareness among people who work in the sector because “there are judicial rulings (…) that needed to be reviewed,” using the law on accompanied adults as an example.
This legislation allows any adult who is unable to exercise his or her rights or fulfill his or her duties, for reasons of health or deficiency, to request, together with a court, measures of accompaniment and counsel people who will help or represent decision making.
In the opinion of Helena Albuquerque, many of the decisions made “demonstrate that people do not even know what a person with an intellectual disability is” and that on the part of the judges there is a “very great lack of knowledge because there are extremely restrictive sentences.” of the rights” of people with intellectual disabilities.
The objective of the day is, through awareness and information campaigns, to make society begin to “know specifically about this issue” and turn it into “its cause, because it is important for this to happen,” stated the person in charge.
The president of HUMANITAS pointed out that “there is much to do” and highlighted that “most initiatives that cover people with disabilities generally leave people with intellectual disabilities behind.”
“We need our own space to discuss our problems, our questions, discuss our barriers, because it is really necessary,” he highlighted.
HUMANITAS brings together 42 associations of people with intellectual disabilities from all over the country, providing support to more than 10 thousand people.
The celebration has the strong sponsorship of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and among the initiatives is the inauguration of the exhibition “Rights of People with Disabilities”, at the Bairrada Wine Museum, in Anadia.
Source: Observadora
