The research on some aspects of attitude to persons with disabilities in the Republic of Belarus was held in the period from September 2011 till March 2012 at the initiative of the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities. It was done by Independent institute of socio-economic and political studies (IISEPS) and by Center for European transformation (CET). Research methods – national survey by IISEPS and focus groups by CET.
Sergey Drozdovskiy the coordinator of the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities comments on the situation: “The research that was held, raised and proved some problematic questions which were earlier described in expert analytical materials, public speeches of organizations of persons with disabilities on the situation with persons with disabilities in the spheres of labour and education, the quality of provision of their rights. The results of the research let us say that archaic charitable approach to disability prevails in the public opinion of Belarusians. There are a lot of negative stereotypes in the attitude to persons with disabilities inside different social groups (only less than 30% of respondents would let their children go to school together with disabled children). Such situation, together with the presence of barriers in physical environment which are very often of insurmountable character, create additional barriers on the way to inclusion of persons with disabilities into the life of the society, possibility of independent living (only 23% of the country’s population consider the creation of equal opportunities for persons with disabilities, which would let them work and live full and independent life to be a good idea). The research found a lot of problems concerning the effectiveness and adequacy of state policy in the sphere of disability, low priorities concerning the rights of persons with disabilities taking into account the process of ratification of the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities by the Republic of Belarus. Office for the rights of persons with disabilities considers that the results of the research can help in optimizing creation of the priorities in solving problems of disability by state bodies, NGOs and business”.
In documents attached you can get acquainted with the qualitative and quantitative figures of the research. We invite representatives of mass-media, state and non-governmental organizations to discuss the research.
