The course "Training to understand disability" aims to be an approach to disability from different fields: five perspectives to better understand the environment of people with disabilities.

The cycle organized by Tantaka, the University's Solidarity Time Bank, will take place on Mondays in February and the first Monday in March, in the Assembly Hall of the Science Building (Hexagon), from 14.30 to 15.30; and is aimed at all citizens who wish to learn more about this reality.

Professor Asunción de la Iglesia will give the first of the sessions, which will address disability from a legal perspective. 

What advances would you highlight, in the field of law, so that people with disabilities can enjoy a normal life in their daily lives? What do you think is still pending?

In law, the most significant development is the paradigm shift in the way disability is viewed and approached. Particularly since the United Nations Convention adopted in 2006, there has been a shift from the charity model to a model of inclusion, which goes beyond the exclusively welfare dimension to focus on a much more ambitious objective: equal opportunities and the full enjoyment of rights by persons with disabilities. The leap is very big and starts from the understanding of the equal dignity of all people regardless of their circumstances. Spain has been a pioneer in its incorporation.

But it is clear that it is not enough to change laws. It is essential to translate this change of mentality socially into effective actions and adjustments in education, employment, services... etc. aimed at eliminating barriers -not only physical-. The adoption of positive or favorable discrimination measures is necessary to make equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities a reality. Today it is still a utopia.

In the area of social or company benefits, is there favorable treatment for a person with a disability?

Yes, there are protective rules in a variety of areas: in tax treatment, economic benefits, in the reservation of a percentage of public employment, also in the private sector, etc. etc. There is a lot written on paper, but the reality is different. The gap is still very wide for people with disabilities and their families. Integration is a challenge that requires the involvement of everyone, public authorities and individuals.

That is why I think this course "Training to understand disability" is very timely. The first thing is to know in order to change the way we look at things. But that is difficult, because it means fighting against the comfortable blindness of those of us who consider ourselves within the "standards of normality".

Overcoming it, changing the way we look at it, would allow us to appreciate people who may go at other paces, but who bring different capabilities, often extraordinary. By postponing them, denying them opportunities, not eliminating barriers, in addition to failing basic justice as a society, we lose all the social wealth they are capable of contributing.