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, at auditorium of Sciences Building (Hexagon Building), 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 outstanding advance is the change of paradigm in relation to the way disability is viewed and approached. Especially since the United Nations Convention approved in 2006, the focus has shifted from model of beneficence to a model of inclusion, which is an overcoming of the exclusively welfare dimension to emphasize a much more ambitious goal : equal opportunities and the enjoyment plenary session of the Executive Council of rights by people 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 socially transfer this change of mentality and to translate it into actions and effective adjustments in Education, employment, services... etc. aimed at eliminating barriers - not only physical ones. 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 benefits or business, is there favorable treatment for a person with a disability?

Yes. There are protective rules in a variety of areas: in tax treatment, financial benefits, in the reservation of a percentage of the public employment , also in the private sector ... etc.. There is much written on paper, but the reality is different. The gap is still very large 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.