The world marked International Day for Persons with Disabilities, (IDPD) on Thursday with the commitment to work together to tackle the obstacles, injustices and discrimination that persons with disabilities experience.
In Qatar, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the health sector partners observed the day with the theme of 'Building Back Better: Towards a More Disability-Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post-Covid World.'
The day aims at promoting an understanding of disability issues and mobilising support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of benefits to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
On occasion of IDPD, Gulf Times spoke to Nawaal Akram, a Doha-based disability rights campaigner of Pakistani origin, on what she has been doing to raise awareness on the issue. Diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the wheel-chair bound girl is a comedian, model and athlete besides being the content creator for persons with disabilities.
The young campaigner has started and been pushing forward different initiatives on raising awareness and advocating the rights of persons with disabilities. “Recently, I have been spending most of my time on my website creating content to raise awareness about having an accessible world for the persons with disabilities. One of my recent initiatives is an etiquette guide that offers tips and pieces of advice to students at all levels and people at workplaces about how to make life better for people with disabilities. The stereotypical image of the people with disabilities has created different barriers in the way how people look at differently-abled individauls. People can do better with a little awareness. I write etiquette tips in parts making it normal to deal with disability.”
Sharing how the idea of the etiquette guide came to her mind, Nawaal mentioned her interaction with a visually-impaired friend. “I have a friend who is visually impaired and I have always found it difficult to interact with her. I was always very formal with her. It was very awkward for me. Then I decided to research about how to communicate with differently-abled people. I also talked to my friend about it. Finally, I started writing the etiquette tips. We have a creator’s fund set up to support the contenting creation and raising awareness about the disability rights.”
Another initiative of Nawaal is #EqualAccessQA that endeavours to have better laws and policies that protect persons with disabilities from discrimination. “I believe in promoting cross-cultural ties through stories of people with disabilities. My initiative wants to promote the laws that protect people from discrimination irrespective of the type of their disability, gender or nationality. Fortunately, I have been receiving support from different segments of society in Qatar. There are some embassies supporting my cause particularly the US embassy in Doha.”
Speaking about what she has learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, Nawaal said: “We saw how quickly the world adapted to the new realities. Particularly in education sector, the non-disabled people turned to online and distance learning. This is what we have been advocating for persons with disabilities for a long time. Different disability right advocates have been raising their voice to have online education and recorded lecturers for people with disabilities. We have been hearing that it is not possible and then the coronavirus pandemic broke out. We can see if there is strong will and need, innovative ways of learning can be introduced for persons with disabilities.”
Sharing her message for the day, the disability advocate said: “We know that the world is not a perfect place but we need to have better laws to protect the rights of differently-abled people.”
Nawaal, who was born and brought up in Qatar, is happy about living in the country. “I am happy to see the development of Qatar. Things for persons for disabilities are far better here than in many other countries. The disability community is well respected here.”
The day aims at promoting an understanding of disability issues and mobilising support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of benefits to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
On occasion of IDPD, Gulf Times spoke to Nawaal Akram, a Doha-based disability rights campaigner of Pakistani origin, on what she has been doing to raise awareness on the issue. Diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the wheel-chair bound girl is a comedian, model and athlete besides being the content creator for persons with disabilities.
The young campaigner has started and been pushing forward different initiatives on raising awareness and advocating the rights of persons with disabilities. “Recently, I have been spending most of my time on my website creating content to raise awareness about having an accessible world for the persons with disabilities. One of my recent initiatives is an etiquette guide that offers tips and pieces of advice to students at all levels and people at workplaces about how to make life better for people with disabilities. The stereotypical image of the people with disabilities has created different barriers in the way how people look at differently-abled individauls. People can do better with a little awareness. I write etiquette tips in parts making it normal to deal with disability.”
Sharing how the idea of the etiquette guide came to her mind, Nawaal mentioned her interaction with a visually-impaired friend. “I have a friend who is visually impaired and I have always found it difficult to interact with her. I was always very formal with her. It was very awkward for me. Then I decided to research about how to communicate with differently-abled people. I also talked to my friend about it. Finally, I started writing the etiquette tips. We have a creator’s fund set up to support the contenting creation and raising awareness about the disability rights.”
Another initiative of Nawaal is #EqualAccessQA that endeavours to have better laws and policies that protect persons with disabilities from discrimination. “I believe in promoting cross-cultural ties through stories of people with disabilities. My initiative wants to promote the laws that protect people from discrimination irrespective of the type of their disability, gender or nationality. Fortunately, I have been receiving support from different segments of society in Qatar. There are some embassies supporting my cause particularly the US embassy in Doha.”
Speaking about what she has learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, Nawaal said: “We saw how quickly the world adapted to the new realities. Particularly in education sector, the non-disabled people turned to online and distance learning. This is what we have been advocating for persons with disabilities for a long time. Different disability right advocates have been raising their voice to have online education and recorded lecturers for people with disabilities. We have been hearing that it is not possible and then the coronavirus pandemic broke out. We can see if there is strong will and need, innovative ways of learning can be introduced for persons with disabilities.”
Sharing her message for the day, the disability advocate said: “We know that the world is not a perfect place but we need to have better laws to protect the rights of differently-abled people.”
Nawaal, who was born and brought up in Qatar, is happy about living in the country. “I am happy to see the development of Qatar. Things for persons for disabilities are far better here than in many other countries. The disability community is well respected here.”