From The Washington Post:

Long after other Western countries have begun to include people with disabilities in society, Russia is just beginning to explore the task. It is an uphill climb, given the nation’s long history of isolation and exclusion.

People with disabilities are literally almost invisible in Russia, isolated in homes, special schools and sheltered workshops. It is a rare event to see a person in a wheelchair or a blind person or someone with Down syndrome out and about on the streets of a Russian city.

“This is an issue we did not talk about at all for a long time,” President Dmitry Medvedev said last month at a meeting with government ministers and advocates for the disabled. “We have the . . . task of providing disabled people with comfortable living conditions and creating a developed rehabilitation system so that they can take a full part in life.”

Muscovite Vera Samykina (above) has never been in a regular classroom and was educated at home. The majority of Russian children with disabilities receive no education at all.

(Washington Post photo)

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 4:58 am and is filed under Down syndrome, accessibility, blindness/visual impairments, cerebral palsy, disabilities, international, wheelchair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post