People with disabilities take to the streets again

Jared Laureles

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, December 8, 2024, p. 6

With great enthusiasm and shouting I do feel proud!dozens of people with disabilities held a demonstration yesterday with the aim of making this sector visible and demanding full inclusion, equal opportunities, decent work and respect for their autonomy.

Grouped in the Movement of People with Disabilities, women and men in wheelchairs, with crutches and/or prostheses made their fourth annual tour to demand that authorities represent them in decision-making spaces and that they be taken into account in the development of policies. public.

This year the motto was Pride and dignity!a slogan that was chanted by the participants who were accompanied by family, friends, caregivers and allies. Dressed in phosphorescent yellow t-shirts, caps and headscarves, they marched from the Angel of Independence to the Monument to the Revolution.

In Mexico, more than 20 million people live with some disability and despite some advances in legislation, they still suffer from a large number of obstacles to access education, health and employment, which makes them one of the sectors social groups that suffer greater discrimination, lamented Martha García, founder of the group.

Within the framework of the International Day of People with Disabilities, which is commemorated every December 3, he reiterated his main demands: that streets, hospitals and public transportation be accessible to all; Furthermore, the right to inclusive education is guaranteed, since only 25 percent of people with disabilities attend school.

The activist also demanded decent work and access to the economy, since We will not accept more employment discrimination, because we have the capabilities and enormous potential that needs to be recognized..

Gustavo Guevara, coordinator of the Movement of People with Disabilities, stated that the mobilization was carried out by people who They have opened the way for us, that they are no longer there and that their rights could not be guaranteed.

During the tour along Paseo de la Reforma, the members of the so-called phospho tide They conducted a roll call for people who were blind, wheelchair users, deaf or with intellectual disabilities.

In front of the Senate of the Republic, they demanded that legislators promote actions so that disabilities stop being invisible and the rights that have not been guaranteed are recognized in the laws. In the Glorieta de las Mujeres que Luchan they denounced that women with disabilities face alarming rates of physical, psychological and sexual violenceso they demanded justice without discrimination.

to the cry of here is the disc resistance and For you, for me, we’re back outthe participants stressed that there is still a lot to dosince the disability condition is experienced by a person, but it also impacts the family.