Disabilities can be a major hindrance in achieving personal goals and fulfilling dreams. Although more and more organisations now have vacancies, especially for disabled people, even then life is never easy as such people struggle to compete with the normal, healthy people around them. It is not possible to overcome certain disabilities and a person has to deal with them all through life.
Nevertheless, it is always possible to make people in society more aware of the difficulties and health issues that disabled people can face by dedicating a particular day to them.
That is why WHO celebrates December 3 every year as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The aim is to join partners across the world and call for action so that sustainable development goals (SDGs) can be achieved with, for, and by persons who have disabilities.
WHO Figures, Their Average Life Span & More
According to WHO 1.3 billion plus or 16% of the global population have some sort of significant disability that affects their quality of life. It is common for people with disabilities to die earlier than the average life span as they are more at risk of developing different types of health conditions. Since their physical movements are restricted and they face limitations while doing regular tasks they are more prone to fall or meet an accident.
These poor health issues or outcomes are termed as health inequities in medical terms as it is simply not possible to avoid such incidences that are caused due to unjust factors that do not come into the arena of the health sector.
These are factors such as discrimination in society due to disability, lack of access to the required level of quality care, and uncaring attitudes of the health workers.
That is why it is important to celebrate an International Day of Persons with Disabilities so that such factors can be minimised. Through this program, efforts are made to make people aware of how discrimination can affect the disabled and how helping them out or caring attitude towards them can contribute towards increasing their life quality and span.