More than three decades after the passage of the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法), care and services for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) have made little progress in the nation, experts said at a conference in Taipei this week.
People with PIMD have severe intellectual and physical disabilities ranging from hearing, visual and learning impairments, to swallowing difficulties, epilepsy, scoliosis and other disorders, underlining their need for extensive care, said the Maria Social Welfare Foundation, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities.
Speaking at the conference, Markus Dederich, professor of special education theory and rehabilitation at the University of Cologne in Germany, referred to PIMD as a state of “complex disability.”
He said that the “complexity” refers to the details of these individuals’ daily lives.
“The individual manifestation of cognitive disability is influenced ... by family and social development contexts” in a way that disability arises only when there is an “insufficient fit between the abilities of a person, the expectations and requirements directed towards the person, and the environmental conditions,” he said.
It is a paradigm shift from regarding them as “deviating from normal development,” a qualitative evaluation, to recognizing their existing potentials and needs, which is a quantitative approach that interprets the difference in terms of degree and intensity, he said.
Recognizing the needs of people with complex disabilities “requires an ethical and normative basis,” the construction of which is a “deep cultural project” that is “not only about barrier-free environments and rehabilitation,” he said.
Lisa Wang (王國羽), professor of social welfare at National Chung Cheng University, agreed, saying that education and other services for people with PIMD in Taiwan are too focused on the how the service is provided rather than the user of the service.
For instance, in implementing the policy of inclusive education, “what they did was simply place students with special needs in the classroom and nothing else,” Wang said.
“A much-needed discussion of human rights or rights to education between administrative officers and first-line educators was nonexistent. The plan was in this sense half-baked,” she said.
Wang added that Taiwanese have a shallow concept of people with different needs, “having an outlook that is based on what [they conceive] people in general are like.”
Dederich said that a change of attitude is possible through education and increased contact between people with PIMD and society, “rather than putting them in institutions on the outskirts.”
Tropical depression TD22, which was over waters south of the Ryukyu Islands, is likely to develop into a tropical storm by this morning and pose a significant threat to Taiwan next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The depression is likely to strengthen into a tropical storm named Krathon as it moves south and then veers north toward waters off Taiwan’s eastern coast, CWA forecaster Hsu Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said. Given the favorable environmental conditions for its development, TD22’s intensity would reach at least typhoon levels, Hsu said. As of 2pm yesterday, the tropical depression was about 610km east-southeast of Taiwan proper’s
RESTRICTIONS: All food items imported from the five prefectures must be accompanied by radiation and origin certificates, and undergo batch-by-batch inspection The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday announced that almost all produce from five Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster would now be allowed into Taiwan. The five are Fukushima, Gunma, Chiba, Ibaraki and Tochigi. The only items that would still be blocked from being imported into the nation are those that are still banned from being circulated in Japan, the FDA added. With the removal of the ban, items including mushrooms, the meat of wild birds and other wild animals, and koshiabura” (foraged vegetables) would now be permitted to enter Taiwan, along with the other
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
A new tropical storm is expected to form by early tomorrow morning, potentially developing into a medium-strength typhoon that is to affect Taiwan through Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration said today. There are currently two tropical systems circulating to the east of Taiwan, agency forecaster Hsu Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said. The one currently north of Guam developed into Tropical Storm Gebi this afternoon and is expected to veer toward Japan without affecting Taiwan, Hsu said. Another tropical depression is 600km from the east coast and is likely to develp into the named storm Krathon either late tonight or early tomorrow, he said. This
RSS