A senior Ministry of Health and Welfare official has apologized for implying that people with disabilities should be excluded from public hearings to prevent them from slowing down the process, groups said yesterday.
Writing in a press release, advocacy group Independent Living Association, Taiwan, said that Social and Family Affairs Administration Director Chou Tao-chun (周道君) in January refused to increase representation for people with disabilities in public hearings on policies that concern them.
Such a move could “have a negative effect on the dialogues necessary for the meeting’s functions,” the press release quoted him as telling a panel on proposed amendments to People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法).
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The director’s remark sparked outrage, prompting the Ministry of Health and Welfare to hold a special hearing over the matter, which Chou attended on Tuesday, the group said.
Chou apologized to representatives of groups advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, saying that the government had not done all it could in public education or enacting measures to facilitate accessibility, it said.
The agency would liaise with advocacy groups to make government information more accessible to people with disabilities and increase public awareness of the appropriate way to interact with people with disabilities, he was cited as saying.
A person with a mental disability identified as Yaya (雅雅), who is a member of the group’s Taipei branch, told the hearing that she has faced discrimination her entire life.
She has experience working as an evaluator for the accessibility of written documents, Yaya said.
“People with mental disabilities can participate in meetings and speak for themselves like everybody else, given time, documents that have been edited to improve accessibility and an adequate support system,” Yaya said.
Tuan Ke-wei (段可薇), a woman with cerebral palsy and a social worker at the group’s Taipei branch, said that society conflates having a speech impediment with incompetence and inadequacy.
People with various forms of disabilities could communicate effectively if assisted by words, images and algorithmic tools, she said.
Association secretary-general Lin Chun-chieh (林君潔) urged the ministry to ensure that its proposed legislative amendments would comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Taiwan ratified in 2016.
People with disabilities are entitled to full and equal participation in society and public affairs, she said.
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