Inclusion Is A Necessity, Not An Option
By Lasanthi Daskon Attanayake -April 9, 2015 
Lasanthi Daskon Attanayake
Dr Ajith C S Perera, in his article ‘Access to Justice : Constitutional Protection for All’ succinctly encapsulate the wide range of issues faced by persons living with disabilities in Sri Lanka. His emphasis is ‘access’ of all forms, not just to the built environment but to the entire social, political and legal fabric of the country. This is not the first time Dr Perera wrote about access. He being the only Disability Rights Activist in Sri Lanka to approach mainstream print media in writing critical pieces on the need for recognising the large percentage of persons with disabilities in Sri Lanka continues to campaign hard .
Less than four days after we read Dr Perera’s article, a news item appears in a local newspaper on the discrimination faced by a student with a disability in one of the leading Girls’ Schools in Colombo, which is followed by yet another article in Colombo Telegraph relating to the issues faced by a traveller with a disability.
*Dr. Ajith Perera – Campaigns for the Democratic Right for Inclusion
It is sad that a child with a disability, be it in a leading school or not, has to fight for her rights while the School Principal apparently stated that they cannot make changes ‘just for one student’. What would that Principal expect that ‘one child’ to do, where does she expect the child to go, if she is not accepted by her own school? Do we know how many little girls and boys in this country are shut out of education in this way? Do we know that physical infrastructure, most of the time, is not the only issue they face? Do we know how much we are burdening the families of those children and the society in turn, by not providing them the opportunity to be productive members of society?
This is just one story, one aspect. Disability cuts across all dimensions of society, disability could affect any one of us at any given time. Disability in its various forms, come to us in our old age. Yet, we , as a society, look at disability as the abnormality or the impossibility. Our ‘normal’, ‘perfect’ human selves look at persons with disabilities and feel ‘sorry’ for them, wonder what sins they committed in their past lives to live with a disability in this life, and heave sighs of relief that we are fortunate not to have ‘sinned’.Read More
