Persons with disabilities makeup 15 percent of our world – that’s 1.2 billion people. Yet, the disability community continues to face prejudice, inequality, and lack of access every day. In fact, 40 percent of people with disabilities live under the poverty line worldwide. This week, we dive into the launch of a 10-year movement that aims to end this discrimination towards persons with disabilities.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is harnessing the global spotlight and power of the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games to launch sport’s largest ever human rights campaign – WeThe15*. This initiative brings together a coalition of international organizations from around the world to break down societal and systemic barriers that hold persons with disabilities back. It is sending off this 10-year movement with a powerful video that show’s people with disabilities as “wonderfully human.” IPC President, Andrew Parsons, said that WeThe15 also “aims to put disability right at the heart of the inclusion agenda, alongside ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.” Additional goals of the campaign include ensuring greater awareness, visibility, and representation of persons with disabilities and promoting the role of assistive technology as a vehicle to driving social inclusion. With objectives like that, the movement needs and calls on governments, businesses, and the public to be a part of this change.
Persons with disabilities are part of every stakeholder group and the private sector must start embracing the community. In previous newsletters, we’ve highlighted the need for inclusive design and representation and the purchasing power of this group. Now, companies must recognize the scale of the disability community and that it will take all of us to create a cultural shift to make a more accessible world.
*Porter Novelli is a proud supporter of Wethe15. To find out more, please visit WeThe15.org.