source: flickr.com

World Disability Day was first instituted by the General Assembly of the United Nations 16 years ago. There are currently about 650 million people with various forms and degrees of disability living in the world. On average, they constitute 10% of the general population. In Poland 13% of the population live with documented disability.

The Polish disabled community members say the country is increasingly more open to them. There are, however, still some issues that need improvement.

Obviously jobs remain a problem for the disabled. Only 15% of them are employed. Many don't even try to get a job, they prefer to stay on welfare. But these are all technical issue and the most important thing to overcome in any society is still mentality.

Interestingly, it seems some affirmative actions which were supposed to help the disabled function in society brought more problems to them. For example, forcing the idea that you should treat the disabled as if they were fully abled, deny their weaknesses and pretend you don't see their handicap, made many people afraid of offering basic help to the disabled, out of fear of being labeled discriminatory.

Click on the audio icon to listen to the entire report by Joanna Najfeld.