The following article, which appeared in Friday's St. Petersberg Times, can
be found on the Internet at:
http://www.sptimes.ru/current/disable.htm
For those of you who do not have browsers, a copy of the article's text
follows.
----Original Text Follows----
Disabled Students Take First Steps to Equality
By Irina Titova
SPECIAL TO THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Photo by Sergey Grachev
At birth, Svetlana Iskanderova's heart stopped for several minutes before
doctors managed to revive her. The loss of oxygen didn't affect her mind,
but left her with cerebral palsy.
Twenty-five years later, Svetlana is still hitting the books and studying
for a law degree, in one of the very few higher educational programs
available to the disabled in the country.
Along with 30 others with physical disabilities, Svetlana is ferried by bus
three times a week to attend a special law department at the Herzen
Pedagogical University.
"Very often, all that the disabled can give to the [job] market is their
brains," said student Gennady Fyodorov, who is also president of Phoenix, a
local organization dedicated to helping invalids.
But disabled people in Russia have very little chance to join the kind of
program Svetlana and her friends are on. And even though they have cleared
the first hurdle, the law students are making no bones about their future
chances.
"We will have to be much more qualified to compete with the other students
if we want to get a job," said Sergei Vasiliev, who is confined to a
wheelchair.
"And that, after all, is the point of us being here."
Half the students on the course have had internships with various legal
organizations, including Phoenix, the St. Petersburg Attorneys' Association
and the Prosecutor's Office of the Moscow Oblast.
For many of the students, however, the most valuable aspect of studying law
is learning about their own rights, and the rights of other disadvantaged
groups.
"[When it comes to] getting a job, we will be particularly knowledgeable
about the rights of groups marginalized by society," said Yevgeny Barulin.
Legal nous may help them defend themselves in a society that has done little
to recognize the needs and abilities of the disabled, but in fact the
students were faced with studying law, or studying nothing.
The City Social Security Committee and the City Pension Fund provide the
special course with $7,700 a term necessary to keep the course running, but
there is little money to expand the program into other disciplines.
"We have now got the experienced staff we need [for the program] and it
would be a pity to waste this experience," said Igor Gladky, deputy dean of
the department, which opened in 1996.
"We have ideas about introducing other specialities useful to disabled
people, such as foreign languages, psychology and economics."
It would be a timely invention. Vyacheslav Ozerov, one of the organizers of
a May gathering of specialists in this field, said at a recent news
conference that the number of disabled in Russia was increasing.
According to Ozerov, there are 78 disabled per every 10,000 people in
Russia.
The figure is higher, however, in the cities: 159 per 10,000 in Moscow, and
233 per 10,000 in St. Petersburg.
Out of these, only 16 percent have completed any form of higher education,
and only 20 percent have graduated from high school.
While acknowledging that the special faculty was fulfilling an important
task, Gladky nevertheless said that separating the invalids was
unsatisfactory.
"In the West, there are no such divisions - the disabled study together with
other students in the same schools, colleges and universities," he said.
"Russian society is not ready for this situation, because it lacks the most
simple and basic [requirements] for invalids, such as wheelchair ramps and
lifts in buildings, for vehicles and on the roads."
Even at the university, some of the doors had to be taken off in order that
wheelchairs could pass through.
"There is a law that says all buildings must be built with ramps [for
wheelchairs]," said Alexander Ilchenko, who takes time off from studying to
lobby the City Construction Committee on the subject.
So far, Ilchenko has managed to persuade the committee to install ramps at
the Mariinsky Theater, as well as pavement ramps along Liteiny Prospect.
As for the future, one student who did not want to be identified was
skeptical about his chances. "There are many people with law degrees who
can't find jobs," he said. "Who is going to hire us?"
To add to the difficulties of invalids is the insistence of many employers
that severely disabled people get medical clearance before they can be
hired - as admitted by Nina Borisova, office manager for the St. Petersburg
Attorneys' Association.
On the other hand, said Borisova, the association has hired many disabled
people in the past, and employs two of them full time.
Ultimately, the Herzen University's program may represent a very small
victory for invalids in Russia, but it is at least an example to follow.
"Higher education is important to help my daughter get a job," said
Svetlana's mother, Tamara.
"But it is also important for her inner state of mind."
The conference, entitled "Higher Education for the Disabled," will take
place May 23 to 25. For more information, call 543-99-74.
----End of Article----
Forwarded by:
Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express
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http://www.inclusiondaily.com
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