The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a legally binding International treaty that came into effect in December 2006.
In March 2007 130 of the 190 Member States, including the UK, signed the Convention. Their signatures were a promise that they would take the next step and ratify the Convention.
The Convention only becomes law in a particular country when that country ratifies it.
The UK Government has not yet ratified the Convention, and we have just had a letter from ALLFIE, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, telling us that the Government is trying to opt out of Article 24, on equal education.
I read ALLFIE's letters to the North East Learning Disability Service User Parliament at today's meeting (17 February 2009) and members signed the petition to Gordon Brown.
This is the second time our Parliament has petitioned Gordon Brown.
We've just received a response to our first petition, which Ben read at today's meeting.
My blog entry of 17 January 'UNCRPD: From Ratification to Facilitation of Communication for Everyone' describes our first petition, using a letter from Rehabilitation International, and has video clips about the Convention from Tomas Langerwall of RI, and me reading from his Montreal presentation about the Convention.
You can read the Convention in full by following the link on this page.
I have a particular interest in Artices 21 & 24 of the Convention, which are about freedom of expression and opinion, accessible information, equal education, and the FACILITATION of all modes and means of augmentative and alternative communication, including sign language, Braille, alternative script and assistive technology, by ALL staff being trained.
I cannot use speech to communicate and I rely totally on assistive technology and a good education to join in life at all.
For years my family tried to get the word 'Encouraged' in my Statement of Special Needs and IEPs changed to 'Facilitated', as this would have meant my teachers and therapists would have to learn how to teach me my communication aid instead of just saying 'Use your Pathfinder', and then saying that I didn't want to use it when the truth was that I couldn't do it without their help.
When the UK Government finally Ratifies the UN Convention future generations of students with communication needs will be legally protected against such denial of access to language and literacy.
It takes a cognitively sound adult 200 hours of training with a specialist, and not counting time spent practicing alone, to learn the keyboard shortcuts to enough words (around 2,000) to be a fluent communicator on a machine like mine.
But you can start communicating from day one with just a few words and build up your skills over time.
People with the most profound and multiple disabilities do learn to use machines like mine during the 10 or so years they are in the education system, so long as they get at least one hour a day of specialist help, and are helped to transfer their skills into ALL environments by ALL significant others helping them to practice what they are currently learning in different contexts and with different people.
You can read ALLFIE Chief Executive Tara Flood's letter about the UK Government's opt out of Article 24 on equal education, and download ALLFIE's sample letter to petition Gordon Brown here:
http://www.allfie.org.uk/pages06/news.html#ratification
Tara Flood won the Social Inclusion Campaign Award from the Sheila McKechnie Foundation and was given her award by Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, at a reception in 10 Downing Street on the 22nd July. Read the full story here:
http://www.allfie.org.uk/pages06/campaigns.html#award
MBR – Diana Award