By Hisayo Katsui
I have received many e-mails from my Ugandan friends after my travel report was uploaded to this site. Many encouraged me and my work, and some said they are also encouraged by my work. I'm very happy to learn to know that!
26.1.09
14.1.09
Barrier-free Seminar at Helsinki University
By Hisayo Katsui
Yesterday, I attended a seminar on barrier-free environment that was targeted to lecturers and teachers at Helsinki University, Finland. The aim of the seminar was to provide them with practical information and working models to support different needs of students with disabilities studying in the University. Around 50 persons attended the seminar. Some presenters were persons with disabilities themselves, while others were those staffs of the University who are promoting barrier-free environment. Different needs of persons with hearing impairment, dyslexia, autism and Asperger syndrome, visual impairment among others were introduced.
Lecturers here are said not to know the challenges of students with disabilities and also possibilities available in the University that they can provide. It was emphasised that the followings are important: 1) individually tailored attention and solution, 2) prevention and 3) interaction. The last one means that when lecturers do not know how to support some students with disabilities, then they should ask the students. However, flexibility and adjustment are advised to be made only on the basis of medical diagnose documents, as otherwise lecturers cannot handle different individual needs. Once again, resources are the practical challenges for human rights of students with disabilities.
Challenges of students with disabilities are similar both in Finland and Uganda in many senses. (Of course, I do not mean to totally undermine the differences in social policy, accessibility to medical services, economic power, negative attitude etc.) I mean, good will without resources is not enough. That's why we want to focus on practical implications to operationalise human rights of persons with disabilities.
After the seminar, I asked one of the presenters about the situation of foreign students with disabilities in the University. Every year, several foreign students with disabilities from EU countries come to our University as exchange students. The services available to Finnish students are not available to foreign students, especially to those who come from outside of EU countries. They have to pay their services, such as sign language interpreters or assistants, by themselves or arrange their sending institutions or countries to pay for them. That is, foreign students with disabilities are not encouraged to come to our University. Resources, resources and resources! Why resources are not available to realise human rights of persons with disabilities?
Yesterday, I attended a seminar on barrier-free environment that was targeted to lecturers and teachers at Helsinki University, Finland. The aim of the seminar was to provide them with practical information and working models to support different needs of students with disabilities studying in the University. Around 50 persons attended the seminar. Some presenters were persons with disabilities themselves, while others were those staffs of the University who are promoting barrier-free environment. Different needs of persons with hearing impairment, dyslexia, autism and Asperger syndrome, visual impairment among others were introduced.
Lecturers here are said not to know the challenges of students with disabilities and also possibilities available in the University that they can provide. It was emphasised that the followings are important: 1) individually tailored attention and solution, 2) prevention and 3) interaction. The last one means that when lecturers do not know how to support some students with disabilities, then they should ask the students. However, flexibility and adjustment are advised to be made only on the basis of medical diagnose documents, as otherwise lecturers cannot handle different individual needs. Once again, resources are the practical challenges for human rights of students with disabilities.
Challenges of students with disabilities are similar both in Finland and Uganda in many senses. (Of course, I do not mean to totally undermine the differences in social policy, accessibility to medical services, economic power, negative attitude etc.) I mean, good will without resources is not enough. That's why we want to focus on practical implications to operationalise human rights of persons with disabilities.
After the seminar, I asked one of the presenters about the situation of foreign students with disabilities in the University. Every year, several foreign students with disabilities from EU countries come to our University as exchange students. The services available to Finnish students are not available to foreign students, especially to those who come from outside of EU countries. They have to pay their services, such as sign language interpreters or assistants, by themselves or arrange their sending institutions or countries to pay for them. That is, foreign students with disabilities are not encouraged to come to our University. Resources, resources and resources! Why resources are not available to realise human rights of persons with disabilities?
7.1.09
Hisayo in Uganda
By Hisayo Katsui
In December 2008, I had the chance to visit Uganda for the second time with the travel scholarship of Nordic Africa Institute.
This time, my main aims were to participate in the event for the International Day of Persons with Disability (IDD) on 3.12, the general assembly of Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD), the general assembly of National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), and to interview women with disabilities including deaf women in villages and DPO staffs dealing with gender project. In this short travel report, I shall present different dimensions of human rights realisation in practice.
IDD event is held annually, while general assemblies in every five years. Both events were realised in the name of human rights, and yet looked very different in practice. IDD events are held in different regions every year, and this year was in the West at Mbarara which is the hometown of the current President. We first marched through the downtown with banners. Then, we gathered in a field to celebrate the Day with performances of different groups of persons and children with disabilities with the presence of the honourable guests such as the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Protection. Various representatives of persons with disabilities made speeches. Other than deaf people who needed to be near the sign language interpreters, people sat according to the regions where they were from. The differences of impairments were not visible. Harmony dominated for promoting the same cause of human rights.
In the general assembly of NUDIPU, the umbrella organisation of DPOs in Uganda, different issues specifically related to different impairments, sex and age were all raised and negotiated particularly in the form of election of various positions in the board of the organisation. Different groups of people constructed alliances to strategise their election campaign activities. Lots of money was also involved during this campaign. Many undemocratic actions took place both inside and outside of the official venue. (I am not yet clear how I can write about these sensitive and yet important operationalisation practices of human rights in this case of the general assembly. I will figure out the way later and articulate these actions more in other writings.) Operationalising human rights of persons with disabilities is not simple.
After participating in the aforementioned official events for the representatives of persons with disabilities from all over the country of Uganda, I decided to visit villages to meet deaf women on the ground. I visited three deaf women at their homes. They were not informed about those international and national events. They were just busy taking care of daily household chores and digging their gardens. They had never been to school and acquired any mother tongue. One of the deaf women’s mothers called her “kasiru (stupid)” all the time. (My assistant/interpreter, Benson, spontaneously intervened and explained to the mother, “It is not right to call her ‘kasiru’ because it is our problem that we do not know her language. If we know, we can understand each other.”). This extremely limited opportunity of deaf women on the ground explained one exercise of election during the general assembly of UNAD, the deaf association. Unlike the general assembly of NUDIPU where voters wrote candidates’ names to the ballot papers, elections of UNAD were held in another way: Each candidate was put a piece of paper with “I”, “II” or “III” on her/his back so that voters can draw those strokes instead of full names. This was due to high illiteracy rate of the delegates who represent different regions of the country. This speaks the profound discrimination against deaf people, especially deaf women. (Deaf women decided to establish their own association in 2009.)
Right to vote and to decide own representatives is important. But preliminary findings of this trip left me with many operational challenges for exercising the right.
Acknowledgement
Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to many people who made this trip come true. First of all, I would like to thank Prossy, woman with physical impairment, who once again accommodated me to her house. We talked, talked and talked about so many things everyday. I am very happy to have learned to know her. I would also like to thank UNAD and NUDIPU that invited me to their general assemblies. The project team mate, Edson, and our project partners in Makerere University, Rukooko and Wamala, were also very supportive. I appreciate sign language interpreters’ and drivers’ works who wake up earlier than others and work longer hours than anybody else. I spent so many days and nights with many persons with disabilities due to the nature of those events. I am happy to have had the opportunity. I miss them very much. NUWODU and DPOD also helped me to collect important information on the gender project. Lastly, my family back in Finland, Jerri and Io, with my parents-in-law helped me and literally suffered from my absence, once again. I am still struggling with finding a good enough balance between this career and my role in the family. I stop this travel report by mentioning my sincere love to my family.
In December 2008, I had the chance to visit Uganda for the second time with the travel scholarship of Nordic Africa Institute.
This time, my main aims were to participate in the event for the International Day of Persons with Disability (IDD) on 3.12, the general assembly of Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD), the general assembly of National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), and to interview women with disabilities including deaf women in villages and DPO staffs dealing with gender project. In this short travel report, I shall present different dimensions of human rights realisation in practice.
IDD event is held annually, while general assemblies in every five years. Both events were realised in the name of human rights, and yet looked very different in practice. IDD events are held in different regions every year, and this year was in the West at Mbarara which is the hometown of the current President. We first marched through the downtown with banners. Then, we gathered in a field to celebrate the Day with performances of different groups of persons and children with disabilities with the presence of the honourable guests such as the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Protection. Various representatives of persons with disabilities made speeches. Other than deaf people who needed to be near the sign language interpreters, people sat according to the regions where they were from. The differences of impairments were not visible. Harmony dominated for promoting the same cause of human rights.
In the general assembly of NUDIPU, the umbrella organisation of DPOs in Uganda, different issues specifically related to different impairments, sex and age were all raised and negotiated particularly in the form of election of various positions in the board of the organisation. Different groups of people constructed alliances to strategise their election campaign activities. Lots of money was also involved during this campaign. Many undemocratic actions took place both inside and outside of the official venue. (I am not yet clear how I can write about these sensitive and yet important operationalisation practices of human rights in this case of the general assembly. I will figure out the way later and articulate these actions more in other writings.) Operationalising human rights of persons with disabilities is not simple.
After participating in the aforementioned official events for the representatives of persons with disabilities from all over the country of Uganda, I decided to visit villages to meet deaf women on the ground. I visited three deaf women at their homes. They were not informed about those international and national events. They were just busy taking care of daily household chores and digging their gardens. They had never been to school and acquired any mother tongue. One of the deaf women’s mothers called her “kasiru (stupid)” all the time. (My assistant/interpreter, Benson, spontaneously intervened and explained to the mother, “It is not right to call her ‘kasiru’ because it is our problem that we do not know her language. If we know, we can understand each other.”). This extremely limited opportunity of deaf women on the ground explained one exercise of election during the general assembly of UNAD, the deaf association. Unlike the general assembly of NUDIPU where voters wrote candidates’ names to the ballot papers, elections of UNAD were held in another way: Each candidate was put a piece of paper with “I”, “II” or “III” on her/his back so that voters can draw those strokes instead of full names. This was due to high illiteracy rate of the delegates who represent different regions of the country. This speaks the profound discrimination against deaf people, especially deaf women. (Deaf women decided to establish their own association in 2009.)
Right to vote and to decide own representatives is important. But preliminary findings of this trip left me with many operational challenges for exercising the right.
Acknowledgement
Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to many people who made this trip come true. First of all, I would like to thank Prossy, woman with physical impairment, who once again accommodated me to her house. We talked, talked and talked about so many things everyday. I am very happy to have learned to know her. I would also like to thank UNAD and NUDIPU that invited me to their general assemblies. The project team mate, Edson, and our project partners in Makerere University, Rukooko and Wamala, were also very supportive. I appreciate sign language interpreters’ and drivers’ works who wake up earlier than others and work longer hours than anybody else. I spent so many days and nights with many persons with disabilities due to the nature of those events. I am happy to have had the opportunity. I miss them very much. NUWODU and DPOD also helped me to collect important information on the gender project. Lastly, my family back in Finland, Jerri and Io, with my parents-in-law helped me and literally suffered from my absence, once again. I am still struggling with finding a good enough balance between this career and my role in the family. I stop this travel report by mentioning my sincere love to my family.
One more article in 2008
Katsui, H. & Koistinen, M. (2008) "The participatory research approach in non-Western countries: practical experiences from Central Asia and Zambia" Disability & Society Volume 23 Issue 7. pages 747 - 757.
24.11.08
Two More Publications
Two more publications came out. The "Mainstreaming-" report is dedicated to late Taija Heinonen.
- Katsui, H. (2008) Downside of the Human Rights-Based Approach to Disability in Development. Working Paper Series of IDS at Helsinki University 2/2008.
- Katsui, H. (2008) Mainstreaming Disability Issues in Japanese and Finnish Development Policies and Practices. Working Paper Series of IDS at Helsinki University 1/2008.
14.11.08
Hisayo in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
By Hisayo Katsui
(-> Taken in front of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development in Kyrgyzstan with a Kyrgyz disability activist, Gulmira Kazakunova in her wheelchair, and my assistant Farkhat Yussupjanov who has visual impairment.)
Our team members of this project have been playing many roles, not only as researchers working on Ugandan disability issues. I’m not an exception. Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Central Asian countries for evaluating a development cooperation project between Finnish and Central Asian DPOs. (I would like to thank all the people who have supported my work!!) My last visit to Central Asia was five years ago for my PhD study. Uganda is somewhat known in the disability sphere, while Central Asia could be the other extreme. In this article, I would like to discuss fundamental failure of a human rights-based approach taking place in Central Asia. “Central Asia” refers to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, in this specific context.
These countries are still somewhat “difficult countries” for donors in many senses. Particularly Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan widely restrict non-governmental associational activities especially when they use “human rights” as a key concept. That is, “nothing about us, without us” cannot be fully implemented when DPO activities are restricted. Although Turkmenistan ratified the Convention as the first country in Central Asia, that has nothing to do with disability movement because it is non-existent. The development cooperation project that I was commissioned to evaluate included both Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, but its impacts to these countries remained extremely limited due to the severe political environment for any associational activities in general. Similar result was observed in my PhD study.
The Convention has the article of international cooperation (Article 32), which highlights international development cooperation to be inclusive of persons with disabilities. Non-discrimination and equality are important human rights principles. However, in reality, limited resources are allocated to persons with disabilities in “easier countries” earlier, if not first. Even within the countries, local power structure plays a role. That is to say, priority making is extremely difficult in reality. The most marginalised groups of people among persons with disabilities might be the last ones in the queue.
I will study more on this marginalisation in the on-going research project on Uganda by paying special attention to deaf women.
If you are interested in knowing more about disability in Central Asia, please take a look at my article published this year, or more in detail in my PhD thesis:
Katsui, H. (2008) “Human Rights-Based Approach and DPOs in Central Asia.” Journal of Disability and International Cooperation Vol.2/2008. P.21-26.
Katsui, H. (2005) Towards Equality ~Creation of the Disability Movement in Central Asia~. Helsinki University Press. Helsinki.
13.11.08
Our Article Was Published
Jukka's and Hisayo's co-authored article on our project was published in the Scandinavial Journal of Disability Research. If you are interested, please take a look at it!
Katsui, H. & Kumpuvuori, J. (2008) Human Rights-Based Approach to Disability in Development in Uganda: A Way to Fill the Gap between Political and Social Spaces? Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research. Volume 10 Issue 4. P.227-236.
Katsui, H. & Kumpuvuori, J. (2008) Human Rights-Based Approach to Disability in Development in Uganda: A Way to Fill the Gap between Political and Social Spaces? Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research. Volume 10 Issue 4. P.227-236.
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