The third of December each year is the International Day of People with Disabilities – IDPwD for short. The first was back in 1992 with the theme: “Full Participation and Equality”. Can’t say fairer than that. In a sense every theme since has been a variation on the original. Each year having a theme.
2006 was E-Accessibility. A laudable theme and since then tech and attitudes have come a long way, making access to the digital world, the modern economy and socials more accessible. Still work to do but I think this was one of the best themes ever for IDPwD.
2008: Dignity and justice for all of us. Doesn’t require explanation and still work to be done but clear and concise.
2013: “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all” As you can see these are getting wordier and less pointed but I see what the aim is. As with all the themes, great vision, work to be done.
2020: “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World”. Those heady days of the pandemic when many of us thought there was a chance for a better world post the crisis points of 2020. Oh how we were mistaken. The calls to end remote work, the inertia of the system built on foundations from the 19th century. Change does not come easy and again, work to be done.
All these themes and the years I’ve omitted were laudable, even achievable, to greater and lesser extents. Even 2021’s was at least succinct: “Fighting for rights in the post-COVID era.” Something to get behind.
Then we come to 2024. An odd year in so many ways so it’s not surprising the UN has gone a little ‘UN-y’ with this year’s theme. And I quote: “Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future” versus 1992, again, “Full Participation and Equality”.
So we’ve come from how about doing the right thing to how about a practical use of the skills of people with disabilities. That such individuals are in positions of leadership is a change many would not have expected back in 1992. A different world in so many ways. Pre socials, pre Google, pre podcasting even and here we are.
“An inclusive and sustainable future” is a thing we can all strive towards. Doing so by amplifying the leadership of people with disabilities and that covers a wide range of people, will lead to a world of greater acceptance of others, a world in which all can live in dynamic harmony. That is a harmony through change. We live in a biological world. Despite the effects of the past 80 odd years, we are still a Pleistocene species existing in the Holocene/Anthropocene. We may communicate in ways our ancestors could never have dreamed of but we still crave communication, interconnection and a place in the human story.
Let us not waste nor ignore nor belittle the leadership of any but on this day of the year, 3rd of December, 2024, IDPwD, let us celebrate and amplify the leadership of persons with disabilities.