[Nfbf-l] New York - The United Nations on Monday decried the plight of people with disabilities

[Alan Dicey]

Too many disabled live in poverty: UN
September 23 2013 at 11:53pm
New York - The United Nations on Monday decried the plight of people with 
disabilities, many of whom live in poverty and continue to be neglected by 
their governments.

An estimated 1 billion people, out of a world population of 7.5 billion, 
live with a disability. Some 80 percent of them are in developing countries.

"Disability is part of the human condition, almost everyone will be 
temporarily or permanently impaired at some point in life ", UN chief Ban 
Ki-moon told a high-level meeting at the General Assembly meeting on 
disability and development.

"Yet far too many people with disabilities live in poverty", he said. "Too 
many suffer from social exclusion. Too many are denied access to education, 
employment, health care, and social and legal support systems".

US renowned and songwriter Stevie Wonder, who bears the title of UN 
Messenger of Peace, said fewer than 5 percent of all publications worldwide 
are made available in accessible formats for blind people.

"For society and development to include persons with disabilities, we need 
to have equal access to education and to knowledge and information", said 
Wonder, who is legally blind.

Programmes to assist people with disabilities are part of the anti-poverty 
goals in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which the UN says must 
be reached by 2015. The eight goals include poverty alleviations, education 
for all children and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Ban said governments and the private sectors around the world had "produced 
real, massive and inspiring change" by implementing programmes to achieve 
the MDGs.

High-ranking government officials are to meet this week to review the 
progress before the 2015 deadline.

source URL:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/too-many-disabled-live-in-poverty-un-1.1581784

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