Disability and Global Development (Rebroadcast)
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-01-16/disability-and-global-development-rebroadcast
Roughly 15 percent of the world's population has a physical or mental disability. In the U.S., laws like the Americans With Disabilities Act improve access and increase participation, but in developing countries, people with disabilities are often ignored in policy discussions. Kojo explores the new World Report on Disability and examines how disability issues are being integrated into broader approaches to international development.
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One subset of persons with disabilities most often overlooked even in those school systems that are generally progressive on serving those with disabilities is those whose first language is not the mainstream language (in the U.S., that would be English, of course.) The U.S. annually admits close to 70,000 refugees from countries they have fled, and grants political asylum to an additional 20,000 or so each year. Many of these persons (children included) have acquired disabilities as a result of war or torture or both - as with many recently-arrived Iraqi refugees. Our public schools, community colleges and universities, as well as our employment "one-stop centers" need to be more accommodating to these limited English proficient persons with disabilities whom our country has chosen to admit. Otherwise they will be ill-equipped to survive in this country that has chosen to offer them haven. Refugee transitional support is extremely brief, and then they are completely on their own in a culture where they are without the most basic survival skills.