Committee for People with Disabilities

In general, the term disability refers to a person’s inability to live and act in their environment due to physical, psychological or mental impairment. However, having a disability does not mean that a person is an invalid. Handicap is a word of Irish origin “Hand in cap”, which means the draw in a game of chance.

From 1975, the word handicap replaced other terms considered disparaging: disabled, invalid, retarded in official texts.

The different forms of disabilities with figures:

Congenital or neonatal (15%),

Traumatic (30%)

Work-related accident, traffic accident, accident in everyday life (55%)

Occupational illness (19%)

Disabling illness (36%)

15% of impairments are acquired at birth or during childhood

5% of handicapped persons have a major handicap

3% of handicapped persons are in a wheelchair

80% of handicaps are not visible

90% of handicapped workers do not need any special adaptations to do their job.

It is not necessary to erase the individual characteristics of citizens, whose combativeness, ability to adapt and experience are the wealth of our nation. On the contrary, let’s work and take advantage of all these abilities. It is essential to accept the differences of each person: partial or total disability, permanent or not, visible or invisible, men, women, children…

It is incumbent on us all to work so that every human being can take his or her place in society, to be an actor in respect of one’s qualities and individuality. Starting from an inventory that highlights insufficient means, or even inappropriate ones, let’s prioritize proposals via the committee (see the link below). Let’s multiply the initiatives and adapt our society to the needs of everyone, at all levels, by removing stereotypes.