Disabled People in Germany – "We're Great People, Too!"

… says Manfred Beslé who lives in a flat share for people who are mentally disabled. He is appealing for more social acceptance of disabled people in a society that venerates vitality and is afraid of anything that might reveal people's fragility or imperfections. How do disabled people deal with this? And who is disabling who?

Statistics and fates

In Germany "8.6 million people are officially recognised as being disabled. This means that one in every ten people is disabled," according to information from the German Federal Statistical Office. Behind all the figures there is a multitude of individual fates – moving cases like that of Manfred Beslé, "I was in hospital all the time and couldn't walk until I was seven. My brothers and sisters taught me." In Germany there are more and more people like Manfred. Over the last five years the number has grown by over half a million.

According to statistics three per cent of all children are born with a disability. Two out of every hundred suffer some sort of impairment during pregnancy or at birth. Most of the disabilities however develop in the course of people's lives due to illness or accidents, resulting in 74 per cent of disabled people being over 55 years of age. Most of them, about 6.7 million, are severely disabled; 1.9 million are classed as slightly disabled. But what does this word "disabled" mean? The German Social Security Code (9) defines disability like this, "People are disabled if their physical functions, intellectual skills or mental health are likely to deviate more than just temporarily and hence their participation in the life of the community is adversely affected." By virtue of this definition disabled people have become outsiders and refuse to accept this – they see disability as "Any measure, structure or behavioural pattern that curtails, restricts or hampers the lifestyle of people with an impairment," as stated by a special forum set up by disabled lawyers.

Life beyond the norm

Back to Manfred Beslé – up to the age of 20 he attended a special needs school and afterwards went to work in a workshop for the disabled. He lives in a flat share run by Lebenshilfe, one of the four big organisations that help disabled people to live as independent a life as possible. His life and the lives of other disabled people is completely different from the lives led by people of his age who are not disabled. Most disabled children have to go to a special needs school and 15 per cent of them leave it without any qualifications. Among non-disabled schoolchildren the rate is a mere three per cent. When it comes to the German higher education entrance examination 11 per cent of disabled students pass – 15 per cent less that non-disabled students. 70 per cent of all disabled people are gainfully employed up to the age of 44, only 15 per cent are jobless. About 27 per cent work in the fields of education, health and social services, eleven per cent in public administration. Most of them find work in the supervised workshops for outside on the labour market only a few manage to get a job," says the Lebenshilfe organisation.

And on a private level? Half of all disabled people between the ages of 25 and 44 are unmarried and live at home with their families. Others live in homes run by the social services and only a very small number indeed live alone. Almost all of them are in fact in need of care and help – from their relatives as well as from the state. For the year 2006 the state spent 10.5 billion euros on integrating disabled people, 64 per cent more than ten years before. With a share of 58 per cent of the total net expenditure on social security this integration support for the disabled is by far the most significant form of aid provided by the social security system in Germany.

Dismantling barriers

"Nobody may be discriminated on the basis of his or her disability" – this was the amendment introduced in 1994 to Article 3 of Germany's Basic Law. "A milestone for disabled people," was the way the Lebenshilfe organisation reacted - for it makes everybody aware that disabled people, irrespective of the type and severity of their disability, have the same rights. The Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (General Equal Treatment Act) of 2006 emphasises this, as well as the special laws for equal treatment of disabled people introduced by the individual German states. They compel the authorities and public institutions to dismantle barriers, so that people have access to everywhere – to buildings, offices and also to workplaces, whether they are in a wheelchair, using a blind person's stick, a hearing aid or not.

On 30th March 2007 Germany signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is now bound to instigate the ratification process, i.e. to obtain the approval of the Bundestag (German Parliament) and the Bundesrat (Upper House). One year later various lobbies are still fighting over it "for the aim of this social development process has to be to enable and support disabled people to participate more in the life of the country, as this is the key to being included in society – all members of society co-existing as a matter of course," explains Michael Conty from the Bundesverband evangelische Behindertenhilfe (Federal Evangelical Association for the Disabled). This matter-of-course approach has been given a huge boost by the new, unlimited legal right to, what is called, the personal budget. Since January 2008, instead of the usual non-cash benefits, disabled people have been able to draw money or vouchers to finance the care and help they require and to combine it in a way that is really in line with their needs. Everybody is entitled to do this – and, because of this, many now even see a better hope of being treated more equally by society.

More open and more respectful interaction

"It is so often the case that other people think they know what is best for us," was heard from a group of mentally disabled people on a visit to former German Federal President, Johannes Rau. And, "I still get really upset inside whenever I hear the word disabled." How, though, should people who are not disabled deal with the disabled? Openly and with respect, is the answer given by the Aktion Mensch campaign that first made this slogan popular. "We are not disabled ourselves, it is the environment that disables us." This makes it quite clear that it is not the disability that makes life so difficult, but the way others deal with it. This is why most disabled people strive for self-determination, respect and openness. For as Manfred Beslé said at the beginning, "We're great people, too!"