Nothing about us, without us
Forty years ago, a new generation of parents of disabled people had a dream. Desperate with the fragmentation and chronic lack of services in the disability sector and angry with the resulting exclusion of many of their children from the mainstream of Maltese society and inspired by new thinking from abroad [specifically the United Nations’ seminal document: World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled People (1982)] they, together with some non-disabled allies, sought and found political backing to create a national focal point on disability issues in the Maltese islands.
It was thus that in 1987, under a new Nationalist Party administration, Dr Louis Galea, then Minister of Social Policy, took the politically daring decision to set a National Commission for the Handicapped, later to be known as the National Commission Persons with Disability (KNPD). It was a daring decision because, contrary to common political practice in Malta, KNPD was to be an autonomous entity charged with the sole responsibility of safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of disabled people on the Maltese Islands. At the outset it was intended to be independent and autonomous.
Its first chairman, Dr Lawrence Gonzi and its executive secretary (later executive director) Fred Bezzina, both passionately fond of the disability sector, were given the twin task of safeguarding the rights of disabled people and taking the necessary steps to improve disabled people’s quality of life at a time when disabled people in Malta were invisible and voiceless. From its inception KNPD set to be revolutionary. Its first step was to declare that disabled people could and should speak out for themselves. Furthermore, KNPD came out with what was considered at the time as a near-insane statement: that it was society that needed to change and not disabled people.
The small seed having been planted, the tree began to grow. First of all, KNPD was to be made up of a majority of disabled people. In 1987 and for some years later, this was to prove difficult, but eventually a majority of disabled members was reached. Furthermore, its Secretariat began to function as a model employer of people with different impairments. It encouraged disabled people to apply whenever it advertised vacancies and, if a disabled applicant was successful, KNPD would provide the individual with the training, support and adaptations necessary to ensure equality on the place of work. The Secretariat was always run on a collegiate basis with decisions taken by the whole group where possible and every decision was to reflect the articulated needs of disabled people.
KNPD’s work was ambitious. While embarking on various public, consciousness-raising, educational campaigns it also took on the task for drafting and pushing for anti-discriminatory legislation which would safe-guard the civil rights of disabled people. In the year 2000 the Maltese House of Representatives unanimously enacted the Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act. In the field of Education, KNPD set about working towards the introduction of an inclusive education policy, a task which was achieved in 1994. Notwithstanding a great deal of work, which still needs to be done, educational inclusion has seen Malta become one of the most inclusive among the EU member states. Where employment is concerned, KNPD initiated various schemes, training programmes and awareness campaigns with varying degrees of success. Certainly, more success was marked in the social services sector where KNPD was a major player in the setting up of many of the corner-stone social services of today, among them: the Respite Care Service, the Incontinence Service, the Sonia Tanti Independent Living Centre, the Foundation for IT Accessibility, Aġenzija Sapport and many, many more.
All these disparate strands are woven together in Fred Bezzina’s book: Xejn dwarna mingħajrna (Nothing about us without us) as it sets out to chronicle KNPD’s history between its inception in 1987 until Malta’s ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability in 2012 and the setting up of the University of Malta’s Department of Disability Studies in 2013. Finally, looking towards the future, the narrative is clear on one aspect: the struggle to ensure equal opportunities and to safe-guard disabled people’s rights is a continuous process.
Bezzina makes it very clear that the book is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the Maltese disability sector, but principally a record of KNPD’s early days and its 25-year development into a strong, national force for change. What the book is, is a monument to an informal social movement, which brought about a silent revolution in the way disabled people are regarded and the way policies in the disability sector are tackled by Maltese society.
Over and above this, it is also a sincere expression of respect towards, and appreciation of, the innumerable people whose quiet, constant support, within and without KNPD, contributed in no small measure to bringing about a paradigm shift in the quality of life of disabled people in Malta.
The book is available for sale from all Agenda Bookshops and from the offices of the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Sta Venera.
Nothing about us, without us − the Kummissjoni Nazzjonali Persuni b’Diżabilità’s first 25 years’ of endeavour and radical changes 1987-2013,
By Fred Bezzina
Horizons. Malta 2017