.
Amilcar Vital -- your comments provide a reason why countries like Brazil
(and many others having a variety of resources but not so much know-how in
the disability field) cannot afford the luxury of continuing to debate in circles,
while one or two billion seriously poor people (many of whom have
disabilities) slip further away from any possibility of living with the basic rights
and amenities that are taken for granted by the average European or North
American.
The present "Disability-Research" list was started more than ten years ago,
and in its earlier years it did have a focus on 'research' as carried out by
people with training in research methodologies, or who were receiving such
training and hoped to become researchers. Disabled people who were
researchers, or who were interested to learn something about how research
is done, and what kind of things disability researchers were discussing, were
welcome to participate. After several years, the balance changed, and the
list began to be taken over -- and eventually dominated -- by people who
were not doing reseach, and were not interested in discussing research or
learning how it is done, but wished to 'invade the space' and express their
anguish and bounce their slogans and cliches off the walls and catch the
echoes of their own voices.
The anguish, of those who now dominate the list, is not difficult to understand
(at least, within the wealthier european countries); and the 'take-over' is also
a familiar process, which has happened in many places as the internet has
evolved. People who wish to have serious discussions of research have
mostly moved on, to discuss their interests with one another in other places,
where they are not shouted down by those who know little or nothing about
research. There are still a few researchers who continue to contribute to this
list, from time to time; but there are very few who have any interest or
experience in the 'developing countries', the countries with weaker
economies or in a transitional situation.
****
The issues you raise about access to transport for disabled people, in
weaker economic situations, are not ones in which I have much experience,
but earlier this year I happened to look into this area when a South Asian phd
candidate asked some questions. There has certainly been some organised
research going on in the past seven years. Apart from journal literature, some
full text articles can be found at the DFID site, http://www.transport-links.org
(look in 'Publications', and search using 'disab' (or 'disablity' and
'disabled'). For example, the articles, by Venter & Mashiri, Rickert,
Maunder & Sentinella, Venkatesh, Munthali, & Bogopane; and by Venkatesh,
Maunder, Sentinella & Vinay, are worth reading. The short study
in India is very down-to-earth, with a short but detailed questionnaire to
really learn some practical facts about the access of some disabled people
to bus services in Pune. This was part of a multi-national study in India,
Africa and Latin America, on transport and disability, which produced the
'guidelines' paper by Venter et al. (Members of these teams have produced
other papers, freely available online).
The point is that people have been writing endlessly about 'poverty and
disability' for the past 50 years, at the end of which there are far more
people in poverty and having disability than there were 50 years ago. The UN
has passed endless resolutions, none of which has reduced the number, or
solved any problems. The world does not need any more PhD theses that
reproduce two hundred pages of this rubbish, without adding any new and
solidly based knowledge. But it is clear that some people, in some
developing countries have been making serious, practical studies of how to
improve the transport situation, and some of these are openly available on
the web. I did not know anything about them, but in half an hour with google, I
found several websites with useful papers. Practical studies of a
similar kind could be done in Brazil and neighbours, and very probably have
already been done, and reported in Portuguese or Spanish, which would
actually add to knowledge of the problem and some practical solutions. At
another website, www.global-ride-sf.org/news.html there are some
newsletters, giving details and discussions, which seem to be relevant.
At those locations, nobody is arguing about whether the researchers should
be big or small, having pink, brown or yellow skin, having disabilities or not
having disabilities. They are reporting ways of improving access for disabled
people, based on evidence obtained by research. Certainly, there are also
political issues to consider. Wherever any attempt is made to allocate
resources to those with little or no power, there will be people arguing
against it. But those arguments, and the research evidence that concerns
disabled people's access in Brazil, must be found within Brazil and its
neighbours. It is unlikely that any assistance will be found on this list. (You're
welcome to try -- but appeals for assistance, from developing countries, have
seldom evoked any useful response here).
(with apologies for the insularity of western europe...)
best regards, miles
On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:02:00 -0300, Vital Amilcar
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Hi there,
> I m not an expert on the subject so far i m neither disabled or
>pregnant or elderly, but those questions and discussions about teh
>subject do bring matters that i keep thinking. The few i know is about
>a master of science that i conducted related to accessibility but in
>public transport, all the names, laws, international development was
>and still is new for my person, as i have my studies in enginering and
>we dont really study about needs, although (civil enginers) conduct
>their projects (mostly) direclty for the usage by people (thats one of
>my regreats in my field).
I strongly feel that discucussions must be carried out, but (just
>my toughts) if we keep on it, what is gonna be about what is deeply
>affecting people with needs that are not "the standard" (if theres a
>standard - i DOUBT IT) I say that, because here in Brazil the type of
>study i carried out was and still is full of political discussions and
>for sure they should be present, but this is also a reason for the
>STANDSTILL status that we face in our local situation.
>Thanks for your time
>Regards,
>Vital AMílcar
>________________End of message________________
>
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