Despite having a high literacy rate, free education and good humanitarian development indicators, Sri Lankan society’s attitudes towards the disabled are still mired in the past although the country has 1.4 million…
A common theme running through this year’s Colomboscope, entitled Language is Migrant, is the enduring consequences of Sri Lanka’s civil war as seen through the eyes of several young artists based in…
Raise your right hand (or your left if you are left-handed), with the palm facing forward and the fingers spread out. Now form an O with your thumb and your middle finger…
Not so long ago, to be a person with disabilities meant stigma, exclusion and isolation because people are disabled by society and not just by their bodies. But as the number of…
To mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities, Groundviews interviewed Dharini de Mel, a friend and philanthropist for persons with disabilities. Dharini’s introduction to supporting the disabled came quite by chance. Although…
These are the stories of people whose daily struggles come from witnessing and being trapped in the middle of a war that lasted three decades, who think that it would have been…
Following an injury, J was given medical advice to minimise the time he spent on his feet, as he was due to travel abroad. His doctor recommended he use airport wheelchair services, and…
Image courtesy Global Abilities blog To visit a place of worship seems such a natural thing to do to the extent that we rarely consider it in terms of entitlements. Yet for…
caught up with Gustavo Fijalkow, one of two (the other being Gerda König) responsible for the concept behind ‘changeABLE cohesion‘, a contemporary dance performance that will kick off the Colombo International Theater…
Of the more than 6 billion people in the world, the UN estimates that more than 500 million of them are disabled. That is approximately 8%. In the early 1900s and before,…
As part of our video series for human rights day 2009 (falling on 10 December), sought to focus attention on disability and the rights of the disabled in our country. Sunethra speaks…
Police Reform was the theme of a discussion organised by the Commonwealth Initiative in Delhi last week. Among the participants were senior police officers from South Asian countries including a few who…
A young boy was drowned in broad daylight this week. Though not a single newspaper carried it, I’m told B. Sivakumaran was his name. He was “believed” to be mentally retarded and…
, who were impressively skilful in their acting and physical performances that most of us would find cumbersome. What was immediately striking was that these productions were anchored to a vital issue…
As reported in State media, on 14th October 2009, the Supreme Court ordered that public buildings to be constructed in the future should be easily accessible to disabled persons. The Court further…
