Breaking Barriers: The Disability Rights Movement in Russia

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Duration : 2m 49s

(August 24, 2012)- When Natalia Prisetskaya tried to board a plane in one of Moscow's airports, the flight attendant told her, “You’re disabled, you cannot fly.” Prisetskaya had to go to court to prove to the airline--and to her country as a whole--that she was entitled to live a normal life, like everyone else. Although people with disabilities in Russia have seen improvements since the end of the Soviet era, they remain largely cut off from society. Public attitudes and a lack of legal protections create barriers to equality that prevent them from fully participating in public life. Human rights advocates hope that Russia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in May 2012 will hasten the end of widespread discrimination against 13 million Russian citizens with mental and physical disabilities. The 2014 Sochi Olympics will certainly be a major test, as Russia will host a large number of people with disabilities as guests of the winter games and the subsequent Paralympics. “The entire infrastructure needs to be prepared, but if there are some acts of discrimination that will really hurt Russia’s image. And frankly, why should people have to endure so much degradation?” said Prisetskaya, the woman who proved to her country that she can fly, wheelchair or not.

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