People with disabilities in Ireland could organise themselves into a lobby of one million advocates for change, a conference in Waterford was told yesterday.
Mr Brian Crowley, the Fianna Fail MEP, called on the various groups representing disabled people to put aside sectional interests for a limited period in order to pursue priority aims.
He was speaking at a European Policy conference, "New Perspectives: Disability and Employment", at which the keynote address was delivered by the US civil rights lawyer, Mr Edward Kennedy jnr, who said people with disabilities were our "greatest untapped resource".
Mr Crowley pointed out that one in 10 persons had a recognised disability of some kind. In the Republic that meant there were 350,000 people with disabilities and, at a conservative estimate, at least two other people were affected in each case.
In effect, it would be possible to have a lobby of a million people campaigning for three priority rights for the disabled: to have their entitlements recognised as human rights; to have full integration into the education system; and to have access to public transport.
The specific targets could be different, he said, but if every lobby group came together on agreed core issues a lot could be achieved in a short time.
Mr Kennedy, a long-time advocate of the rights of those with disabilities, said such people did not want pity; they wanted jobs.
"It makes good business sense [to hire them], and people with disabilities make good employees. That's the global message I'd like to convey," he said. Surveys in the US had shown they worked harder, were more productive and were absent less often than others. There was an obvious reason: "They're so grateful to get a job in the first place they're going to make the best employee that an employer ever had."
People with disabilities also made the best employees because they were adaptable and creative. That was because they were used to finding ways around difficult situations.
Modern technology had opened up new possibilities, he said. "Years ago you needed a strong back and a good pair of arms for many jobs, but that's not true any longer."
It was now possible to offer people with disabilities a choice of career path. "For many years in the United States if you were blind you became a telephone operator. Nobody ever asked someone who was blind, `What do you want to be when you grow up?' " With technology there was no longer an excuse for that approach.
Mr Kennedy, who as a 12-year-old lost a leg to bone cancer, said society's attitude to people with disabilities was the biggest barrier they faced. It was that which created the handicap, not the disabilities.
Medical models of disadvantage needed to be replaced by social models. When he was a boy he was evaluated on issues like how far he could walk or whether he could use the bathroom by himself.
"This is the wrong measure," he said. "Instead of looking at things from a medical perspective we should be looking from a social perspective, such as `What can be the quality of life somebody can have with part-time help?', for example."
The chief executive of Waterford Crystal, Mr Redmond O'Donoghue, told the conference that business leaders were obliged to find ways for all people, including the disabled, to reach their full potential.
