Crippled Children Week

Press, 20 May 1980, Page 13

Crippled Children Week

PA Wellington This week is Crippled Children Week, and “equality” is the theme of the campaign. “Disabled people don’t want others to feel sorry for them,” said the Crippled Children Society’s spokesman. Miss Mary Balfour, yesterday. “Thev want to be accepted as ordinary human beings and given the same rights as any citizen is entitled to.” The society hopes to have more people thinking that way by the end of the campaign on Saturday, when a nation-wide house-to-house appeal will be held. The society helps more than 8000 crippled children and spent $1.2 million last year. About $700,000 went to direct benefits and assistance

for disabled people and their families. The rest was spent on counselling and practical assistance by field officers. The “equality” theme has been based on the United Nations declaration of rights for disabled people. It includes the right to assistance in promoting independence; a choice of lifestyles, training, and employment; accessible transportation; and selfesteem.

“Disabled people are continually denied these rights,” said the society’s services director (Mr R. Kerse). “It relates back to the age-old fear of the cripple, hunchback, and dwarf.”

To illustrate the point, Mr Kerse used the case of an! attractive young woman married to a paraplegic. "She was always being asked if she married him ’before or after the accident’,” he said.