I have an intellectual disability. I demand equal rights

As members of a modern democracy, our belief and hope is that all citizens of Israel live equally under the law. Those dreams and hopes are no different for those of us who live with intellectual or other disabilities.

As a member of that community, I can say that for many years we have been hearing about the importance of creating a society built upon ideals of inclusion, accommodation and equality. We have participated in high-level government forums and Knesset committee hearings where our challenges, pleas and requests were presented and heard. But the reality is that despite those ongoing efforts, and even if we have felt progress in many areas, our daily lives in many ways have gone on unchanged.

Therefore, while we are more than certain there will be many other issues to consider as a new Knesset is sworn in, we feel it’s necessary to ask our elected officials to pay attention to the needs of the many thousands of people with disabilities, especially those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who live in Israel today.

From the outset, we respectfully ask that the state help create the conditions necessary for a person with disabilities to choose where he or she lives and pursue the type of quality of life that they deserve. As things stand today, a person with disabilities is often forced to live in specific housing conditions, not necessarily by choice but because there are no other available alternatives, or because the necessary practical and financial support from social and government agencies is not always available or sufficient for all of their needs.

We are therefore calling on the national government to embrace a plan to budget new housing possibilities that would allow people with disabilities to live within our towns and communities and provide a sense of independence for those who are able and interested in pursuing that lifestyle.

Our second priority is to expand employment opportunities that would allow us to support ourselves with dignity. We have the same desire and motivation as anyone else in the country: to learn a skill, bring in a paycheck as contributing members of the workforce, and not be dependent on handouts or social welfare systems. Here, too, we are calling on the national authorities to draft a multi-year program to expand employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Expanding employment opportunities will include investing in training programs and remedying employment and compensation structures that have historically impeded us from achieving professional and financial equality. Our firm belief is that we can succeed in a gradual process of acclimation into the workforce, moving out of the current model of separate workplaces to working in the open job market, allowing us to significantly contribute in ways that protect our personal interests and open new opportunities that have not previously been available to us. We request that a sustainable plan be drafted consisting of specific benchmarks for how many people with disabilities are being included in the professional sector.

As part of this process of successful inclusion, we also ask that opportunities be expanded to allow us to access clear information and become part of the decision-making process on the national level. This process has been traditionally blocked by claims that making information accessible to people with intellectual disabilities can be financially prohibitive. Such excuses are simply unacceptable in a world where all people ostensibly have the right to contribute to the future of the society they live in. Expanding access needs to be legislated, after which government decisions and protocols should be presented and publicized in formats and language that can be easily understood by all people who seek them out.

Beyond procedural or legal changes, our request is much more fundamental: as citizens of this country, give us the chance to be at the table in making the decisions that impact us the most. No one can truly understand the challenges, dreams and hopes of people with disabilities better than those who live this life.

I appeal to our leaders to ensure that this call for action is not ignored or dismissed. Specifically, they should commit to a timeline – that within 100 days, an initial plan be drafted to address the specific issues outlined above, and that within one year, a multi-year strategy that includes budgets, benchmarks and a workable timeline be finalized to see the real change that we all deserve.

The time has come for the nation and state of Israel to recognize that the rights of people with intellectual disabilities can no longer be approached solely as a worthy social cause. We must commit to changing policy so that we can all live in a world where our rights and opportunities are not contingent upon the charity, patience and goodwill of others, but are firmly established in the law in a way that will forever change our reality for the better.