I thank you to give us this opportunity to have this discussion. This is my first discussion on this subject. About the framework([1]), I understand that the CRPD is part of that framework, and the principles of this Convention must be part of that framework.

Discuss and make pour voice heard

There are 2 main issues in the CRPD that are important in this discussion; there are participation and accessibility, because we need access to participate and to make things different. When concern people, people with disabilities, participate to the discussion, each participant is obliged to adapt their ways of thinking, their ways of earing, of understanding … And Participation in that sense is an efficient tool to make thinks different, more adapted and accessible for all.

The problem is that we don’t have any criteria for participation. We ask for in many institutions, but it’s always the same questions about the understanding of participation and the lack of criteria to evaluate it. How people understand participation? Is it social participation as a whole? Only an objective to reach?

For us it is mainly a tool, a tool for changes. If we want to achieve these changes, we have to do it in a participatory process. We can put the framework to empower the participation of concern people, in our case people with disabilities, deaf, blind, in wheelchairs … In this framework we need tools to evaluate participation, to build a common understanding of participation and its effectiveness.

Jean-Luc Simon

[1]In reference to what the previous participant from the World Bank says: « What you are suppose to share with us is a draft framework for the new policy, not a draft policy»

18 mai 2013