Disabled women reveal what they hope for an inclusive future

Mariana Torquato it was never just Mariana. Ever since she was a little girl, whenever her name was mentioned, it was accompanied by a cruel comment related to her deficiency🇧🇷 “I saw people pointing at me; some asked what had happened”, says the creator of Vai uma Mãozinha Aí?, the biggest YouTube channel on disability in Brazil. The 27-year-old from Santa Catarina was born without her left forearm and grew up knowing that society was not prepared to live with people with disabilities (PwDs). Mariana is part of more than 25 million Brazilian women who have some type of disability, whether physical or intellectual, according to the 2010 Census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Despite the high rate, government initiatives aimed at this portion of the population are still scarce. And even the main laws in force – the Inclusion Law2015, which ensures the exercise of the rights of people with disabilities, and the Quota Law, from 1991, which requires companies with more than 100 employees to have vacancies for these people – are often disrespected. “There are those who find quotas absurd, but they are extremely necessary in a country like ours, which has not yet socially inserted PwD. It is the only way to ensure that companies realize that we exist,” he says. Carolina Ignarrafounding partner of Talent Include, a consultancy specializing in inclusion in the labor market. She opened the business after, in 2001, she suffered an accident, which left her paraplegic. At the time, even with an excellent curriculum, Carolina was only invited to vacancies that had nothing to do with her academic background, as a physical educator. She realized then that for the corporations it was just an attempt to fill the required vacancies; they weren’t concerned about people. “Women are seen as even more incapable, and there is the issue of motherhood, which, for some companies, is a thorn in the side”, reveals Rosemeire Andradeinclusion manager Center for Professional Learning and Social Assistancewhich trains minority groups to return to the job market in São Paulo.

away from schools

In part, the difficulty of getting a job is the result of little access to the education system. Statistics prove it: 60% of Brazilian PwD did not complete elementary school and only 0.5% of them are in the job market. Barriers include lack of physical and intellectual accessibility, since most educational institutions do not offer specialized assistance and monitoring for people with disabilities. And it is not a problem exclusive to the public system. Journalism student from São Paulo Ana Clara Moniz, 21, who has spinal muscular atrophy type 2, faced obstacles despite having attended private schools all his life. “Only after I entered high school did I really realize what it meant to have a disability. Schools didn’t want to accept me when they found out I was PwD,” she recalls. After a long search by her parents, Ana Clara finally entered kindergarten and, despite the institution’s lack of experience, she never had any problems. “But I know that I am privileged. This is not the reality for most, ”she completes her. In college, it’s a different story. She faces some resistance to requests for space changes. “It’s difficult to get to classrooms in a wheelchair, and some teachers are not very understanding. When it’s raining, it’s difficult to go through the uncovered ramps. Once I complained that it was raining and I heard: ‘At least in Campinas it doesn’t rain much’”, she reveals.

the carioca Nathalia Santos, 27 years old, faces similar obstacles. Until the university, it depended on the public education and health systems. It wasn’t until age 12 that she got the correct diagnosis of her condition, retinitis pigmentosa, three years before she became completely blind. Since until then the doctors had said that Nathalia only had astigmatism and myopia, she was unable to request school materials adapted for PwD. “Nevertheless, thanks to the good will of the teachers, I learned to write. The issue has always been a lack of structure,” she explains. When she entered college, a private institution that offered her a full scholarship, she discovered that the building had no access. The school listened to the student’s requests and fixed some of the problems.

pleasure seeking

Nathalia found out a few weeks ago that she is pregnant. At first it was a shock. “We know mothers of children with disabilities, but how many mothers with disabilities do we see? There are very few. We are not seen as desired people, ”she says. In addition to having sexuality and pleasure completely ignored, women with disabilities are much more likely to suffer all kinds of sexual violence – the risk is three times higher for them than for other women, according to the first UN report about PcDs, released in December 2018.

Facts like these have a direct impact on women’s self-esteem, not to mention that lack of information also influences self-care. “Since they are made invisible, it is extremely important that we encourage empowerment. One of the ways to achieve this is to promote meetings between them so that they can exchange experiences and unite”, he explains. Aracélia Costaexecutive secretary of the Rights of People with Disabilities in the State of São Paulo🇧🇷 The secretariat is going to launch, later this month, a schedule of events that will start in the capital, but should soon move on to other cities.

According to the social sciences student from Rio de Janeiro Alessandra Martins, 23 years old, machismo has a potentiated effect for women with disabilities. “In the patriarchal society we live in and in heteronormative relationships, it is rare for us to be accepted and loved because, in general, the female social role has always been to care for the man. Then people think they will have to take care of us, which makes no sense. My disability, for example, does not cause me so many limitations. Either way, relationships should be about exchanges and companionship,” she explains, who lost her leg after being hit by a bus and had to do a crowdfunding online to buy the prosthesis.

It’s not just men who turn their backs on women with disabilities. The feminist movement also ends up leaving this group aside. Even with the countless aspects, there are few struggles that involve him. “The truth is that this world is only easy for a small part of society: rich white straight cis men. The more oppressions you accumulate, the worse it is. I support the movement and I think it is extremely important, but it does not represent me as a black woman, much less as a woman with a disability”, says Alessandra. Mariana agrees. According to her, in addition to all the stigma of the weakness of the female gender, these women’s bodies are not welcome in environments that discuss feminism. “Events take place in places without accessibility, sign language interpreters, audio description. It seems people are too lazy to include us,” she says.

A not so bright future

In November of last year, the Ministry of Economy created Bill 6,159, which determined that companies could choose not to hire people with disabilities if they paid a fine. This practically destroyed the right to work for PwDs and disallowed the Quota Law. The PL should be voted in up to 45 days in Congress, but, after numerous protests, the president Jair Bolsonaro withdrew the urgency and the minister Paulo Guedes guaranteed that it will not guide any project involving PwD without first listening to them and considering their demands. This is just one of the examples of a bill that takes away the rights of people with disabilities, LGBTs +, women, blacks and, although it did not go forward, it shows the neglect of power with minorities.

For Mariana, with the bias of the current government, it is difficult to expect many positive changes, but the essential thing is to invest in insertion in the job market. She suggests a campaign to uplift PwD. “We don’t want to be leaning against the INSS, as many people say. We want to be productive and protagonists of our lives”, she declares. Ana Clara, on the other hand, defends the “normalization” of disabilities. “People need to start seeing us as citizens. We have rights, and they need to be respected. They are not favors that are done to us, ”she explains.

Prejudice is in acts and issues that we sometimes don’t even stop to think about – some of them institutionalized. “Last year I went to the IRS and found out that disability is considered a serious illness. This type of nomenclature is still very common and offends, demeans. It’s not something that’s going to change overnight because it’s rooted, but government awareness actions could start the change”, suggests Ana. Until then, attitudes towards transformation must come from everyone. Of ourselves in our daily lives, to welcome and listen to these women, to be their partners in the fight for their rights. From public and private institutions, by meeting the needs of PwD and ensuring real inclusion. And the whole of society, in the fight against prejudice.