The insights of Mincho Koralski – Executive Director of the Disability Agency – told by him on January 15th in BNT’s morning bloc are impressive with their delays, alarming with the lack of up-to-date knowledge of disability policies, as well as the many internal contradictions in the profundity of a senior government official with influence in political decision-making.
For example, the reference to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which defines disability as a result of functional barriers caused by functional deficits, does not in any way relate to “psychological analysis and psychological assistance” as an “extremely important element” for people who have not been in the labor market for a long time. Certainly, the lack of accessible environment, accessible transport, modern technical aids and personal assistance are far more serious problems for which the psychological interventions are not the solution. On the other hand, what kind of employment can we talk about if people in the decisions of the TEMC are defined by a “percentage of disability”? Moreover, people with 100 percent disability are denied registration at the employment offices if they dare to think of such a thing at all.
Another problem – whether involuntarily or involuntarily overlooked by Mincho Koralski – is the universal nature of TEMC’s documents, as the people have said “for birth and for burial”. It is at the institution run by Mr Koralski that the specialized enterprises for persons with disabilities are registered. Hardly anybody noticed the boom of such businesses in 2015 unless it was deliberately paid attention. The announcement of public contracts for which only specialized enterprises can compete is another preference for specialized enterprises in order to stimulate employment for people with disabilities. At the same time, the Employment Agency reports fewer people with disabilities and more unemployed people in this social group. No one gives a reason for this discrepancy, and it is the use of TEMC solutions – because of the universal nature of this document – and not the hiring of real disabled people.
Finally, “corruption practices”, thoroughly and profoundly unprofessionally analyzed by BORCOR, are enshrined in the Ordinance on Employability Assessment and in all laws that offer benefits to persons with disabilities based solely on the decision of the TEMC. Everything that happens in the field of disability is regulated by law and there are no violations, but clever and sly use of “what the state gives”.
That’s why today’s participation of Mincho Koralski in BNT’s “The Day Begins” is an attempt to use people with disabilities for purposes other than their social inclusion. For example, according to Nina Zhisheva, “it is just to create employment for unemployed psychologists, to talk about “stigma” without working to overcome it, to preserve a system that gives bread – deservedly or not quite – to thousands of people, to ensure the ground for political populism which helps unscrupulous candidates for fame to get power, to talk about a broad public debate which will remain within the National Council for Integration of People with Disabilities. “
If the new approach launched by Mincho Koralski reduces down to appointing of psychologists for people with disabilities at the Labor Offices and a different “working capacity expertise”, then the exercise will fail again. The current assessment of disability is not limited to the expertise of working capacity, but takes into account all life conditions, Mr. Koralski, but this understanding also requires the change of the chip to those who make political decisions. And just having a disability is not a guarantee of intelligence, knowledge and competence in disability issues.