The women with disabilities in the Republic of Moldova are discriminated dually – on grounds of gender and on grounds of disability. The conclusion is contained in a study carried out by the Association “Pro femei”, in cooperation with the University Legal Clinic and with the support of Soros Foundation Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN, Olesea Tabarcea, representative of the University Legal Clinic, said most of the women with disabilities who were interviewed within the study said they were discriminated. It happens even if the Republic of Moldova ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities six years ago.
Director of the Association “Pro femei” Olga Cenusa, who is also the author of the study entitled “Barriers and necessities of the women with disabilities in the Republic of Moldova”, said the disabled women integrate with difficulty into society because they meet with major obstacles when they want to access education and medical services and job offers.
The women with hearing impairments cannot access by themselves emergency medical services and with difficulty can benefit from the other medical services. The women with sight impairments and those with locomotor disabilities, who use wheelchairs, are limited in the possibility of freely accessing any service owing to the inaccessibility of infrastructure.
The lack of measures to adjust the education program to the needs of girls with psychosocial disabilities cause their separation from society as they have to study at home or in specialized institutions. “Regretfully, we can ascertain that there is no clear mechanism for supporting, informing and guiding families with children with disabilities,” exemplified Olga Cenusa.
