By ALICIA WALLACE

TODAY is International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) and the theme set by the United Nations is “Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress.” A just, inclusive, and equitable world requires that society acknowledge differences in (dis)abilities and needs and adapts with systems and practices that result in equal access and outcomes.

Today, many people with disabilities cannot even access Parliament, as it is upstairs in a building that does not have an elevator. Eight years since the passing of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities) Act, it has still not been fully implemented.

Section 20 of the Persons with Disabilities Act states, “Every person with a disability shall be entitled to a barrier-free and disabled-friendly environment to enable him to have access to buildings, Information Communication Technology (ICT), roads and other social amenities, and assistive or adaptive devices and other equipment to promote his mobility.”

Section 21 states:

“(1) A proprietor of any building to which the public is permitted access shall adapt it to suit persons with disabilities in such manner as may be specified by the Commission, including provision for parking of vehicles by persons with disabilities. (2) All proprietors of buildings under subsection (1) shall comply with subsection (1) within two years after this section comes into operation, or on such other date as the Minister may appoint by Notice published in the Gazette. (3) All proprietors of buildings shall designate parking for persons with disabilities within six months after the coming into operation of this Act.”

With little effort, we can determine that this is not our reality today. There are buildings without ramps and there are places of business with layouts that do not accommodate mobility devices. Parking spaces designated for people with disabilities are often blocked by large cones with no one nearby to move them when the spaces are needed. It then becomes the job of the driver to find the person responsible for moving the cone or come up with another way to move it.

There are roads without sidewalks and there are roads with sidewalks that end before the road does. There are pedestrian crossings that are not marked by paint and are ignored by drivers, who block them while sitting on red lights. These include the Bernard Road-Village Road-Wulff Road-and Soldier Road intersection. It is almost impossible to cross the road at this intersection because of drivers’ failure to pay attention, to identify crosswalks, and to respect the people who need to use them, including the blind and visually-impaired and users of mobility devices.

It is not enough to acknowledge a day. It is not enough to wear pins or t-shirts or to make speeches and write essays. It is necessary that people care about people. We all need to care about people with disabilities. We all need to do what we can to increase their access to services, resources, and opportunities.

It means talking to management about changing the way the parking lot is managed. It means asking questions about the layout of stores and information managers of the consequences, both intended and unintended. It means reading and understanding the law. It means raising this issue with Members of Parliament and anyone who comes knocking, looking for votes. It means making this issue a priority, whether we are directly affected by it or not. There will be no equality for anyone until we all have the access that makes equitable outcomes possible.

#ReadPalestineWeek

It is International Read Palestine Week, and Publishers for Palestine have made several ebooks available free of charge. They include Banging on the Walls of the Tank: Dispatches from Gaza by Haidar Eid, Where the Jasmine Blooms by Zeina Sleiman, Ancestral Daughter by Zaina Jhaish, and Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance edited by Edmund Ghareeb and Naseer Aruri. Visit publishersforpalestine.org to download the free ebooks.

Other books by Palestinian authors

If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer. This compilation of poetry was published in December 2024. After he was killed, Alareer’s poem, If I Must Die, written for his daughter in 2011, went viral.

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself—

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader, edited by Malu Halasa and Jordan Elgrably. “How do you imagine a future when the present is being obliterated before your eyes?” This is the question posed by the Foreword of Sumūd. “This is a question I have considered, both as a Palestinian and a writer, in the wake of the apocalyptic violence subleased on Palestinians after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. In the months that followed, it was impossible to look away as Israel reduced most of Gaza to rubble. The magnitude of the brutality meant there was no limit to the blood and gore, the lifeless children and soot-covered bodies pulled from their destroyed homes.” This anthology features work from the 20th and 21st centuries and includes 25 illustrations by Palestinian artists.

The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders by Sarah Aziza. Winner of the Palestine Book Award, the story traces three generations, revealing family secrets that link to Aziza’s own trauma. “Weaving timelines, languages, geographies, and genres, The Hollow Half probes the contradictions and contingencies that create ‘nation’ and ‘history.’ Blazing with honesty, urgency, and poetry, this stunning debut memoir is a fearless call to imagine both the self and the world anew.”

I’ll Tell You When I’m Home by Hala Allan. An excerpt: “I don’t remember the final time before the surrogate, only that it must’ve been in January. I might have waited until the first blood draw, my doctor’s voice excited. These numbers look so good, Hala, and I could feel my overachiever’s heart rise like bread. I’d gone to a pastry store in the Village, bought an éclair, eaten it so quickly I’d ripped a bit of the paper with my teeth. Then I told him. I must’ve. I just can’t remember.” (The ebook version is available free through Publishers for Palestine.)

Heaven Looks Like Us edited by Abraham and Hindi. The introduction to this collection of poetry begins, “We are writing from one of the darkest moments of Palestinian history, into a future whose shape, let alone existence, is unknowable to us. It is January 2024. We are over a hundred days into the latest iteration of Zionist genocide in Gaza, and with the necrotic weight of unknowable thousands of slaughtered kin—each a whole universe of dreams, hopes, wonders, beauties, stolen from us too soon—we sing.”

Books by people who are not Palestinian

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis. “In a society that continually pushes individualism, [this book] is an important reminder of the transnational struggle for freedom,” one reviewer wrote. “Drawing connections between the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter movement, the occupation of Palestine, and other instances of colonialism and genocide, this book is a collection of interviews and speeches that encouraged their audiences (and now readers) to reject an isolated view of both current and past events, and to see how each struggle for freedom is connected, no matter the time period, location or group involved.”

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In this book, Coates "explores the urgent question of how our stories – our reporting, imaginative narratives and mythmaking – both expose and distort our realities.” The three parts of the book are based on his travel to three sites of conflict, delving into the stories, both told and untold, and the ways they impact our lives in the long term. “Coates connects with Palestinian writers and activists during his stay, reinforcing his belief that true liberation must be universal,” Nikki Keating wrote in a review for The Oberlin Review. “He emphasizes that the suppression of Palestinian voices is a significant barrier to justice, as their stories often go unheard on the global stage […] Coates believes that the written word allows us to preserve history, confront oppression, and inspire change.”

Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation by Sim Kern. “Part activist memoir, part crash course in Jewish and Palestinian history, Genocide Bad dismantles Zionist propaganda in 10 unapologetic essays. Drawing connections between Biblical promises and exploding pagers, medieval dress codes and modern-day apartheid, Kern sketches a sweeping history of imperialism with their characteristic blend of far-ranging research, pop-culture insights, and scathing humour.”