Sandra Pesevska Mickovska, activist for the rights of people with disabilities, opened the panel discussion “Ramp – (un)acceptance of people with special needs in society” with her personal story, as a person who has hearing and vision impairment, speaking about the everyday challenges she faces, the “ramps” and misunderstandings, stereotypes…

Sandra illustratively spoke about the inadequate sidewalks and paths she faces, in education, healthcare, in the institutions, while getting employed…

“There are ramps that bridge obstacles, there are ramps that are difficult to climb on, some are non-standard and not according to regulations …. I am pleased that to have the honour to raise the ramp as a first speaker… I have many identities, a daughter, mother, wife, among them is also the identity of a person with a disability. I would like to share an aspect from my life, precisely because my disabilities are not visible”, said Pesevska Mickovska.

She began her story with an illustration of the early discovery of having hearing impairment, and how it reflected on her education and socialization with other children, and continued by adding that she had lost her eyesight during puberty.

“I would like to illustrate how I see. Most often they ask me why I don’t wear glasses. They don’t help in my case. I have central vision and see as if through a tunnel or through binoculars. And what is left of that vision, which is central, is not perfect. My focus is not good, and my vision is blurry… A person literary has to come a meter from me in order for me to recognize that person. The combination of impaired hearing and vision additionally makes the entire situation difficult and I face barriers exactly because my disabilities are not visible”, explained Pesevska Mickovska.

She added that such a situation reflects negatively with people who don’t know her well enough and in important matters such as in a job interview, formal communications… There is also a risk while walking down the streets, sidewalks, she adds, especially at night time because she additionally has night blindness.

“I will mention front offices as an example, with those little openings for communicating, and that communication for me is very difficult. There is no awareness among front desk workers working behind those counters. There is no awareness that perhaps someone has hearing problems or does not see… As more extreme cases and experiences I will mention the case when at a pedestrian crossing near the City Hospital, I started crossing the street after a vehicle had passed, but before the vehicle behind it passed. It turned out that both of the vehicles had been connected with a rope, which was not marked. I didn’t see it and the rope began cutting my legs. At one point, the second vehicle hit me and I landed on the crossroad, luckily the street wasn’t busy, so I wasn’t hit by another car. Also once in a café bar, in which it was very dark, I tripped on a bar stool on which all drinks had been placed and they started falling. I had an escort who was leading me by the hand. I turned around, apologized, but I couldn’t recognize people, nor see them. At one moment, one of them threw a glass with alcohol in my face. My eye was swollen, it became chaotic and I received an explanation that their drinks were very expensive, that I had pushed them and caused great financial damage”, were just some of the examples of unpleasant situations that Pesevska Mickovska has faced.

She also explained how the term people with disabilities affects her, and other persons.

“The term people with disabilities really bothers me, because I am a citizen of this city and this country and am like all the rest, perhaps I have specific needs. We exist and almost 20 percent of the population has disabilities. We will be persons with disabilities as long as society has barriers, when the society will not have barriers, there won’t be persons with disabilities, rather we will function normally, we will live and move around like everyone else”, she said.

The panel discussion “Ramp” included the participation of the Mayor of the City of Skopje, Petre Silegov, Blagica Dimitrovska from Inkluziva, Vangel Trkaljanov and Dusan Tomsic from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and Xhabir Deralla, CIVIL.

text editing: B. Jordanovska
camera: Atanas Petrovski
editing: Arian Mehmeti
photography: Goran Naumovski 

Translation: Natasa Cvetkovska