United Nations Radio

Persons with disabilities need assistance to do their work, says Ron McCallum, the Chairman of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Professor Ron McCallum

He was speaking as the United Nations conference examining how to strength the rights of persons with disabilities concluded in New York on Friday.

The three-day session was convened under the theme of "Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities through the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities".

Professor McCallum, who is blind, says his Committee, which has a majority of persons with disabilities, and which also receives reports from governments needs funding so that it can get assistance with research.

"And also, I think, to help us for those who need it Braille-out or put documents in large prints. For example, some of the reports that are now coming in are a couple of hundred pages in length. A report of a state party of 250 pages plus a shadow report of 200 pages will take about 2,000 pages of Braille."

Professor McCallum points out that he is fortunate to have some assistance and technical equipment but other members of the Committee don't have the computer-based adaptive technology available to them.

Gail Walker, United Nations Radio
(duration: 1'14")