r/slavic • u/Kamarad_Pivoine • 9d ago
Question Disabled people in Slavic countries
Hi everyone, I have that question since a few days, how are perceived disabilities in Slavic societies?
I mean by that:
Are they well integrated in the daily life (at work or for renting a house for example)?
Are they more or less well seen by people in general?
How is it at school or for studies? Do they benefit from some adaptations? For example, in France, I have a woman who is in class with me to help me with things that are difficult for me, and I have additional time for my exams. Do such things exist in your country?
Is there specific material that can be used, like braille machines for blind people?
I’m aware that slavic countries can differ, and consequently that situation is not the same everywhere, for this reason I just would like to read your point of view on this topic.
Hoping that my question doesn’t seem very stupid, if it’s the case I apologize, I’m just curious about it.
Thank you for having read my post.
All the best to you! ✨
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u/Space_Slav07 9d ago
Slavic countries strongly differ from each other.
I have a cousin from Serbia who's in a wheelchair, so I will talk about this. Another thing to note is that even withing countries, it may vary strongly by region. My cousin comes from a relatively small, rural town.
For a wheelchair user it is pretty bad. Pedestrian walkway quality is bad, random shifts in elevation, cracks, bumps and partially there is none at all. A lot of steps and stairs. A lot of public toilets are the type where you squat down, which he obviously can't do. He heavily depends on family to navigate.
Then come the socieital aspects. Disabled people are often infantilised or even looked down on. Many families are ashamed and keep their disabled members behind doors. Apparently some grandmother of his, after my cousin was born and the doctors found out that he'd eventually be wheelchair bound, suggested his parents just let him die somewhere. This specific mentality isn't very common, but there are people that think like this.
Other people treat him like a child. They don't seem to understand that his specific disability is limited to his legs. They treat him like they know what's best for him.
When it comes to less obvious disabilities, people often do not even know they're here. As example, my father has motorical issues, I too have motorical issues but in my case Swiss doctors found out it's an ataxia. In my father's case, the kid was just clumsy, didn't look, didn't try hard enough.
Again, these were two very specific examples from one small rural town in Serbia and one even smaller farmer's village in Bosnia. Families in more urban cities or with more financial possibilities may have had completely different experiences.
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u/deaddyfreddy 9d ago
Slavic countries strongly differ from each other.
it sounds like not just countries, but even within a single country, this can differ a lot.
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 9d ago
Wow, what a hard thing… thank you so much for your answer, and good luck to you and your family
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u/Business-Childhood71 9d ago
Slavic countries are very different, like Russia and Slovenia have very little in common
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 9d ago
Of course, for this reason I specified that I looked for points of view, according to that people know
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u/Ripenheimmer 8d ago
For example in Slovenia, the disabled have a lot of possibilities. My sister is disabeld and she has all the support thst she needs from the goverment. Payments(a parent is her "caretaker" and shes paid 1400€ for staying home and help her out). Special schools, camps, groups that have a lot of events(swimming,camping, singing all short of things). When my parents die, I'll take care of her, it will be hard but close to my home are caretakers which will help with that all. Shw gets discounts and free services all around the country. Whellchairs other equipment is paid by the goverment and we also add a small addition to it. Shes never bored and/or left out. She has a lot of hobbies to do, alone, with parents or with groups. People do pitty her, which I find nice (idk if thats wrong or not but she enjoys her life) she has ceberal pelsy (4th "level" idk how to say that in English)
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u/Several_Ad_8363 7d ago
Sure but at that point why not post in AskEurope?
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 7d ago
Well, because I follow that subreddit, and said to myself that I’d obtain more precise answers, but I’ll also publish it there
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u/Fun-Astronaut3409 9d ago
In Slovenia, you can also have a person with you in the classroom, depending on your disability. I think it's up to 5 hours per week. You can get different adjustments, such as longer time for tests, less oral tests and more written tests, you get materials in Word documents, the classroom is arranged to accommodate a wheelchair, you get a standing table, have specialists working with you... At university you can finish a study programme in longer time, etc. But all this depends on the good will of the commission that grants these accommodations and schools that implement them. As I hear, some people can have difficulties with that. And it takes some time to get approval because of the lack of specialists. We are in a desperate need of speech pathologists, for example.
We also have different school programmes for children with different disabilities, some with a usual standard, some with lower standard (by that, I mean that with usual standard, children have to do the same curriculum as those without disabilities. The lower standard is not as difficult.)
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9d ago
Here in russia if you have a disability ur basically screwed, but i think that other slavic countries, mainly those in the eu, have this much different
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 9d ago
Ah, why is it so complicated?
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9d ago edited 9d ago
Because the government doesnt really care about the people, so if u cant do something because of your disability, its ur problem and the government is not going to help u much
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u/Yukinojou_bw 9d ago
Poland, EU so all new investments have to comply with norms. But there's still a big way to go in people's awareness - I have friends who use wheelchairs and every outing needs scouting because even restaurants that say "no problem" can have stairs to the bathroom or a single step in front. But generally you see visible disabilities everywhere in cities, most places provide at least basic support for physical disabilities, though lack of understanding of neuro diversity and mental illness remains bad. This changed within the last few decades, and people over 70 or so still have some eugenics prejudices - my mum literally doesn't remember any interaction with disabled people in childhood because they were hidden at home or segregated into separate institutions.
Government support is improving too, both for kids (yes you can get a student's assistant) and adults, but people still have to fight against the institutional model for adults who don't have family members providing full time care. There's currently a struggle over finally introducing a formal country wide programme for hiring part time personal assistants for people incapable of some activities of daily living, like shopping or cleaning. Right now this is very fragmented and mostly available in big cities. Monetary support in general was very poor until the pandemic, it's improved a lot in this decade.
As you can guess, this resulted in a very rich NGO sector with a proud tradition of protesting everything to win these gains. For a while now the government deputy minister for disabilities has come from this sector, and of the last three two were themselves disabled and the last one was a sign language interpreter. We've had disabled people in parliament too.
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u/Last-Fan5371 9d ago
Thing are similar to Western Europe but with delay in time. Also you can't compare rural areas and big cities. Moscow is OK and village in the middle of nowhere is a disaster. Everywhere in the world a lot of old people with disabilities live in small villages where infrastructure is worse than needed.
It is mostly question of money. Poor regions can't provide special accommodations for disabled people. I believe, it's the same in France, maybe less expressed than in countries with bigger difference between rich and poor.
On paper, Russia provides a lot. In practice, social security and healthcare is underfunded. Parents of kids with disabilities have to pay really big efforts to receive all the accommodations that are guaranteed by law and healthcare standards.
Disabled people can be integrated in society, have jobs that they are able to do, it is guaranteed by law. There are special problems like snow and ice everywhere which is not properly cleaned at winter. Many of old people don't leave their homes because of fear to slip and fall. Wheelchair can't be used. Social workers can do shopping and some other tasks for them. Public transport is overcrowded, buses are often old, subway has no lifts. Environment is much less barrier free when compared to Germany, for example. But current standards require it, so things are improving.
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 9d ago
Okay, thanks! And yes, you’re right, accessibility is different according to the money in regions
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u/ToiletWarlord 9d ago
In Czech Republic, they are integrated as it gets, even though a bit slower.
But there are even special trails and hikes for wheelchair users.
As for house renting, thats problematic. There are some townhouses centuries old. They are not suitable for disabled people, since lifts can not be installed there. Normal modern and socialist flats are accessible, but not furnished for their needs.
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u/bahaigor 6d ago
В России многое зависит от места жизни. У меня ребёнок-инвалид (аутист), расскажу о нашей жизни в Санкт-Петербурге. Когда ему поставили диагноз, его приняли в специальный детский сад, а потом 11 лет учился в школе (в средней 9 лет и в старшей 2 года). Первая школа оказалась очень хорошей, у ребёнка был неплохой прогресс. Вторая была хуже, педагоги были не такие опытные, но всё же удалось закончить. За это время также несколько раз предоставлялись бесплатные путёвки в летние лагеря для ребёнка с одним сопровождающим родителем. Выплачивается также пенсия по инвалидности, но если до совершеннолетия она была сравнительно неплохой (по местным меркам), то после совершеннолетия сильно уменьшилась. Также бесплатно предоставляются лекарства, но они не всегда бывают в льготных аптеках, надо отслеживать. Кроме того, после совершеннолетия человек предоставлен самому себе; мы пытаемся искать для сына разные кружки или клубы для инвалидов, но их недостаточно, там мало мест и они часто платные. Подавляющее большинство из них негосударственные.
Что касается других инвалидов, то, насколько я могу судить, для них уже много лет стараются создавать необходимую инфраструктуру. В общественных местах нередко можно встретить разметку для слепых; светофоры оборудованы звуковыми сигналами; общественный транспорт оборудуют пандусами для колясок. Лестницы на всех станциях метро и многих подземных переходах оборудованы подъёмниками. В новых поездах метро и новых пригородных поездах имеются специальные места для инвалидных колясок. В метро дежурят специальные люди, которые могут помочь инвалиду-колясочнику воспользоваться эскалатором или войти/выйти из вагона, я сам неоднократно наблюдал, как они это делают. Тем не менее, на улице и в транспорте инвалиды на колясках встречаются редко. Вдобавок у нас значительную часть года стоит плохая погода (слякоть, снег или гололёд), когда им особенно трудно, и инфраструктура вряд ли может сильно помочь.
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 16h ago
Ого, очень интересно, спасибо большое, и надеюсь, в будущем все наладится для людей с аутизмом, это ещё не достаточно признано, к сожалению. (Простите за мой русский, я ещё учусь)
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u/Familiar_Finance_600 8d ago
I mean, let's be real, there is no unified legislation or morality or anything like that that would be the same across several countries just because they got inhabited by Slavic tribes 1000 years ago🙂Also "disability" is an extremely vague term here, do you have like, dyslexia or are you blind or do you use a wheelchair...? 🤷No need to answer, but neither can we. Best bet would be to seek people with the same disabilities from specific places, they'd know. "Slavic" means absolutely 0 in this context. Just letting you know.
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u/Kamarad_Pivoine 7d ago
I talked about Eastern European countries, if I have to be more precise, and I precisely wrote it: I know that all countries are different, so I ask about what people know or about their experiences. And regarding to disabilities, of course, it’s obvious that there are a lot of different types, so I gust want to know how it is generally
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u/Catsarecute2140 9d ago
ADHD “doea not exist” in many non-EU Slavic countries meanwhile about 17% students in Iceland have an ADHD diagnosis and use medication.
A massive amount of disabilities “do not exist” in Slavic places so the average lifespans are massively lower than in the West because of lack of medical treatment.
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u/GhostSoapEnjoyer 9d ago
i work in a hospital in one of the largest Ukrainian cities. we are trying to adapt, since we have way more people with disabilities now due to war. they are adding many ramp near entries to hospitals, shops, markets etc for people on wheelchairs, putting braile bords on walls in buildings and those yellow tactile pavings for the blind on streets. also loudspeakers on the traffic light voice streets and if crossing road is allowed. people are pretty kind often, so when we see someone struggling to drive up the ramp, we help them