International Day of Persons with Disabilities was established in 1981 to promote the rights and well-being of individuals with disabilities.
After decades of work by the United Nations, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2006, further advanced the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities by reaffirming the principle of equality and the need to ensure their full and effective participation in the political, social, economic, and cultural spheres of society.
The Convention urges States to take necessary measures to identify and remove all obstacles that hinder the respect for these fundamental rights. The Convention (Article 9, Accessibility) focuses on the need for conditions that allow people with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life and development.
Certainly, there is still much work to be done on the issue of full accessibility, especially in public or publicly accessible buildings. However, we believe that the real success of these initiatives will be the transformation of the concept of disability into ACCESSIBILITY, particularly in public spaces. Indeed, each of us experiences small or significant inconveniences or disabilities; it all depends on the tools available to overcome our limitations and the ongoing search by civil society and institutions for new solutions to overcome the obstacles each person may face.
In essence, without accessibility tools, we are all disabled. At TapMyLife, we do not forget this, and we use our technological solutions to help bridge, as much as possible, the gaps that can impact the lives of all citizens (so-called able-bodied, those with disabilities, whether visual or motor).
Therefore, we have designed and developed our solutions to be usable by, and perhaps especially by, those with some form of disability, even temporary ones, because each of us may face unforeseen challenges in different stages of our lives (even a simple sprain that forces you to avoid barriers you didn’t realize existed, thereby demonstrating how difficult it can be to live with certain conditions permanently).
In conclusion, we believe, and this is why we work, that the key term should no longer be disability but accessibility: everywhere and for everyone.
