[games_access] Happy Chinese New Year!

[Barrie Ellis]

Really interesting article here on China:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/closeup/china/260106.shtml

"According to China's quasi-governmental China Disabled Persons' Federation 
(CDPF), there are over 60 million people with disabilities in the People's 
Republic. That's roughly the same as the entire population of the UK. This 
figure is probably a gross underestimate, as well over 80% live in the 
countryside, where statistics are dodgy to say the least. There's a vast gap 
between the lives of people living in the cities and those in rural areas: 
China has no welfare state and while there is some assistance to disabled 
city-dwellers, country folk have no free access to education, medicine or 
other services. To give one example, it's estimated that across China as a 
whole less than 2% of visually impaired children go to school. The rest, if 
they survive their first few years, are dependent on the support of their 
families and later eke out a living by fortune-telling, begging or rearing a 
few chickens or rabbits. Disabled people are regularly subject to 
discrimination and humiliation at the hands of corrupt local officials.

This general picture is very different from the image portrayed abroad by 
the CDPF. And to be fair, there is another side of the coin. China won an 
astonishing 63 gold medals in the 2004 Athens Paralympics. The China 
Disabled People's Arts Troupe has performed around the world to great 
acclaim. And the CDPF has helped formulate some of the most impressive 
disability legislation of any developing country."

Barrie
www.OneSwitch.org.uk






Although my favourite statistic is that 87% of all statistics are made up on 
the spot.