People first - Network People First Germany
The human first - Network People First Germany eV is a German self- advocacy association of "people with learning difficulties" (self-designation). It is based in Kassel .
history
The people-first movement began in Sweden in 1968 . A parent organization met under the motto: “We speak for you!” At the conference, the sons and daughters of the conference participants decided that they wanted to speak for themselves. Participants at meetings in England and Canada followed suit . Residents of the Fairview Training Center in Salem initiated an organization of “developmentally disabled people” in 1974 to speak for themselves. From now on they described themselves as "people with developmental disabilities" who wanted to learn together how to find their own voice. In England, on the other hand, the members of "People First" described themselves as "people with learning difficulties" from the start. In 2000, People First was presented in Austria as a representation of the interests of people with a “ learning disability ”.
The German offshoot of "People First" was founded in 2001 under the name Netzwerk People First Deutschland eV . In November 2005 it changed its name to Mensch first - Netzwerk People First Germany eV , in order to meet its own demand for the use of easy language by translating the name used worldwide into German .
Regional groups exist, for example, in Berlin , Dortmund , Duisburg , Großburgwedel , Hamburg , Hanover , Kassel , Mannheim , Munich , Reutlingen , Bielefeld , Halle , Kehl-Kork ,
In Austria there are groups in Vienna , Tyrol , Vorarlberg and People First - Mensch first Steiermark . Some of them have existed since before 1995.
In Switzerland, the association people first was founded on October 2, 2014 in Rorschach and has offices in Rorschach and Zurich .
Goals and Activities
Changes in speaking and thinking
In accordance with the motto of the US sister organization "People first", the motto "Words do matter" also applies to "People first" . (“The choice of words is important.”) The association advocates that people traditionally referred to as “disabled” should primarily be viewed as human beings , whereby the fact of disability does not necessarily have to be discussed in language. The concern not to emphasize disabilities too much is expressed linguistically by the fact that there is no longer talk of "disabled people" (whereby the disability is emphasized by first mentioning it), but of "people with disabilities" (according to the motto people first being human is emphasized).
The network rejects the terms intellectual disability and learning disability and advocates their abolition, as they are perceived by its members as discriminatory . As an alternative for both terms, the term “people first” is used as the term learning difficulties . The organization believes that its members actually have “only” learning difficulties, that is, “people with learning difficulties” (but are not regularly faced with obstacles to understanding that they cannot overcome independently, even with great effort). Prejudices and barriers, especially in the form of complicated texts, made it difficult for them to use their intellectual abilities. “People with learning difficulties” are not “completely different” people; they have similar feelings, thoughts and desires as other people.
According to a study published by the University of Frankfurt am Main , “people with 'intellectual disabilities' [...] can be viewed as 'disabled' in the sense of 'being hindered'. Right from the start they experience obstructive interaction [...], their innate curiosity and the motivation to learn is inhibited by the experience of not fitting in with the environment, by experiencing failures. The drive to interact as well as to learn in the sense of curiosity appears to be weakened and is regulated to a greater extent from outside during the course of socialization (with educational and supportive intentions) [...]. Differences in learning could therefore be traced back to a deviating development of the motivation to learn; they cannot be explained, or cannot be explained solely by deviating cognitive abilities [...]. "
The “People first” network advocates the expansion of easy language as an instrument for creating accessibility , not just for those classified as “disabled”. Also, laws should "first person" to be written in plain language, according to.
Changes in social reality
The association aims to ensure that people with disabilities are given the same rights in practice as people who are considered non-disabled . This is linked to the far-reaching claim to gain the power to define one's own life situation and consequently also about the specific support needs; also towards all those who - like parents and families - take special care of them; and also to all experts in science and politics who shape the conditions under which people with special needs for support have to lead their lives (usually with social professional guidance).
Central concerns are:
- fair wages,
- independent living,
- the use of plain language,
- the demand for inclusion and questioning where their own concerns are at stake ( "Nothing about us without us" )
- and self-advocacy in public.
"Mensch first" is particularly committed to the project of personal future planning and provides information material that is intended to provide support for "people with learning difficulties" in order to be able to plan their own future independently .
One focus of the work is the commitment of “people first” to the realization of the principle of inclusion , which has been made binding by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities .
criticism
The focus of the criticism is the self-designation of the members of “People First - Network People First Germany” as “people with learning difficulties”.
According to a study by the University of Göttingen, 20 to 25 percent of all children and adolescents are affected by learning difficulties. In addition to those traditionally classified as “mentally handicapped” and “learning handicapped”, many people who are not classified as “handicapped” also have learning difficulties. The term “people with learning difficulties” is therefore not very clear-cut.
In turn, science differentiates relatively precisely between people with an “intellectual disability” and those with a “learning disability”. The former are defined by having an intelligence quotient below 70, the latter by an IQ of 70 to 85. Those who are traditionally referred to as "learning disabilities" are not "mentally disabled" (labeling them accordingly is not discriminatory, but wrong). Also, their “learning difficulties” are not as harmless as the term suggests; because psychologists refer to "learning difficulties" as "rather temporary, partial and lighter forms of learning difficulties". Rather, the impairment of the people in question is so serious that they are considered “disabled” under social law and therefore z. B. on the basis of § 19 SGB III because of "learning disabilities" can assert a legal right to initial vocational training. Marking people as "disabled" is in many cases a prerequisite for enforcing claims against public authorities.
Some providers of social services also point out that deviations from the terminology used in SGB XII and (especially since the entry into force of the Federal Participation Act ) especially in SGB IX would lead to confusion and that they therefore use that used by lawyers Record terminology. At most, the term “people with disabilities” (without attribute) is practicable.
The attempt to replace the term “disability” with the term “significant impairment” is also subject to the regularity of the euphemism treadmill (listeners “translate” the new term into “disability”). Apart from that, accident victims, whose injuries are likely to heal, are often (temporarily) “significantly impaired”.
Web links
- People first - Network People First Germany eV
- Personal planning for the future
- Vienna People First
- People First Styria
- First, Vorarlberg
- People First - Label Jars Not People (homepage of the mother network)
- people first Switzerland (people first)
Individual evidence
- ^ André Frank Zimpel: Intellectual disability . Inclusion Lexicon. University of Cologne / Faculty of Human Sciences
- ↑ Carmen Gesslbauer: People First USA - a lecture in Vienna . In: biceps . December 13, 2000
- ↑ People first: Let's put the person first, not the disability! ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Beate Firlinger: Book of Terms. Keyword “people with learning difficulties” ( memento of the original from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Integration: Austria (ed.). P. 29f.
- ↑ Gerlinde Uphoff / Tanja Müller / Dieter Katzenbach: Participation of employees from workshops for people with disabilities in the general labor market. Section “Learning under the condition of 'intellectual disability'” . Office for school development and project support at the Institute for Special Education in the Department of Education at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. March 2013, p. 30
- ↑ Andreas Lob-Hüdepohl: "People first". The 'mandate question' of social professions from a moral-philosophical point of view . In: EthikJournal . April 2013. p. 15
- ↑ First person: stop injustice - we want minimum wages! ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . April 27, 2006
- ^ Ottmar Miles-Paul: Minimum wage also in workshops for disabled people? . kobinet-nachrichten.org . 2nd December 2013
- ↑ People first: Encourage inclusion! ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . June 2015
- ^ Andreas Gold: Learning difficulties. Causes, diagnosis and intervention . June 13, 2014, p. 7
- ↑ David Fürst / Magdalena Müller / Debora Fürst: School & Disability: Learning Disability ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Institute for Psychology at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Hochschule Aachen, November 10, 2006
- ↑ Berliner STARThilfe eV: "People with Disabilities" - an attempt at definition ( memento of the original from September 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
