"World will aspire to the beauty of kindness if we make specially-abled children equally inclusive in our society". - Devangi Dalal (Audiologist and Speech Therapist)

Theme for IDPwD 2020 is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 World”. 

Mumbai, December 2020

International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated on 3rd December. It is also celebrated as National Disability Day to show compassion and be inclusive of those who have a disability of some kind. Eliminating the stigma associated with them. This day doesn’t discriminate between mental and physical disabilities, and the spirit of the day is to ensure that all people in the world have equal opportunities for work, play, health, and success. People with disabilities can be and very often are contributing and valued members of society and today is all about appreciating them.

WHO totals that more than one billion people - about 15% of the world's population - experience some kind of disability. This figure is indicated to rise given population aging and an increase in the majority of non-communicable diseases. While disability connects with disadvantage, not all people with disabilities are equally disadvantaged. It actually depends on the context in which they live, and whether or not they have equal access to health, education, and employment, among others.

Audiologist and Speech Therapist Devangi Dalal is a contributor to assisting the disabled to achieve equal status and rights in society. She is a social worker and the co-founder of JOSH Foundation, an NGO that works towards the upliftment of hearing-impaired children. Recently she’s been appointed as the National Coordinator for Private Practitioners of Audiology in India, by the same. Devangi is the first Indian Hearing Health Advocate for the Coalition for Global Hearing Health (CGHH) in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO). She, actively, organizes, and participates in events where she can spread awareness about hearing-impaired children. So far, her foundation has distributed 1200+ hearing aids to children and has, successfully, been able to provide children of 12 schools with 100 % digital hearing aids. She has been instrumental in collecting funds to the tune of more than Rs. 3.5 Crore so far, to support these hearing-impaired children.

The theme for the Annual International Day of People with Disability 2020 is   “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 World”.  

This theme expresses a growing understanding that disability is part of the human condition. Almost everyone will be temporarily or permanently impaired at some point in life. It’s Devangi’s ongoing mission to generate acceptance in society for the disabled and make them part of the community we all share.

Devangi Dalal says, "World will aspire the beauty of kindness if we make specially-abled children equally inclusive in our society".