CRPD/C/PHL/CO/1
disabilities have the legal capacity to exercise their freedom of choice concerning
living arrangements;
(b)
Ensure the involvement of persons with disabilities and their
representative organizations at all stages of the development of independent living
strategies and schemes;
(c)
Adopt the measures necessary to ensure that persons with disabilities
have a legal entitlement to a sufficient personal budget for independent living, which
takes into account the additional costs related to disability, and, at the same time,
redirect resources from institutionalization to community-based services, while
increasing the availability of personal assistance;
(d)
Implement community support services, with qualified human resources
and adequate budgets, to enable persons with disabilities to make independent
decisions on where to live and to be included in the community.
Personal mobility (art. 20)
36.
The Committee is concerned about the absence of a non-discriminatory and
systematic framework with adequate public budgets dedicated to the acquisition of mobility
aids and assistive technologies, which are crucial in ensuring the unrestricted personal
mobility of persons with disabilities.
37.
The Committee recommends that the State party adopt a policy framework,
including fixed and sufficient human, technical and financial resources, to ensure that
persons with disabilities can acquire quality and affordable mobility aids and assistive
devices, technologies and services necessary for their personal mobility. It also
recommends that the State party establish targets to provide universal access to
appropriate orthopaedic, technological and other assistive devices, as well as
appropriate information and training on how to use them.
Freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information (art. 21)
38.
The Committee is concerned about:
(a)
The lack of recognition and support of the specific cultural and linguistic
identity of persons who are deaf through the promotion of Philippine sign language and
deaf culture;
(b)
disabilities;
(c)
The lack of Easy Read materials available for persons with intellectual
The fact that the bill on Philippine sign language has yet to be adopted.
39.
The Committee recommends that the State party adopt amendments to section
22 of Republic Act No. 7277 and other related measures to ensure that persons with
hearing impairments are provided with language subtitles in its newscast programme.
Education (art. 24)
40.
The Committee observes with concern:
(a)
The prevalence of the special education model, and the lack of measures to
provide for inclusive and mainstreamed education for persons with disabilities;
(b)
The low number of children with disabilities enrolled in elementary schools
(only 110,169 pupils with disabilities were enrolled in government elementary schools,
according to data relating to the period from 2013 to 2014 from the Department of
Education, out of some 5.49 million children with “special needs”, who comprised 13 per
cent of the total population of children);
(c)
The education of children, young persons and adults with disabilities in
regular educational facilities is hindered by the barriers to accessibility, and the lack of
universal design for learning and of reasonable accommodations in all academic and social
aspects of student life;
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