The Mayor of Kazan: “It is not enough just to conduct renovation for the disabled – we need qualified specialists”

Today, people with disabilities can get an education, play sports and attend classes - inclusive recreational centers are open in every district of the city, Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin said at the Business Monday. Work on ensuring the accessibility of municipal infrastructure for people with disabilities was discussed today on the eve of the Decade of Disabled Persons at the Business Monday meeting.

“All social facilities, that we are being renovated or built, have accessible environment for persons with disabilities”, - the Mayor said. According to him, disabled persons of Kazan have always had the opportunity to attend various classes and clubs, but this year young deputies approached these issues comprehensively.

The inclusive education system lacks teachers

To date, 1,011 disabled children and 703 children with special needs study in Kazan schools. Six hundred and seventy-eight people are homeschooled. Under the Accessible Environment national program, 105 educational institutions have been adapted for the education of children with disabilities, Guzel Sagitova said.

Over the past years, 778 teachers and 78 tutors have been trained in Kazan, and 287 teachers have attended retraining courses for work with special children. “It is not enough just to conduct renovation and allocate funds in work with people with disabilities. There is lack of qualified teachers. It is impossible to carry out this work without properly trained teachers and tutors. There are few such specialists, but at the request of parents, we will seek ways to solve the problem”, - commented I.Metshin.

Supplementary education for children with disabilities in Kazan: photo design, origami and dramatic art

More than 700 children with disabilities study in supplementary education institutions.

The rehabilitation department of the Center for Children's Creativity of the Vakhitovsky district offers classes of photo design, fine art, handicraft and origami for children with disabilities. The children's music school No.22 and the children's art school of the Privolzhsky district are actively working in the same direction. In the Moskovsky district, classes for children with disabilities are organized on the basis of music school No.13. In the Sovetsky district, the Rodnichok club has been opened on the basis of the Derbyshki Children's creativity Center, and in the Novo-Savinovsky district, classes are held at school No.177 and school No.170.

“It has become a good tradition to hold such events as Lessons of kindness and Parasport, Festival of Inclusive Practices, Parasport Festival and Inclusive. All of them are aimed at studying the best practices of modern technologies in inclusive education and at raising the level of inclusive culture of children and teachers”, - Guzel Sagitova said.

In addition, 81 children with disabilities attend different classes in 17 recreational centers of Kazan. 59 pupils with disabilities are engaged in the Podrostok club. Also, in Kazan there is a film school “Titry”, creative studios “E-motion” and “Archideti”.

Social nursemaids provide assistance to 74 single mothers with disabled children

According to Guzel Sagitova, at the beginning of autumn, the Social Nursemaid project was launched in Kazan for single women who raise children with disabilities. Now 74 such families get such assistance.

A project has also been launched to help understand the needs of people with disabilities who do not leave home. “Together with a psychologist who is visually impaired, a questionnaire has been developed for such people. The survey and psychological consultation, if necessary, are conducted by phone. As of today, seven people have been interviewed”, - the speaker said.

She also noted that tedious work is being carried out on the development of accessibility map. To date, information has been collected on 257 social facilities.

“We provide assistance to single mothers who raise disabled children and do not have the opportunity to leave their child. We were able to do this thanks to the funds collected by the Good Kazan project. Thanks to the implementation of the Good Kazan project, we have professionally strengthened our charitable foundations, this is a completely different level of work: they now know how to work in a team and finalize documents for various grants. This means that more people with disabilities will receive assistance”, - the Mayor concluded.