The benefits to the disabled community of the recently-launched ‘WeThe15’ campaign will hopefully be clear and very welcome as it develops over the coming years.

Big organisations from business, sports, human rights and communications, among others, have collaborated to form a global movement focused on changing attitudes and creating more opportunities for people with disabilities.

A big part of the campaign is also about improving mobility and accessibility, which is pleasing from a MobiQuip perspective.

Given a big stage and launch around the Tokyo Paralympics, WeThe15 aims to highlight the difficulties faced by the 15 per cent of the global population who live with disabilities.

That is estimated to be 1.2 billion people across the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The campaign hopes to end discrimination and fight for disabled people to be visible and fully active members of an inclusive society.

Initiate change

 

Organisers intend to work with the public, businesses and governments around the world to try and initiate change.

Yet it is a collaboration between four sporting organisations, involved in the campaign, that could be the real ‘game changer’ in terms of a platform and exposure for the aims behind WeThe15.

WeThe15 campaign logo against a purple background

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Special Olympics, Invictus Games Foundation and the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (Deaflympics) have teamed up for the first time and will use the profile of their events to raise awareness and understanding of the issues facing disabled people around the world.

This means there will be at least one major international sporting event every year for disabled people to showcase their abilities, alongside the WeThe15 banner, until 2030.

disability issues

 

And that will keep things very much in the public eye.

The Paralympics follow the Olympics every four years. That event brings disability issues to the fore, alongside the skills of some incredible athletes.

But as the event ends and other topics take over the media agenda, there is another three years and 50 weeks to go before the Paralympics – and disability issues on a wider scale – are back in the general public’s eye.

A mum pushes her child down the street in a pram

If WeThe15 can re-ignite those issues every year at a major sporting event, that can only be a good thing to bang the drum for disabled inclusivity, accessibility and mobility.

And that’s why MobiQuip will be right behind the campaign and its aims.

Read more: Explore with one of our most popular wheelchairs, the G-Explorer

Find out more…about the WeThe15 campaign