Lessons from Riku Virtanen

ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSION:
Lessons from Riku Virtanen

Accessibility and Inclusion: Lessons from Riku Virtanen
Reports by Ana Kristina Arce and Romeo Catap, Jr.

Finnish human rights lawyer and activist Riku-Heikki “Riku” Virtanen visited the College last June 30, 2009 to give on accessibility and inclusion talk to DLS-CSB administrators, faculty, staff and students, as well as students from the Philippine School for the Deaf. Hard of hearing and blind, Virtanen, with assistance from his two Finnish interpreters, shared his thesis work on “Right to work—about reasonable accommodation and about equality between disabled entrepreneurs and disabled workers.”

The Making of a Deafblind Lawyer
Virtanen was born deaf and blind, but not fully impaired. Regardless of his condition, Virtanen’s parents did their best to raise him.
His father communicates using his voice and occasionally uses finger spelling. By age 16, Virtanen started to wear cochlear implants. He has later on benefited from Finnish interpreters, who provided him assistance in contact signing and voice interpreting.
He pursued schooling. But upon reaching secondary school, he was only offered to pursue a vocational or livelihood program although he could use a computer and communicate in Swedish and Finnish through contact signing interpreters.
It was because of such a negative attitude towards disabled people that made him decide to break expectations, strive to study academic courses, and pursue a law degree.
At age 21, he entered the University of Turku. The university allowed him access to assistance services, including interpreters, during standard examinations and computer laboratory classes. The university even extended his school hours.
He admits, however, that he was able to accomplish so much because the Finnish government has firm policies that supported education for disabled people. Not only did Virtanen get his education for free, buildings and transportation in Finland are also accessible for People with Disabilities (PWD’s).
Virtanen has since graduated from the University of Turku with a Masters of Law degree and is planning on taking the licensure examination on constitutional rights and services for PWD’s. He is also planning on pursuing a doctorate degree in the near future and on becoming a politician to help create laws for PWD’s needs for accessibility and inclusion.

It is ability that matters, not disability.
Virtanen told the audience, which was composed mostly of Deaf students, that it is not important how he became disabled. What is important is that he was able to maximize his potentials.
While he had a lot of help from strong Finnish policies supporting PWD’s, he shares that discrimination against PWD’s is generally high in Finland. Even though media downplays it, PWD’s are consistently struggling to earn respect. He notes that among PWD’s, the blind seem to have a better edge of getting a job compared to Deaf people.
This fact holds true even in the Philippine setting where most jobs are limited to hearing people, and PWD’s have the least consideration for acceptance.
While it is seriously difficult, Virtanen’s own inspirational journey proves that it can be done. As a lawyer, he campaigns for better laws and policies on accessibility and inclusion for PWD’s. This is a campaign that he not only conducts in his country, but brings to other countries as well.

Accessibility and Inclusion in the Classroom
For DLS-CSB, Virtanen recommends that the College should consider accessibility and inclusion because education is very important for PWD’s future careers.
According to the United Nations Convention, PWD’s have the right to be provided access to assistance service like professional sign language interpreters, information communications, buildings, education, and more. Virtanen said, “Unfortunately, it is still not enough, unless human rights are useful as possible. The government should also give more accessibility with information like reproduction, education and many [sic] other opportunities for PWD’s.”
Pursuing and furthering these rights through an educational institution, such as DLS-CSB, is a good reason of hope that in the near future, our own government would see, understand, and give better accessibility and inclusion for PWD’s.
Accessibility and Inclusion: Lessons from Riku Virtanen was held in the Augusto-Rosario Gonzalez Theater.

Reprinted from the Perspective.