[applause]
Good morning! [applause]
[applause]
Good morning!
Many - uhm, no - I'll start differently.
What's going through your mind, ...
... if you meet a person with a disability in everyday life?
I wonder the same thing...
Okay. You'll ask yourself now:
Why am I thinking this? Surely I should know by now...
But every time I see a person with a disability in everyday life, ...
... I ask myself two questions.
The first question: What does he have?
And the second question: How does he do it?
So: What does he have? For example: Why can't he see me?
Why can't he hear me?
Why can't he understand me?
Or: Why is he sitting in a wheelchair?
And the other question is: How does he do it?
How does he get out of the bed in the morning?
Does he need help?
Does he have a job?
Does he have a girlfriend? Do they have sex?
And ...
... although one in ten of us here in Germany does have a disability ...
... and although there are 1.6 million people in wheelchairs ...
... - the terrible figure worldwide is - ...
... uhm, no.
So, assuming there are 85 million people in wheelchairs worldwide.
Worldwide, the horrible figure is three times higher.
Although there are many people with disabilities around, ...
... - in this room, every 10th person should have a disability, ...
... I'm one of them - ...
... uhm ...
... they don't show up in everyday life.
And the question is: Why?
For Germany, I have an explanation:
In Germany, the social state was established ...
... right after World War II.
And in the 50s and 60s they said:
"Okay, we need optimal support for people with disabilities ...
... in the best possible circumstances."
Back then, in the 50s, 60s, it was "state of the art", ...
... to park people with disabilities…
... in special facilities on the urban fringe ...
- literally "on the fringes of society" - ...
... which still exist today.
They are called ...
... 'sheltered workshops', 'homes for the disabled' ...
... or - today - 'special (education) schools'.
Uhm.
The only thing that has changed, are the names, ...
... but finally, these are kinds of ...
... parallel worlds.
Those ...
... are - as said - special schools, ...
... are where people with disabilities of different kinds are put together in one class.
Uhm. So it follows that the transition from this system ...
... into our regular school systems is very difficult...
... Just 0,01 % of the pupils there will take their high-school diplomas.
That means, ...
... they are kept in a parallel world, ...
... which deeply alters their experience of life. Then, they go into ...
... so-called 'educational institutions', ...
... to learn office assistance.
I know so many people in wheelchairs, who ...
... became office management assistants.
Uhm.
This is why - how should I say that - ...
... people with disabilities don't show up in our everyday life.
And if you visit these facilities ...
... and I got to know some - my mother worked in one - ...
... if you visit these facilities and look into the faces of people who go to school there, ...
... or do their training there, ...
... then ...
... I have the feeling that you'll see a special kind of sadness in their faces.
And if you ask them: "Tell me, what's up? What do you actually want to do when you grow up?
What do you want to be?"
Then, most of the time they will say: "I don't know."
And ...
... "Why don't you know?" "Well, the world out there is so difficult."
"The world of the non-disabled out there ...
... is difficult. It is non-wheelchair-accessible, whatsoever."
And I was lucky that I could go to a normal integration school ...
... and certainly, I can confirm: the world outside there is brutal.
The world out there is brutal for people in wheelchairs.
Mailboxes - uhm, nonsense - we always have to make a detour, yes.
Mailboxes are too high.
ATMs - we can't reach them.
The question is: How do we reach them? We would - well: How do we withdraw our money?
We tell total strangers our PIN.
As if that's not dangerous...
But on the other hand, ...
... it has its good sides, too. [laughter]
[laughter]
[laughter, applause]
That's a bit sexist, I know - uhm.
"Anyway."
Oh, my english word - uhm.
Anyway. The biggest problem for a person in a wheelchair like me ...
... in a brutal world like Berlin ...
... are still the stairs.
Stairs at an entrance.
Stairs at an entrance - I would say, from my own experience, ...
... I can't get into 70 % of the non-wheelchair-accessible stores, ...
... because there are ...
... at least two steps at the entrance.
Two steps at the entrance - folks, what's the problem?
And one day, when a friend Holger and me ...
... - uhm - met in a Cafe and we said goodbye, ...
... he said: Raul, sorry! I would really like to see you again, ...
... but I'm tired of always meeting in the same cafe.
And I replied: Yes, make a suggestion! Were can we go?
Well, let us go around the corner at our place.
I said: Okay! Do you know, if it is wheelchair-accessible?
And he said: No.
And he answered at the same time by saying:
But if there are 1.6 million people in wheelchairs like you, ...
... then there must be also 1.6 million people, ...
... who know places ...
... that are wheelchair-accessible.
And that's how the idea of Wheelmap was born.
Wheelmap is basically an Opensource map, ...
... where people with restrained mobility - that's how I'm calling it generally for now - ...
... where people with restrained mobility can enter places, ...
... whether they are wheelchair-accessible or not.
I'm refering that so generally, ...
... because certainly ...
... there aren't only people in wheelchairs.
There are families with baby buggies.
There are people with wheeled walkers.
There are three times more wheeled walkers than wheelchairs in Germany ...
... and the number is increasing because of the demographic change.
And finally, if you consider a quote by Volker Schoenwiese - a ...
... professor of the disability studies in Austria -, ...
... uhm ...
... who says: "'disabled' means one ...
... who needs help."
And we always need help - either as a child ...
... or as an old man.
And in between there is a time that most of us aren't disabled.
So there is no dichotomy between disabled and not disabled, ...
... but only between disabled and temporarily not disabled.
And if you think that way, ...
[applause]
And if you think this way, ...
... then this topic concerns all of us.
Because of that, ...
... I would like to ask you two things.
First request: Use Wheelmap!
Fill in the places that you know - if they are wheelchair-accessible or not.
Gladly worldwide.
And the second request: If one of you is lucky enough ...
... to open a dance school - a cafe, ...
... a disco or maybe a brothel:
Think of wheelchair-accessibility! Thank you!
[applause]