"Let's Move the Limits" Campaign Integrates People with Disabilities

The OAS and the International Telethon Organization (ORITEL) launched the "Let's Move the Limits" campaign on March 12 at the organization’s headquarters in Washington DC. The campaign seeks to promote the rights of persons with disabilities in the region, by raising awareness of political leaders and the general public, through simple and direct messages in a series of spots to be broadcasted by television networks and through virtual platforms.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza explained that "the campaign aims to provide a paradigm shift where as a society we are invited to ‘move the limits' to fully include people with disabilities in all aspects of society." Insulza stressed that the collaboration with ORITEL, a network that integrates 12 countries in Latin America, responds to the mandate received from the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities. The Convention, he said "sets a key objective of sensitizing society in terms of promoting recognition of all the human rights of persons with disabilities, protecting their dignity, their proper valuation as well as the elimination of all forms of discrimination and all cultural barriers and other measures that prevent their development and their full and effective inclusion in society."

"Statistics on the situation of people with disabilities in the region are revealing" stressed the Secretary General, adding that "in Latin America and the Caribbean, over 85 million people live in a situation of disability. Of this group, over 80% live in poverty and extreme poverty. We speak of a vicious cycle in which poverty generates various forms of disability and the disability itself produces higher rates of poverty. The resolution of this vicious circle is, without a doubt, a pending challenge of our democracies."

The President of ORITEL, Mario Kreutzberger, a television presenter known as Don Francisco, acknowledged that despite persistent challenges, "there has been progress in many Latin American countries that have already adopted legislation designed to expand the inclusion of people with disabilities." In this regard, he highlighted the impact that telethons have had, and thanked the OAS for joining forces with ORITEL to launch, "the first regional campaign for the inclusion of people with disabilities."

The Acting Director of the OAS-SEDI Department of Social Inclusion, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, the area responsible for supporting the campaign in the Organization, said that the spots, tutorials and the application for mobile phones, which address strategic issues for the inclusion of people with disabilities into society such as work, leisure, and education, among others areas, are already being broadcasted by television networks. Muñoz-Pogossian said that these tools will also be shared through the "use of electronic media and social networks, in addition to launching the campaign through both entities’ media contacts in the region."

The spots and the "Limitless App" application are available on the pages of the OAS and ORITEL (Spanish only).