286 chapter 13: Growing older with a disability
Working for change
Even though your disability may get worse as you grow older, find activities you can
do to continue to be an active participant in your community. With your wealth
of experience, you can do many things to improve conditions for women with
disabilities.
What older disabled women can do
• Many governments provide monthly income (pensions), housing, and health
care for older persons with disabilities. If our government does not, we can work
with other women with disabilities, and with our mothers, sisters, daughters,
and neighbors to change these laws. This kind of change takes time.
By working together we can meet
with leaders in our community to
request services for older disabled
women, such as less costly
housing.
• We can form groups of disabled
women who live together to
lower living expenses and to
help each other. A blind woman,
for instance, can be the ears for a
deaf woman, and a deaf woman
the eyes for a blind woman.
We can talk with health workers
about the health needs of older
women with disabilities, and
about how to make health centers
accessible.
• We have rich life experiences, and we can share this information with young
disabled women and girls. We can probably help them with problems they are
having because we had the same problems when we were younger.
A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities 2007