Disabled people

Last Friday I talked to some Finnish people about disable people. I’m really interested in this, because I work with people with a mental disability as my side job.

When I walk through the streets of Turku, I don’t see a lot of people with a visible disability. I asked the Fins if there are a lot of people with a handicap in Finland. They said that there are quite a lot of disabled people, but that I probably won’t see them in a city like Turku. Turku is the second biggest city of Finland. They mainly live in special houses and some people still live with their parents. They said that these special houses are most of the times in smaller villages.

When I compare this data to the Netherlands, there’s a difference. In the Netherlands you’ll see disabled people everywhere. In the Netherlands the independence of these people is very much stimulated, so you will often across them in a supermarket where they do groceries with an attendant.

We also have quite a lot of restaurants, called Brownies&Downies as a fun fact, where people with a mental disability work in the kitchen, as a waiter/waitress or at the desk.