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Jul 4, 2012
Proposed law Amendment To The Disabilities Act Of Handicapped Accessible yeshivot
Part of the Disabilities Act sets in law that there must be easy access for handicapped people to public buildings, including schools.
Today an interesting amendment to the Disabilities Act passed it's first reading in the Knesset. MKs Moshe Gafni (UTJ) and Yitzchak Vaknin (Shas) proposed an amednment to the law by which the Minister of Education would basically have veto power to the main requirement. Schools for higher Torah education would be able to request an exemption, or a partial exemption from the requirement of making the building handicapped accessible. The Minister of Education would take into account, upon such a request, the size of the institution, the number of students learning in it, the location of the institution and its financial situation - and what the financial effect of renovations to make it handicapped accessible would be.
Gafni and Vaknin explain in their proposal that the current law requires every yeshiva, no matter where it is or how big or small it is, even if there are no handicapped students studying in it, to prepare the building for handicapped access according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education. The cost to do this can be highly prohibitive, while some yeshivas can have just a few students and others can have hundreds or even thousands of students. The current law, that does not take into account the size of the institution and its location or abilities, will force many yeshivas to shut down, as they would not be able to afford the renovations required to make it handicapped accessible. The proposal is that the Minister of Education would be able to look at any given institution that requests it and he would be able to make an exception based on that yeshiva's situation.
Gafni says that out of 1600 educational institutions around the country, about 900 of them have very few students. For these institutions, the cost required would be impossible to overcome. Gafni says the Ministry of Finance supports the proposed amendment because it knows it would have to cover a large part of the costs. The Deputy Finance Minister said on behalf of the government that officially supported the amendment, that while we all want there to be access for handicapped people, the solutions must be specific to each institution. Others opposed the proposal saying avreichim with handicaps also need to be protected by law and this would hurt them, and that it is an embarrassment to make such an amendment.
(Source: INN and Nevo)
The amendment seems fine to me. The institution would request an exemption,and the Minister of Education would have to check out the institution and everything connected to the request and decide whether to grant ti or not. It is not a blanket exemption.
The only problem I see with it is that perhaps a yeshiva might reject the application of someone who is handicapped just so that it can avoid the expenses it will have to undergo by accepting him. Then they could make their request for an exemption and show that anyway they have no handicapped students. Also, getting the exemption means that no handicapped students can learn there in the future, even if right now (at the time of the exemption) none actually do.
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Today an interesting amendment to the Disabilities Act passed it's first reading in the Knesset. MKs Moshe Gafni (UTJ) and Yitzchak Vaknin (Shas) proposed an amednment to the law by which the Minister of Education would basically have veto power to the main requirement. Schools for higher Torah education would be able to request an exemption, or a partial exemption from the requirement of making the building handicapped accessible. The Minister of Education would take into account, upon such a request, the size of the institution, the number of students learning in it, the location of the institution and its financial situation - and what the financial effect of renovations to make it handicapped accessible would be.
Gafni and Vaknin explain in their proposal that the current law requires every yeshiva, no matter where it is or how big or small it is, even if there are no handicapped students studying in it, to prepare the building for handicapped access according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education. The cost to do this can be highly prohibitive, while some yeshivas can have just a few students and others can have hundreds or even thousands of students. The current law, that does not take into account the size of the institution and its location or abilities, will force many yeshivas to shut down, as they would not be able to afford the renovations required to make it handicapped accessible. The proposal is that the Minister of Education would be able to look at any given institution that requests it and he would be able to make an exception based on that yeshiva's situation.
Gafni says that out of 1600 educational institutions around the country, about 900 of them have very few students. For these institutions, the cost required would be impossible to overcome. Gafni says the Ministry of Finance supports the proposed amendment because it knows it would have to cover a large part of the costs. The Deputy Finance Minister said on behalf of the government that officially supported the amendment, that while we all want there to be access for handicapped people, the solutions must be specific to each institution. Others opposed the proposal saying avreichim with handicaps also need to be protected by law and this would hurt them, and that it is an embarrassment to make such an amendment.
(Source: INN and Nevo)
The amendment seems fine to me. The institution would request an exemption,and the Minister of Education would have to check out the institution and everything connected to the request and decide whether to grant ti or not. It is not a blanket exemption.
The only problem I see with it is that perhaps a yeshiva might reject the application of someone who is handicapped just so that it can avoid the expenses it will have to undergo by accepting him. Then they could make their request for an exemption and show that anyway they have no handicapped students. Also, getting the exemption means that no handicapped students can learn there in the future, even if right now (at the time of the exemption) none actually do.
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Moshe Gafni,
proposed law,
yeshiva
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Perhaps the management of some yeshivot (I will name no names) would at least do something to improve the disgusting and stench-ridden lavatories that (literally)besmirch their establishments?
ReplyDeleteThere is a Talmudical precedent for this: Rabbi Pinhas Ben-Yair first made the poiint in the second century CE.
Why is this a power given to the ministry instead of an amendment that says in general, any school that has less than Y students and a budget of less than X shekels per year doesn't have to comply?
ReplyDeleteI dont think a blanket exemption would be approved. Handicapped people have no right to go to small or under-funded institutions? that would be the result of a blanket exemption. At least with this amendment they are technically still obligated, but can request an exemption.
ReplyDelete