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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 JANUARY 2020
EYEWITNESS
Left: Samuel Farrugia lost his eyesight six
years ago; his greatest passion is reading
and he is currently writing a novel
Below left: Antonio Flores is a podiatrist
by profession. He underwent a below knee
amputation and is currently training to
compete in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics
Below right: Maria Gauci is a dancer who
happens to have Down Syndrome
Different
is normal
Darrin Zammit Lupi's portraits for the Com-
mission for the Rights of Persons with a
Disability is a set of 12 individual photos of
persons with various impairments engaging
in activities such as dance, theatre, swim-
ming, gymnastics, sprinting and bowling.
Moving away from portraying persons with
a disability as 'victims' or as 'inspirational
heroes', they aim to show persons who hap-
pen to have a disability.
"The photos represent the passions and
aspirations of these persons," said CRPD
Commissioner Oliver Scicluna. "Seen to-
gether, they are a celebration of diversity,
moving away from the notion that disabled
people belong to a binary category, specifi-
cally, as opposed to non-disabled."
In Malta, there are almost 20,000 persons
with a disability registered by the Commis-
sion for the Rights of Persons with a Disabil-
ity. Yet, disabled people are largely absent
from images, TV, politics, leadership. While
huge strides have been made, the images
of disabled people in the public sphere are
still largely invisible, with few persons with
a disability taking an active role in public
life.
