Blind carpenter urges cooperation when disabled people face unfair treatment

Blind carpenter Pavel Kadõkov told ERR’s Vikerraadio that disabled people can face unprofessional treatment from officials and may be regarded as intellectually incapable because they are blind. He said that when people with disabilities are treated unfairly, they must sometimes take the initiative to create cooperation.

“In 2018, I took part in the programme ‘Iseolemine’ and introduced my woodworking there,” Kadõkov said. An official from the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund then told him about a programme providing assistive equipment.

Kadõkov, who lost his right hand and his sight at the age of 19, had already earned money through his earlier business and bought a woodworking bench and other equipment. However, he did not know exactly which tools would best suit his situation and had incurred significant expenses. Through the programme, he received some of the tools he needed.

He said the assessment process was not entirely proper. In the case of a sanding machine, he was told that money was not the issue, but that the person responsible had a friend through whom everything could be arranged. Kadõkov said he did not react at the time because he was grateful to receive anything at all.

Later, he closed his company, returned the tools to the Unemployment Insurance Fund and moved from Saaremaa to Sillamäe, where he found a building and started woodworking again.

When he contacted the fund to request the tools he had previously used, an official told him that it did not matter what he had received in the past or what reasons had previously been given for providing the equipment. The official also asked how he knew that Kadõkov was engaged in woodworking, he recalled.

Kadõkov said officials naturally had to save money, but there was a difference between avoiding pointless spending and making pointless cuts. “Those things were simply sitting somewhere in a warehouse,” he said.

An official visited his workshop, and Kadõkov also submitted a written explanation of why the assistive equipment was necessary. He said he had still received no response to the letter from the official.

After receiving assistive equipment himself, Kadõkov began preparing a documentary intended to show how people with disabilities enter the labour market with help from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

He said people had told him that the process was not always easy. Some described humiliating experiences, while others said they had been told they did not really need the equipment. Kadõkov said these accounts showed that people’s needs were sometimes not assessed so much as belittled.

He added that he was not generalising, as there had also been cases in which everything was handled properly. In his view, the outcome probably depended on the official dealing with the matter.

Kadõkov said officials could not act according to their momentary mood, but had to remain professional and treat people who needed special solutions with understanding.

From the beginning, he felt he was in conflict with the official. Kadõkov said there was a cultural perception that a blind person was also “blinded” mentally: considered unintelligent, unable to understand or orient themselves in meanings and contexts, and someone who had to be addressed like a small child with limited understanding.