Access for All: Challenging Disability Stigma in Georgia

NMAP collaborated with ERTAD—a small, local disability rights organization in the Republic of Georgia focused on mobility—to normalize the idea that people in wheelchairs are as powerful as “normal” people, to lay the groundwork for policy advocacy on everything from sidewalk ramps to public transport. Giorgi Achmeteli, ERTAD’s founder, was struck with a stray bullet and paralyzed from the waist down in his early 20s. As he adjusted to his new life, he became shocked at how how the public stigma encourage most families to keep their disabled loved ones in their houses. The videos in this series attracted thousands to live events and eventually helped support advocacy for a pilot wheelchair-accessible bus line in Tbilisi.