Addis Ababa, 1 August 2025 – Inclusion, exclusion, endurance, disability these are not abstract terms but lived realities for millions around the world. At its heart is the story of Marlene Le Roux, a South African woman whose life experience captures both profound challenges and courageous determination.
1. Early Beginnings: A Life Defined by Disability and exclusion
Marlene’s journey began when she was just three months old. That early encounter with disability shaped the rest of her life. Growing up, she navigated environments designed without her in mind schools without ramps, towns without accessible transport, and social spaces where physical ability dictated belonging. These barriers created exclusion as a lived experience.
Marlene’s journey began when she was just three months old. That early encounter with disability shaped the rest of her life. Growing up, she navigated environments designed without her in mind schools without ramps, towns without accessible transport, and social spaces where physical ability dictated belonging. These barriers created exclusion as a lived experience.
Marlene’s journey began when she was just three months old. That early encounter with disability shaped the rest of her life. Growing up, she navigated environments designed without her in mind schools without ramps, towns without accessible transport, and social spaces where physical ability dictated belonging. These barriers created exclusion as a lived experience.
Yet from those earliest days, Marlene also cultivated endurance. She adapted, advocated, and refused to let her disability define her limitations. Her physical condition demanded constant management, yet she built routines of care, therapy, and resilience.
2. Structural Barriers: The Tangled Web of Design
Societal and structural obstacles often outweighed personal struggle. Buildings, public transport, workplaces, and public spaces most were inaccessible. Too many policy-makers overlooked design solutions that enable inclusion. Too many decision-makers failed to recognize someone like Marlene.
Such exclusion isn’t always visible. It persists in attitudes: assuming people with disabilities cannot lead, cannot speak, cannot teach. The result is a cycle: exclusion leading to marginalization, which deepens exclusion.
Yet in the face of these obstacles, Marlene’s story is one of endurance. She refused to accept structures built to exclude her. She sought out accessible venues, campaigned for change, and insisted that her voice be heard.
3. Social Misconceptions: The Invisible Boundaries
Beyond architecture, Marlene fought social barriers. Misconceptions about disability feed prejudice. People assume pain means weakness, or that needing assistance means dependency. Those assumptions serve as invisible walls.
Marlene’s response was presence. She joined events, spoke publicly, danced in celebration of national freedom. She brought her physical truth onstage even when pain made mobility uncertain. In doing so, she challenged stereotypes and demanded respect.
Her endurance was not just physical it was also emotional and intellectual. She educated, informed, persuaded. She made clear that inclusion is not charity; it is justice.
4. The Physical Reality of Resilience
On South Africa’s Freedom Day, Marlene danced, performing with joy and determination. Yet the next morning, her legs gave way. She endured physiotherapy, acupuncture, pain relief all part of daily life with disability.
This cyclical reality the exertion, the recovery, the persistence defines resilience. It is not heroic myth but everyday perseverance. Managing pain, organizing treatments, coping with fatigue: these are essential tasks.
Her endurance is not about ignoring pain it is about refusing to be stopped by it. She continues public advocacy, organizes events, addresses disability policy. She remains active, despite bodily resistance.
5. Advocacy and the Wider Movement
Marlene Le Roux is not alone. Her experience is representative of a global movement. Activists, advocates, policy-makers, and civil society push for inclusion in education, employment, politics, culture.
Inclusion demands accessible infrastructure, supportive legislation, public awareness, and attitudes that value difference. It calls for representation people with disabilities in decision-making roles. It demands that exclusion become unacceptable.
Marlene has contributed by founding organizations, consulting on disability policy in South Africa, and mentoring others. She speaks not once but repeatedly and invites others to speak too. She demands access, not exception.
6. Inclusion as a Global Imperative
Globally, more than a billion people live with some form of disability. Roughly 15 percent of the world’s population faces exclusion shaped by physical design, social attitudes, and policy failures. Inclusion is not luxury it is necessity.
Countries that invest in inclusive education, universal design, inclusive hiring show benefits: greater economic participation, improved health outcomes, and richer cultural life. Inclusion is smart policy and ethical policy.
Marlene’s story aligns with these broader findings. Her perseverance highlights the cost of exclusion but also the potential of inclusive society. Her advocacy urges governments and institutions worldwide to invest in accessible streets, public transportation, schools, workplaces, and digital spaces.
7. Keywords for Change: Exclusion, Endurance, Inclusion
- Exclusion: the deliberate or unintended denial of access, participation, respect.
- Endurance: the capacity to keep going, to persist in spite of pain or resistance.
- Inclusion: the active assurance that all people, regardless of ability, belong, fully participate, and thrive.
These keywords encapsulate both challenge and possibility. The exclusion Marlene faced demanded unwavering endurance, and fuels her pursuit of inclusion for all.
8. Best Practices for Building Inclusion
What does an inclusive society require?
- Accessible infrastructure: ramps, tactile paving, elevators, inclusive signage.
- Inclusive education: all students in mainstream classrooms with support.
- Employment equity: workplace accommodations, anti‑discrimination policies, access to leadership roles.
- Cultural representation: participation in arts, media, public discourse.
- Participatory policy‑making: people with disabilities informing the decisions that affect them.
Marlene’s advocacy aligns with these principles: she helps reshape policy, fosters inclusive spaces, and amplifies disability voices in governance and culture.
9. Personal Reflections: A Commitment to Continuity
Marlene often reflects that resilience is cumulative. It’s shaped by small daily choices: attending a meeting despite pain, insisting on access in a building, speaking publicly at events. These acts of endurance sustain momentum.
She also emphasizes building community. Inclusion isn’t individual it’s collective. Supporting other disabled individuals, collaborating with allies, engaging with institutions all reinforce change.
Her journey reveals that the fight against exclusion requires both determination and organization. Her leadership demonstrates how personal endurance becomes social impact.
10. Looking Forward: Towards an Inclusive Future
The path ahead remains difficult. Many places still lack disability‑aware infrastructure; many policies remain superficial; many attitudes unchanged. But change is possible and necessary.
Marlene’s life shows how one person’s endurance can help shift structures. Imagine that multiplied through countless individuals and communities. Inclusion then becomes not exception, but expectation. Exclusion becomes outdated.
For those ready to support this vision, resources exist through disability rights organizations worldwide. They can provide guidance, frameworks, and strategies to push for inclusive change. One authoritative resource is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which provides legal and policy blueprints to support inclusion.For further information on international frameworks and the legal basis supporting disability inclusion, see the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities the foundational document guiding global inclusion policy.
Conclusion: From Resistance to Resilience
Marlene Le Roux’s journey is testimony: that exclusion hurts, but endurance empowers; that inclusion transforms. Her life echoes with the challenge and promise of building societies where disability is no barrier to belonging.
Her resilience is not individual drama it’s daily courage. Her advocacy is not abstract it’s practical transformation. And her story is both mirror and map: showing the costs of exclusion, and guiding the way toward inclusion.
Through exclusion, she endured; through endurance, she fought; through inclusion, she leads. Her example lights a path to a world where no one is left unseen, unheard, or uncounted.
