Day of People With Disabilty

Technology still lacking in PWDS

As the world becomes more technologically advanced, Persons with Disabilities (PWDS) are still lagging behind. The world over PWDS are still faced with challenges in the city, but more especially in the rural communities.

PWDS, ‘the world’s largest minority’, often face barriers to participation in all aspects of society. Barriers can take a variety of forms, including those relating to the physical environment or to Information and Communications Technology (ICT), or those resulting from legislation or policy, or from societal attitudes or discrimination.

The result is that PWDS do not have equal access to society or services, including education, employment, health care, transportation, political participation or justice.

Each year on December 3, the country focuses on different issues as they commemorate the International Day of People With Disabilities (IDD)

The day is celebrated with varying grades of success around the planet. The observance of the day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

This year the UN has announced Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology as the 2014 theme for International Day of People with Disability.

This day in Uganda and elsewhere in the world, aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

With this theme, however, PWDS still say they will be left behind. This year’s theme focuses on the role of technology as a way of breaking down barriers for people with disability and increasing their accessibility to technology.

The UN theme highlights the role of technology in emergency response, future planning, disaster risk reduction; creating accessible and inclusive environments for  PWDs. The executive secretary National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWDU) Jolly Acen, explains that for Uganda to over come the challenges faced by the disabled persons, there should be need to have accessibility for all in terms of soft ware advancement for all types of disabilities.

“There should be technological development which caters for every disabled person in the country,” says Acen.

She says as the world becomes a global village, the Government should do all that is necessary to assist all levels of disabled persons from the local to urban communities.

With a growing population of about 15% of the world’s population, people living with disabilities should move along the same level with able-bodied persons. People are often unaware of the great number of PWDS around the world and the challenges they face, thus leaving them in dilemma.

Well as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) advocate accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities this has not been adopted by many countries.

The fundamental rights recognised by the CRPD are not only objectives, but also pre-requisites for the enjoyment of other rights.

The CRPD, Article 9, seeks to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life and development.

In spite of this, in many parts of the world today, lack of awareness and understanding of accessibility as a cross-cutting development remains an obstacle to the achievement of progress and development through the Millennium Development Goals.

CRPD recognises that the existence of barriers constitutes a central component of disability.

Under the Convention, disability is an evolving concept that “results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

In Uganda, however, simple technology has failed to be applied, especially in hospitals, schools and commercial facilities. The disabled persons still complain of lack of access to storeyed structures, toilets for PWDS and hospital beds for pregnant girls and women.

Sense International gives Muwawu hope

Hakim Muwawu, 13, is one of the children Sense International supports. Muwawu lives with his foster mother in Butambala in Mpigi District.

Muwawu is the fourth born in a family of five children born to Hadijah Nassaka and Moses Kayanja (now deceased).

Muwawu is deafblind/multi-sensory impaired (MSI).

Nassaka a teacher at Budde Primary School is now the head of Muwawu’s family. The challenge is because of Muwawu’s condition, it is difficult to find a caretaker for him. The mother has to juggle her teaching with caring for Muwawu. She therefore has to make many trips to and from the school, which is about a half a kilometre from her home and rely on neighbours to look out for him.

Although Kabasanda School for the deaf is about 8kms away from his home, Muwawu cannot attend the school because he has other challenges. Sense International has enabled home-schooling for Muwawu and his teacher, says he is beginning to recognise some touches and responds to them. With the help of Sense International, Muwawu, now has a wheelchair, which has greatly improved his mobility and he is able to be moved outside the house, where he enjoys spending most of his day watching life’s activities.

According to Josephine Akiru, the Country Representative for Sense International, her organisation is pioneering home-schooling for children like Muwawu. Akiru says the deafblind/MSI children are not completely disabled. With support and medical attention they can live better lives and also participate in many beneficial activities.

“with correction in the eyes and also hearing aid, the children can do many amazing things. It is not right to leave them out of life’s activities, with their intelligence levels.”

Namuli Amina, Zahara Nakweesa’s mother says although her daughter is deaf and blind, she has a lot of potential. Nakaweesa, eight years, is keen to help with household chores. According to her mother, she can make beads and table clothes. If she is sponsored for education, Zahara will do even better. “What our deaf, blind children need is more support in terms of education and health. Some of them can do much better if they get lenses or medical operations on their eyes. Also their schools are still few and costly for many parents,” she says.

According to Namuli many people ignore educating disabled children, but she affirms that with education her daughter relates better.

Namuli also attends a parents’ sign language class every Wednesday and she testifies that the new skills she has learnt have tremendously helped her to nurture her daughter. Namuli urges parents with children with a hearing problem to learn sign language as it makes them up much easier.
 

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Muwawu in protective head gear because he sometimes, hits his head against objects and uses the hand to harm himself, that explains why he lost one eye

WHAT TECHNOLOGY DO PWDS WANT GOVERNMENT TO PUT IN PLACE FOR DISABLED PERSONS?

Agnes Esalite, In charge of Gender Based Violence at NOWUDU

As a deaf person residing in the city it is easy to access information on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Skype. We can also get information on televisions which interpret messages. But we need interpreters for all televisions. There is still a gap for my brothers and sisters who are in the rural areas in terms of access to information. As for the radio messages we are totally left out, because we do not have peple to interpret the messages for us

Robert Kanabi, vendor in down town Kampala

Ramps are still lacking in all commercial buildings. We need the Government to think about the physically disabled persons.

Judith Deka, accountant NOWUDU

accessibility is one the major hindrances for us who are physically handicapped. Most of the buildings are inaccessible; the roads are impassable without sections of the road were we can cross. There are should be accessibility for us.

Jolly Acen

There are facilities like braille used in lifts which are still lacking in Uganda, these are required in all our public and private facilities. The lifts should be wider with a software device which communicates to blind people, ramps for physically disabled people and other facilities for deaf which are user friendly.

ADVERTISERS

The National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU)

Sense International