Let's all ensure disability agenda remains at the top
Recently, a young man with disability presented to me news I had been looking forward to the whole of last year: The Public Service Commission (PSC) had appointed him an information officer in the Ministry of ICT.
Whereas PSC employs thousands of people every year, the news was particularly fulfilling because I believe stakeholders, public and private, must use the available data to accord persons with disabilities their right to work and employment in the open labour market. I hope PSC can absorb many more Kenyans with disabilities this year, if only to fill the gap that has widened over time in this aspect.
People with disabilities face numerous barriers right from birth — like attaining an education, access to healthcare and other support services. A huge percentage of persons with disabilities, therefore, lag behind as regards access to various rights — be they civil, political, economic, cultural or social.
Therefore, it is imperative that at no one point should we lower our guard in terms of speaking to the exclusion of people with disabilities and that the disability agenda must always be at the top.
The inclusion of people with disabilities in society has to be informed by rights-based approaches. Disability rights are human rights. With the advent of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) several years ago, it must be understood that they have rights and should not be treated as ones only requiring healthcare or charity.
Work harder
Every day, people with disabilities have to tackle ableism; they have to work extra hard to prove their abilities, against huge barriers, both environmental and attitudinal. Hence, they have had to adapt immense problem solving and critical thinking approaches to overcome the barriers.
Ableism assumes that for a person with disability to succeed, they somehow overcame their disabilities. That must be challenged. To succeed, they have to, above all else, receive support and accommodation from people around them. The environment must be made safe and accessible to them: A barrier-free environment that affords persons with disabilities support and reasonable accommodation to achieve as well as their peers without disabilities.
Ensure accessibility to the physical environment, information and technology and transport for persons with disabilities for their independence. For example, if the transport system is accessible, they do not have to spend an extra amount on a taxi. With an education system that accommodates all leaners, we would not have to spend huge amounts of money on the parallel forms of learning that we call “special education”; it’s unnecessarily expensive.
The disability agenda must remain a priority in 2021 as before and as in the coming years. For us all.
We all must always be intentional about leaving no one behind and understanding that among the cornerstones of the CRPD is the respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity.