Let’s keep on championing disability rights inclusion
For persons with disabilities, a fully inclusive society has continued to be somewhat of a utopic aspiration.
There is a saying that ‘ignorance is bliss’. The state of not knowing tends to bring with it a sense of innocence over injustice as a result of inaction.
This lack of attention eventually results in neglect and marginalisation. For persons with disabilities, a fully inclusive society has continued to be somewhat of a utopic aspiration.
More than a decade ago, I too was a victim of this disregard. As a person without a disability, I paid no heed to disability issues.
But the vagaries of life would place me in a wheelchair for the last 14 years. The barriers persons with disabilities encounter became more evident to me. In such a vast, multifaceted society as ours, the state of disability mainstreaming in Kenya can be measured through the lens of the public sector.
Since the enactment of the Persons with Disabilities Act in 2003, Kenya has made much progress in terms of disability inclusion.
Many programmes and policies have been formulated that are geared towards supporting persons with disabilities through the issuance of assistive devices, educational assistance, economic empowerment, tax exemption and the establishment of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), which is mandated to champion and protect disability rights.
The Constitution also affirms the political rights of persons with disabilities and allocates a five per cent constitutional threshold for job opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Performance contracting
The government introduced a disability mainstreaming metric in 2009 into the larger performance contracting of all government offices to ensure accessible and inclusive service delivery.
According to a new report by NCPWD titled Disability Mainstreaming Status Report for FY2021/2022 — evaluating 404 government institutions – four in five institutions reported on their disability mainstreaming activities. On the negative side, 84 did not report.
A report by the Public Service Commission on compliance with the values and principles in Articles 10 and 232 of the Constitution for the FY2021/2022 shows that persons with disabilities account for a meagre 1.4 per cent of the public service workforce.
The Constitution under Article 7 asserts the state’s obligation to promote the use of Kenyan sign language, braille and other technologies that benefit persons with disabilities.
The report shows that only 18 institutions provided evidence of sign language training, accessible publications, adaptive technology and sign language interpretation in public forums.
On conducting accessibility and usability audits on the state of the built environment, products and services, 61 per cent of them did not report.
Nevertheless, the report notes that there is a high level of commitment to disability mainstreaming in our ministries, departments and agencies.
This commitment is a positive sign.
The public sector has a unique opportunity to portray to the larger private sector what an inclusive workplace looks like, and collectively establish a barrier-free society for persons with disabilities.
Mr Hassan is CEO, National Council for Persons with Disabilities.
