March 1 was International Wheelchair Day. The annual event aims at building awareness about conditions that limit personal mobility and the struggles that wheelchair users face in their daily lives due their disability. Disability includes blindness, low vision, leprosy disability, mental retardation and mental illness.
People with disabilities are large minority groups starved of services and mostly ignored by society. They live in isolation, segregation, poverty and even pity. Due to discrimination, they do not go to public places and are not free to get those rights, which a non-disabled person gets.
They are often deprived of education and employment — largely due to lack of awareness, ignorance and prejudice in our society. Even if they are able to get a job, they face problems such as reasonable accommodation at the workplace, access to public transportation to get them to work and back home, and discrimination and ignorance about their potential at work.
Roads are not properly maintained and municipal workers don’t clean them often. Pavements and lack of space make travelling difficult for cane- and wheelchair users. There is no assistance to such passengers for their boarding and alighting.
Most houses are not accessible to them and disregard regulations relating to the needs of, especially, persons with physical disability. They are installed with the less expensive private residential elevators rather than a full commercial elevator, thereby limiting their access.
People with disabilities are also vulnerable within the context of HIV/Aids, mainly due to possible sexual abuse and cultural myths. This is largely because they lack information as most cannot take part in awareness campaigns.
Health-related information is not available in accessible formats to different disabilities — for instance, hearing and visual impairments. Rehabilitation services, preventative care, early diagnosis and treatment should be provided but this rarely happens. The government and the citizens should come together and help people with special needs to enjoy their constitutional right of living a full life. This will make them feel appreciated as part of the community and country at large.
The Constitution states that every Kenyan has the right to be served in any government office. But people with disabilities, especially the hearing impaired, cannot acquire the services due to communication barriers.
County governments should employ professional sign language interpreters to help such people to obtain public services easily. They should also have a policy that allows the disabled to be served before the rest.
The National Council for Persons with Disabilities should involve county governments when training interpreters.
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