Saturday, 25 March

Let’s make inclusiveness a must for PWDs

Feature Article
Black blind man walking

The journey of a million miles starts with a step.

No matter how long it is, one must strive to make an effort to start it. 

There have been a lot of calls about inclusiveness, including persons with disability in our daily lives and activities.

 Inclusiveness bothers several spheres of life. 

This include accessible buildings; that is making buildings accessible for persons with disability by providing walkways for them to be able to use major buildings.

 Also, making transportation accessible to persons with disability by making sure reservations are made for them in public transport. 

Again, people have to deal with attitudinal barriers by making sure that they change their perception about disability and negative connotations become a thing of the past. Furthermore, disability sports must be encouraged. 

Sports is one of the areas of revenue generation for the government and the people involved. However, disability sports are usually neglected even though it is one avenue the country uses to win medals. 

Some persons with disability can get their livelihoods through sports. 

Therefore, it is necessary to promote that aspect for persons with disability to fully benefit from it. One subtle area of non-inclusiveness of persons with disability is digitization. 

Several activities of society are being migrated onto digital platforms. 

However, in as much as we are moving into the digital world, we are neglecting an aspect of people that we assume to automatically follow through with the migration. 

Some persons with disability need special features and equipment to be able to adjust to the digital platforms available. 

In as much as governments and other stakeholders are campaigning about digitization, we need to focus more on inclusive digitization. 

Inclusive education is also an area that must be considered.

 Sign language interpreters must be provided in institutions for the hearing impaired and academic curricula must suit most persons with disability.

 Inclusive education must not be a policy left in books but it should be practical so that a lot more people with disability can access our educational system. 

If they can access our educational system, they will be trained and some can contribute their quota to society and promote nation-building.

 Inclusiveness is necessary; therefore, this is a call to all and sundry to ensure the inclusiveness of persons with disability in mainstream society so they can enjoy their full participation. 

Source: Mavis Nana Yaa Konadu