Advance inclusion of persons with disability

Promoting inclusion of persons with disabilities means first recognising and protecting their rights. FOTOSEARCH

By RAPHAEL OBONYO
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Summary

• Disability prevalence is higher for developing countries with one-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experiencing serious disabilities.
• Persons living with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socio-economic outcomes such as less education, poorer health outcomes, lower levels of employment, and higher poverty rates.
• Realising the rights of persons with disabilities is crucial to fulfilling the core promise of the 2030 Agenda: to leave no one behind.

The world has devised a new concept, July Disability Pride Month, to recognise people living with disability. This plausible idea gives us an opportunity to take a reflective moment on whether we have put in place sufficient measures to cater for the welfare of the people living with disabilities, especially this time when the world is grappling with Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Bank estimates that one billion people, or 15 percent of the world’s population, experience a disability. Disability prevalence is higher for developing countries with one-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experiencing serious disabilities.

Persons living with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socio-economic outcomes such as less education, poorer health outcomes, lower levels of employment, and higher poverty rates.

People living with disabilities have been more affected in many areas.

Barriers to full social and economic inclusion of persons with disabilities include inaccessible physical environments and transportation, the unavailability of assistive devices and technologies, non-adapted means of communication, gaps in service delivery, and discriminatory prejudice and stigma in society.

As a country, where 10 per cent of the population is disabled, we must devise a new Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. They have a right to have good conditions in the workplace and equal opportunities to take part fully in the life of their community. It is an obligation, as a community, to ensure their full participation in society.

Persons with disability are more likely to experience higher rates of violence, neglect and abuse. And, when crisis grips communities, they suffer most.

Promoting inclusion of persons with disabilities means first recognising and protecting their rights.

Make no mistake; realising the rights of persons with disabilities is crucial to fulfilling the core promise of the 2030 Agenda: to leave no one behind.

Raphael Obonyo, Public policy analyst.