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'PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE NOT DISADVANTAGED'

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A bold, two-pronged modus operandi to empower impaired people through staking a claim for their space and doing away with self-pity, emanated from a recent indaba for People with Disability (PwD).

The PwD Seminar, hosted by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre on 7 December, succeeded in consolidating interests around and adding fresh impetus to the quest for seeking quantitative and qualitative solutions for people living with disabilities.

This mission, to motivate and manoeuvre around the manifold challenges facing disabled people, was succinctly elucidated by Uhuru Moiloa, Deputy Speaker for the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

Addressing a packed conference, he said: “Our responsibility as the Gauteng Legislature is to ensure that persons with disabilities are not disadvantaged based on their position in the economy, social intervention or any activity that make humanity thrive.”

This pro-active sentiment was even echoed in the seminar’s theme: Following up on our commitment for persons with disabilities in the Gauteng Province.

In addition to its clear intent to bolster the cause of functionally impeded people, the seminar also managed to highlight the challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily basis.

By extension the seminar seeked to:
- establish platforms for empowerment
- promoting and maintaining the status of people with disabilities
- creating awareness around their rights, wellbeing, safety and security

It was moreover decided that it’s imperative to provide channels for continued, constructive discussion and to duly implement resolutions agreed upon during the seminar.

One of the invited delegates that attended the seminar was Rhulani Baloyi, a prominent activist who had some strong sentiments to share with the audience.

Speaking about the stigma attached to disabled people, that they are demanding and difficult to deal with in the work place, Baloyi encouraged attendees to throw off the yoke of self-pity.

She said: “It is up to us to change how people perceive us. The aim is to be respected and not to be felt pity for.”

As a disabled person herself, who had to overcome the adversity of being blind, Baloyi followed her dream of becoming a journalist and in spite of the hardship she faced, became a renowned radio and TV presenter at the SABC

As former co-presenter of the SABC 1 talk show Shift, she excelled in re-configuring mind sets and changing attitudes, thereby opening the eyes of people about what being disabled is all about.

True to its constitutional decree, namely being convened as a public participation tool in response to section 118 of the Constitution of South Africa, the seminar endeavoured to establish itself as a forum of primacy on the topic of disability discourse.

In this sense, empowering the seminar from within so it can help to empower people outside, the Gauteng Legislature played an incisive role.

In a statement released to the press it said that the seminar was convened “to ensure that people with disabilities play an active role in the decision-making processes of the legislature”.

It added that this has particular baring on drafting “laws and discussions that directly affect people with disabilities”.
    
In a more instructive sense, the seminar served to red-flag instances of severe unfairness and compromising positions pertaining to the daily situations that disabled people may find themselves in.

Attitudes among members of the South African Police Service(SAPS), for example, were one of the problem areas that were exposed during the seminar.

Although special provision is made by the police to accommodate disabled people, it was stated that: “There are no PwD-assistants (at SAPS) to understand the needs of people living with disabilities.” 

In a country rife with crime, where people with disabilities are often preyed upon by perpetrators because of their impairments, “reporting a case to the police can be challenging and demeaning.”

Not helping blind people to identify suspects in pursuance of criminal case investigation and subsequent prosecution, is just one of the instances in which disabled people’s democratic rights are often violated.

The seminar therefore unanimously endorsed the notion that “SAPS members and police stations need to be trained and equipped with alternative measures to accommodate different circumstances for cases to be further investigated outside conventionally prescribed procedures”.

Basically it boils down to not taking for granted the idea that society’s systems necessarily suits all. Clearly, all-encompassing provision must be made to assist all the country’s citizens, no matter who they are.

Another area of concern identified at the seminar is higher education and learning.
Among other things, it was stated at the seminar that “the language used in textbooks is not disability sensitive” and that there is a palpable “lack of information on and about PwDs”.

Furthermore, “there is also a lack of learning material, learning tools and assistive devices for different kinds of disabilities”, which is why disabled learners and students sometimes have to rely on their class mates for notes.

Subsequently, the seminar also endorsed the decision that “the Department of Higher Education should have a representative of the PwD-sector at a high level”, and that “Government should ensure that access to colleges is increased for PwDs”. 

There can be no doubt that the seminar’s PwD-discussions “strongly emphasized how essential official intervention is to ensure that even schools have a curriculum of different disabilities”.

In summary, a post-seminar statement stressed that “education and awareness of the different disabilities is crucial in our communities”.  

Ultimately it is only through awareness and understanding that we can see the link there is between claiming space for disabled people and eliminating the crippling psychological effect of self-pity.

After all, it is this two-pronged approach that many believe paves to way for empowerment.

Safe to say that it is only through uplifting people with disabilities that they can be successfully integrated into society – free from stigma and fully empowered within the space they share with their able-bodied counterparts.

Equality, in all the many ways we are often blind to see, is after all what each and everyone of us deserve to experience on the daily trajectory of our lives.

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