Barriers to inclusion of people with disabilities
Barriers to inclusion of people with disabilities
July 13, 2022
Nomathemba N. Mathe
Choice News Africa
Gwanda – While disability is an involuntary condition, persons with disabilities and their caregivers experience barriers to the enjoyment of their human rights and inclusion to the society as a whole. The recent case of educational denial by some Harare school heads for Nyasha Braudi Mapuranga is an outstanding case.
Their abilities are overlooked while their capabilities are underestimated. Yet the challenges that they experience is more of the environment than of their impairment.
Several children with disabilities have been and also some with albinism, have been experiencing some form of abuse, from their parents, as they have been secluded from the public, getting locked inside homes.
This is as far as abuse of people with disabilities, go as far as their lives are concerned. The only rare situation of a Chitungwiza man, who wedded his lover, with disability delivered a positive message to would be potential abusers.
Persons with disabilities are well known for depending on others simply because they were deprived of the opportunity to develop themselves for a better tomorrow. In addition their right to education is somehow abused as some are not given the chance to go to school. Some schools are located miles away from their home which on its own is a challenge for someone with physical impairment to travel long distances to school. Moreover schools that are welcoming to children with disabilities are costly and beyond the reach of many caregivers and parents.
Children with disabilities face cultural, economic and social discrimination. Culturally it is an abomination or a curse to give birth to a child with a disability, economically they can be poor and people use that to discriminate them. Socially they can be stigmatized and isolated. Again children with disabilities face also social, sexual and emotional abuse. Socially they are not acceptable in the society, sexually they are raped and emotionally they can be harassed or even beaten for no reason.
Furthermore, children with disabilities are more likely to get infected with HIV and AIDS since if they are raped the caregivers might not know or lack knowledge on how to do with the situation. Most of children with disabilities do not have knowledge that it is their rights to know their status or even to choose if they want to be sexually active or not. In most cases they are taken advantage of or even get into forced and early a marriage which again shows that their rights are violated and abused. Still on that they can be used as a family source of income through rituals
There is low participation in the matters that concern them because of information deficit and sometimes information disseminate in in accessible formats. Still on that, caregivers might face barriers on participation in the activities of the society since she might be the one taking care of the child and going with the child might even be a challenge. The barriers that the caregivers are facing are very difficult as some conditions might require the child to visit the hospital time and again, medicine might be costly and even the hospital is located far away from their home. The caregiver might face a barrier in buying the medicine and travelling with the child to the hospital.
In conclusion, every child should go to school as it is every child’s right to education, Persons with disability to be taught of their rights and the society to adapt and accept them. They must be inclusivity regardless of the tribe, gender, status and disability.