National campaign for disability friendly public places launched
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has launched a national campaign for disability-friendly public places.
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The campaign comes four days to the expiration of the 10 years moratorium to ensure that public places are disability friendly enshrined in the Persons with Disability Act 2006 (Act 715).
Passed 10 years ago to ensure the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disability, Section 60 of the law requires that owners or occupiers of public buildings make such buildings accessible to and available for use by PWDs.
The 10 year moratorium will expire on Thursday, August 11, 2016.
Launching the campaign, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, said the National Council for Persons with Disability, together with the Ghana Standards Authority and the Disabled People Organisation (DPO), had developed the draft Ghana Standards on Accessibility Designs.
Nana Oye said the accessibility design document, which was to enforce the law, was to provide specifications on how buildings, roads, recreational centres should be designed so as to make them accessible to all, especially PWDs.
She said the ministry was working with the National Council on Persons with Disability to ensure that issues of PWDs were integrated in every aspect of the social protection mandate of the ministry.
PWDs and social protection
Nana Oye also added that issues of PWDs had been mainstreamed in the country’s national social protection strategy and poverty reduction interventions, saying that PWDs were a key target group of the Social Protection Policy which was launched in June 2016.
Currently, over 3,000 PWDs have been registered on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
She said more than 52,082 PWDs were benefitting from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme.
“We have also developed Disability Employment Modules for Persons with Disability under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA),” adding that currently the agency employs over 2,000 PWDs.
She said in collaboration with the DPO, draft guidelines on the usage of sign language, braille and other accessible formats had also been developed.
This, she said, was meant to ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and other agencies provided the necessary facilities that would make information and services accessible to PWD.
She said currently there was inadequate data on PWD, which made planning and programming difficult, saying that due to inappropriate religious and cultural beliefs on disability in the society, people found it difficult to accept PWDs and support programmes that promoted their rights.
“As a government we are committed to ensuring that all persons, especially the vulnerable, are protected. We will continue to work with the National Council on Persons with Disability to create awareness of the Persons with Disability Act and ensure it is complied with. We are working hard to establish the regional offices for the National Council on Persons with Disability,” adding that currently plans were underway to establish four regional offices in the Ashanti, Central, Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
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