Disability is not Inability

:::The PWD Registration policy
20th September 2006

Policies are the backbone of national planning and service deliver to the citizens of any country. Attempting to deliver services without a policy to act as a guideline will ultimately end up in failure to reach out to the targeted population. This knowledge has led the National Council of Persons with Disability (NCPD) to introduce a policy guiding the registration of persons with disabilities, disabled persons’ organizations and institutions as a policy of intervention in disability. It is hoped that knowing how many would improve government’s ability to plan and deliver services to the PWDs.

For quite a long time, persons with disabilities have not been integrated in the mainstream of development at policy level. In the areas where efforts have been made to do so they have had minimal impact or not implemented at all. This has been mainly emanating from the fact that little data if any, exists concerning the PWDs. Many parents do not register their children let alone those born with disabilities at the local hospital. This means the government does not have a clue how many where of what disability exist. Many rural or urban slum populations do not use hospitals at birth. Majority tend to use traditional or informal midwives for their delivery needs. This makes it hard for the child to go through birth registration which usually takes place at the hospital.

The NCPWD is a department of the Ministry of Culture and social Services mandated with implementing the persons with disabilities ACT 2003. The Council working with stakeholders, a PWDs Registration policy would answer two critical questions. How Many disabled persons are we? Where and what services are available to us. These answers are critical to planning improvements towards mainstreaming disability in national programming. Programmes have been based on assumptions which it is evident that cannot be banked on if anything tangible. Registration policy therefore comes in handy to bridge the gap that has existed between the PWDs and development.

How will registration bridge this gap? Registration will provide the kind of information that is required by policy developers. Successful Government policy Programmes like the Free Primary Education have not benefited the PWDs because of lack of numbers on the ground. It has not been easy to know how many disabled children enrolled into schools since the programme started. Through registration it will be possible to capture the various kinds’ of disabilities that are prevalent in a given area ranging from physical disabilities, mental disabilities to sensory disabilities. This is the first and most crucial information needed to plan for services and adjustment improvements.

Further registration will shed light on the number of each of the various kinds of disabilities in administrative district. Devolved administration and resources would therefore be targetd at disability with measure. It will assist the government, development partners, the NGOs as well as the private entrepreneurs interested in service delivery to the disabled to have an idea of what kind of service is required by what number of people. This will help us develop benchmarks for monitoring the implementation of th ethe PWDs ACT

Registration will also help to capture the various initiatives that different organizations and institutions have been engaged in as efforts of integrating the disabled in the mainstream of development. This information well utilized can act as springboard which can elevate intervention in the area of disability to great heights. This can be possible through the replication of the best practices. Different organizations and institutions can be encouraged to emulate the efforts that have been the most successful. The Deaf VCT has potential lessons on how to integrate the Deaf in Health services that can be replicated in other NGOs and Public Health institutions. Most importantly registration will help to identify some of the areas that have been most neglected. For instance over the years most efforts on disability have been geared towards the physically disabled while others like the deaf and the blind, minimal efforts have been made. When such information is provided mitigating factors can easily be developed.

Apart from identifying the areas that have been neglected, registration will also help to capture the various challenges that PWDs face in their endeavors to meet their basic needs as well as the challenges that various institutions and organizations that deal with disability issues face. The identification of these loopholes is the gateway to their solution because it is easier to develop mitigating factors against what one has knowledge of rather than an anonymous problem.

Registration will also make it possible to develop a databank on disability information. With the advent of computers and everyday improvement in technology there is no choice but to integrate the disabled into this new technology. The registration of PWDs and DPOs will help initiate a database that will be updated as new PWDs and DPOs are registered. This will help to keep a track of the PWDs, DPOs and public health and educational institutions. The Registration will build a basis for structured qualitative service improvements. Disability friendly services imply certain adjustments that may require finances. Adjustments orders should not be seen only as architectural service the physically disabled. Adjustment orders like teachers skilled in sign language, facilities serving the mentally challenged, Braille public education materials are necessary. The annual returns should be within a monitoring and evaluation tool that can promote these adjustments within available resource mobilization and management.
Thus this kind of monitoring and evaluation will go a long way in integrating the PWDs in the mainstream of development. It will be easier to plan for the allocation of resources to the PWDs and the efforts that the PWDs are making will also be evident and this can prompt development partners and the donors to improve resources and public funding.

Despite the fact that this registration policy is quite promising it will not have the intended impact if the PWDs will not take the initiative of registering themselves as well as the organizations that work for them. It is evident that the PWDs are the best experts on their needs and must take initiative, individually and collectively. It’s only then that the authenticity of this registration will be realized otherwise the old story of non-inclusion of the disabled might be repeated on and on with nothing at all happening on the ground where action ought to be.

In conclusion this is a wakeup call to all the PWDs. The times when people used too ask what can the government do for us is over. It is now an era where the people are asking themselves how can we collectively fight for our rightful piece of the National cake. Sympathy will not work we must fight for our rights be it to trade in designated areas in our CBD or positions in the National Assembly or civil service, so as to attract the allocation of resources so that they are able to address their needs thus sustainable development is realized.