MR. Austin Onwuamaegbu, President, Persons with Disability Initiative Nigeria, has observed that public attitude to persons living with disability is worrisome.
He spoke in Abuja recently at Disability Empowerment Summit, observing that persons living with disability suffered alienation and discrimination due to lack of awareness.
He said that he was disturbed as a person living with disability in a community that failed to include him in the scheme of things.
“Since I grew up with disability, it is not encouraging when it comes to public attitude, acceptance and sensitivity to the plight of people living with various disabilities.
“It reminds me of my childhood when a casual walk with braces and crutches across my neighborhood invited curious onlookers and noisy name-callers.
“I realised that the name calling had to do with how I looked and walked and I started feeling different.
“I was treated differently from outside, I turned away from the world around me and confined my life to myself,’’ he said.
Onwuamaegbu observed further that a lot of children with disabilities and their parents were living a life of despair and isolation.
He noted that parents of such children would prefer to stay at home with the kids than to participate in social events and gatherings.
According to him, the social stigma on people living with disability adversely affected their inclusion in most events in communities.
He said this attitude, perhaps, could be the reason why some parents, whose children lived with disabilities, would not disclose that their children had such challenges.
“To add to the challenges, people offer an abundance of sympathy and ask people living with disabilities embarrassing questions in public.
“We have a society where some children mock a child with disability; we don’t expect the same child to feel comfortable in such society,’’ he observed.
He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to sign into law Persons with Disability Bill before handing over on May 29.
Sharing similar sentiments, Miss Eberedo Onyinyechi, a civil servant and person living with disability, said that various organisations had refused to offer her job before she was eventually employed.
“Even with a proof that I am a graduate, I am discriminated against, rejected and some of us are sexually harassed while some people call us nuisance in our efforts to secure jobs,’’ she said.
Onyinyechi observed that a society without provisions to accommodate persons living with disability was not complete.
She noted that Nigeria ought to be a place where every citizen could enjoy equal opportunities, alleging that legislations had failed to guarantee active inclusion of persons with disability in the socio-economic and political events.
She, therefore, insisted that persons with disabilities should be empowered by removing certain barriers which could frustrate them.
She also called on Nigerians to give employments to persons with disability, pleading that a person with disability ought not to get a job out of pity but for what she or he could offer.
“A society that is all inclusive should provide means of movement to various work places for people living with disabilities such as vehicles and elevators.
According to her, it is glaring that persons with disability are being discriminated against as most of the buses and cars available for transport services in most cities were not designed to accommodate them.
“Likewise, toilets at work places should be designed to suit this group of persons with disabilities,’’ she said.
Onyinyechi called for signing into law of the Persons with Disability Bill to guarantee the rights of the people living with disabilities.
“Laws are meant to protect and greater protection must, therefore, be given to persons with disability to defend themselves in the society,’’ she insisted.
She also suggested a law that would strengthen punishment for sexual abuse against persons with disability.
Another person living with disability, simply identified as Grace, said that although she was a graduate with a good result, she had not got job because of her condition.
“I have gone to places, including private organisations and government agencies and ministries; no one wants to employ me because they see me as a burden,’’ she alleged.
She said that in some places where she got the privilege of working, the greatest barrier was climbing the steer case because there was no provision for persons with disability to move to offices assigned to them.
In his view, Mr. Donald Uranka, Executive Director, Potters Gallery Initiative, Abuja, opined that inclusion of persons with disability should begin with their welfare through proper legislation that will guarantee their rights.
He said that the United Nations put the number of persons with disability at 22.5 million in Nigeria; more than the population of some sovereign countries in Africa.
He insisted that proper legislation on issues relating to persons with disability would help to aid their rights of participation in developments.
He called on the government to give persons with disability equal opportunities to contribute to the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
According to him, the government must review the cases of persons with disability while persons living with disability should also change their thinking about their challenges.
