Much more should be done for people living with disabilities, the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said yesterday as she launched the Disability Rights Awareness Month and its calendar events.
“The progress on priorities over the past year displays a great deal of leadership in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. However, much more can be done by us all,” she said.
This year’s theme is: “Empowering Persons with disabilities through resourceful, sustainable and safe environments.”
The department focused on various points, including the acceleration of the pace of providing access to quality inclusive education for children with disabilities out of school.
“This entails improving and strengthening reasonable accommodation support measures for pupils in both special and ordinary schools,” Nkoana-Mashabane said.
“We must advocate mainstream persons with disabilities in ordinary schools ensuring all learning materials are accessible, regardless of the pupil’s location.”
Decent work opportunities for people with disabilities
She said she wanted to accelerate the pace of meaningful and sustainable economic liberation of persons with disabilities.
“This includes reversing the trend of learnerships replacing decent work opportunities, promoting SMME development and public sector procurement.”
Nkoana-Mashabane said they were pushing for the South African sign language to be recognised as an official language.
She said the department was in the process of developing overarching legislation on disability rights.
“South Africa will soon ratify the protocol on the African Human and People’s Rights Charter for Persons with Disabilities in Africa. We are investigating the possibility of legislating these frameworks into the Disability Rights Act,” said Nkoana-Mashabane.
She called on all government departments to be involved in the process of developing the National Disability Rights Agenda as required by the Mid-Term Strategic Framework targets.
“We need more government departments to participate in the activities and events during Disability Rights Awareness Month as part of their commitment to the integration of persons with disabilities,” she said.
