By Tendai Chisiri.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Disabled activists persons have bemoaned the unavailability of sign language being used at ICASA’s symposiums and sessions thus ignoring the handicapped at the international conference.
Disability, HIV and AIDS Trust (DHAT) in Zimbabwe has been attending ICASA in the previous years but has noted that handicapped people’s needs are not being met by both the government and civil societies. DHAT’S Executive Director Phillimon Simwaba said that they promote the inclusion of the persons with disabilities in response to HIV, AIDS and other health related issues in Zimbabwe and regionally.
“Persons with disabilities should also participate in programmes held by the government and non government organizations . We have managed through ICASA to send message to the organizers of ICASA, the government, donors and non government organizations that people with disabilities need space in their programmes. They should be part and parcel of their programmes. When developing them and when implementing them, there must be indicators that shows that their programmes are reaching the disabled”, said Mr Phillimon Simwaba.
“Our programmes not only started with ICASA but International AIDS Conference and also the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).The first seven goals of the SDGs covers the persons with disabilities and the government should show commitment to persons with disabilities.”, he said. He also stated that people with disabilities are the ones mainly found in the streets. The government should also include persons with disabilities in issues of development and policy formulation.
Handicap International official Jean Mark said” We have been involved for 21 years so far on HIV and AIDS, disabilities as the key population to improve the situation and change in countries .Concerning this expedition, we are used to be attending ICASA for years and we have been raising the same question.
We want the organizers to think everything with accessibility. This time it was very bad because of lack of rams everywhere, we had a workshop during ICASA and one of the researchers in a wheel chair from University could not attend for his presentations because the session was in the first floor and there was no means for him to go to first floor. Most people who are deaf could not attend sessions because there is no sign language and interpretation for deaf people. We would like the next ICASA conference to be accessible to all people with disabilities.”
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