Government must serve people with disabilities

| Tuesday August 24, 2010 00:00

Access that includes such things as handicap ramps, automatic doors, special restrooms, ramps in buses, crosswalks and parking spaces should be provided in industries and service areas for use by people with disability.  Yes, considerable expense must go into retrofitting service areas that were created without consideration for this relatively small portion of the population, and since the planners are not disabled themselves, spending money to rehabilitate buildings, roads and other public areas to make life less difficult may be the last thing on their minds.

But serving humanity is not about making profit or savings.   It is about ensuring that we all have good quality of life as humans.  That life is partly gained through access to all these other areas where we all need to go:

colleges and universities, workplaces and transport.  Deny the disabled equal access and opportunity then you deny them the right to that life.  It is not about compassion.  It is what must happen. Proper access for people with disabilities does not only help these people but also 'the disabled'. 

These are people who have temporary mobility issues like the man on crutches after he was injured at a football game.  What about the young woman with a knee injury? There is also the old woman or man with painful arthritic knees.  Government should take the lead in ensuring that people with disabilities are fully catered for.  How does a person on a wheelchair cross from the Gaborone taxi rank to the bus rank?  There is a steep flyover with stairs only and no provision for people with disabilities.  What this means is that these people have to pay extra to be transported around to the bus rank or if they are from the bus rank, to the taxi station.  That the flyover in point was built many years back, and that to date no one has seen the need for provision for these people to be made, is proof of the little regard that the system has for people with disabilities.  Let provision be made everywhere for people with disabilities; ramps at pedestrian crossings; grab bars in toilets and showers; automatic doors in shops and restaurants; ramps leading to working lifts in buildings. We can't have them wheeled to the car ramps in basement parking! Society must realise that people with disabilities need the same products and services that the rest of us do. They need to buy food, tools, houseware, clothing, and furniture, office supplies, animal feed, pet food and apply for loans.

Enough injustice has been perpetrated against people with disabilities.  It is against this background that we call on government to speedily come up with legislation that makes it necessary for all business - from contractors to employers and industry owners - to cater for people with disabilities.  The recently established office that coordinates issues of people with disabilities is a good starting point, and we hope its recommendations will be treated seriously.

                                                           Today's thought

'Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.'

                         - Martina Navratilova (Czech born American Tennis Player, b.1956)