The President of the Centre for Employment of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Alexander Tetteh, has chastised the organisers of a graduation ceremony held in Accra recently for not considering the needs of persons with disabilities in their planning.
On Friday, May 5, 2023, the Institute of African Arts and Technology, a subsidiary of Nallem Clothing, held a graduation ceremony for some 260 students, which included 7 persons with disabilities and a special mother.
Mr. Tetteh, a wheelchair user who was one of the special guests at the event, was unable to join other dignitaries at the high table because the place was not disability-friendly.
Consequently, he was made to sit with the graduants instead.
When it was his turn to speak, Mr. Tetteh couldn’t help but speak about the situation.
He pointed out to the organisers how such neglect of the peculiar needs of persons with disabilities continues to inhibit their full and meaningful participation in society.
He lamented that despite a 10-year moratorium given after the enactment of the Disability Act in 2006, which elapsed in 2016, for all existing buildings in the country to be modified to make them disability-friendly; and the Act also requiring that all new buildings be made accessible, the built environment in Ghana continues to pose a major challenge to persons with disabilities.
The staunch disability rights advocate reiterated the need for property owners to ensure that facilities meant for public use are constructed with persons with disabilities in mind.
Event organisers are expected to ensure that events open to the general public are held at venues accessible to disabled members of the public. Where the venue is not disability-friendly, it is expected of organisers to make temporal modifications like provision of wooden or metallic ramps and, or other adjustments that could make things easy for disabled patrons.
SOURCE: DisabilityNewsGH.com