Cape Town - Advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities should be spoken about all year round and not just highlighted during a designated month, according to a disability activist.
Several disability rights advocacy groups agreed that the rights of persons with disabilities are really only brought to the fore during this special month or when there is a tragedy involving persons with disabilities.
South Africa commemorates National Disability Rights Awareness Month between November 3 and December 3 annually.
The sentiment was echoed by Vanessa Japtha, the manager of the Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability Advocacy.
To mitigate these issues, Japtha said that the government should be leading by effectively funding and implementing the various policies, guidelines and White Papers developed since 1994 to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities are protected.
“A good place to start would be in education, at ECD centres and schools.”
She said that an estimated 200 000 and 500 000 children are not accepted at schools due to their disabilities, despite the Constitution affording this right to every child. She said that the Education departments were not taking their constitutional obligations and legal mandates seriously.
“Persons with disabilities have the same human rights as any other person (education, health, work). They are not charity cases.”
Western Cape Network on Disability Co-ordinator Natalie Johnson said that the month was, however, important for the disability sector to highlight particular issues and concerns pertaining to the rights of persons with disabilities.
Johnson said if the rights of persons with disabilities are not considered at all levels of policy-making, and if the needs of persons with disabilities are not included across all spheres of government, they will be left behind.
On how this could be mitigated, she said: “We need to increase education and awareness within government and civil society about the rights of persons with disabilities and begin to view persons with disabilities as valued stakeholders and citizens.”
Some of the core basic rights highlighted during the month is the right to education, decent work, equal opportunities to participate in the economy and social life, access to the built environment, transport and technology.
Disability info South Africa (DiSA) founder Alan Downey said the implementation of regulations and laws that should allow for inclusivity for people with disabilities, fall short, thus resulting in people with disabilities largely being excluded.
Cape Argus