Person With Disabilities, PWD, have frowned at the absence of Disability Commission to oversee the affairs of the people in Kwara state.
The Persons with Disabilities also lamented non-compliance with key provisions in the Kwara State Disability Law, which they said should have made life more conducive for them.
The stakeholders expressed their discontent during a two-day capacity building workshop organized on Rights-based Advocacy and Human Rights Recording for Sexual and Reproductive Health/Disability Rights Advocates in Kwara.
The program, organized by Voice of Disability Initiative (VDI), in collaboration with Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Kwara State Chapter aims to advocate and ensure rights of persons with disabilities, especially women and girls.
It would be recalled that in a bid to ensure equity and protection of Persons with Disabilities, the Federal Government established the Discrimination against Persons with Disability (Prohibition) Act in 2017.
Following advocacy, engagements and consultation by relevant stakeholders, the Kwara State government also established the Kwara State Disability Law in 2017, becoming one of the first few states in the country to duplicate the law.
The state government in establishing the law aims to ensure equity and protection of Persons with Disabilities within the state.
However, years after the establishment of the law, Persons with Disabilities in the state expressed dissatisfaction over the absence of a disability commission, which is meant to look into the affairs of Persons with Disabilities in the state.
They also frowned at the non-compliance with key provisions in the Kwara State Disability Law.
The stakeholders expressed concern that access to health care services for persons with disabilities, especially the deaf, visually impaired and the physically challenged have been compromised due to lack of Disability Support Desks and Sign Language Interpreters on healthcare facilities in the state
In lieu of this challenges, the Voice of Disability Initiative, a non-governmental organization, in a communique issued at the end of the two-day capacity building workshop in Ilorin, called on the state government to establish a disability commission to be domiciled directly under Governor AbdulRàhman AbdulRazaq to oversee the affairs of Persons with disabilities in Kwara.
The group further asked for the establishment of a Disability Supports Desks and Sign Language Interpreters in government healthcare facilities to enable access to healthcare service for persons with disabilities, especially the deaf, blind, persons with Albinism, and physically challenged.