Jabulile S. Ngwenya
African News Agency
PRETORIA: “It is time. We need to look at the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and look at how this policy can be implemented,” said Artscape acting CEO Marlene le Roux at the start of the National Disability Rights Summit on Thursday.
As delegates filed into the conference room at St George’s Hotel in Pretoria, Le Roux, who is part of the Presidential Working Group (PWG) looking at disability issues said it was time for the country to take disability seriously.
She said, as a PWG member, it was about “how we look at simple implemental action”.
The time for change is now, Le Roux said.
University of Stellenbosch Business School Academic Affairs Director Dr Diane Bell agreed with Le Roux.
Also a PWG member, Bell, who has a profoundly hearing impaired daughter, said she has been working in the disability arena for the past 23 years.
Bell said she was attending the summit and, most importantly, wanted to participate in a “dialogue session with the President around the most urgent disability needs in the country”.
She mentioned four urgent needs that needed to be addressed.
“Firstly, the white paper on the rights of persons with disabilities need to be converted into action as an act and a legal instrument,” she said.
“Secondly, the office for persons with disability must move back to the Presidential Office from the department of social development because disability needs to be addressed at the highest level.”
Le Roux took a moment to emphasise this point and the urgency for the office to be relocated back to the country’s highest office.
“The Presidential Office is more prominent and more ministries and departments will take disability seriously.”
Bell said the third issue concerned “education for all, including persons with disabilities at all levels, even people with multiple disabilities”.
The fourth need is “access to information and communication for all”.
Bell illustrated this need, pointing out that there are still no subtitles and closed captioning on television, and there are no augumentive devices for people who have for instance, Down’s Syndrome and cerebral palsy.
Le Roux said the outcome she most desires to see is that “there is an incentive to companies to employ persons with disabilities”.