Accra — At this year's commemoration of the International Day of the Disabled held in Takoradi, on Tuesday, December 3, a view shared by all speakers at a public forum organized by the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, was that people with disability constitute a viable human resource potential and that, it is a grievous failure on the part of governments for not creating an environment, enabling enough to harness this human capital reserve.

The concession is indeed a serious indictment, which coupled with the delay in adopting and implementing the National Disability Policy appears to constitute justifiable grounds for the intended boycott of the 2004 elections by people with disability groups in the country.

The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Sophia Horner-Sam has however advised against the intended boycott, as that will disenfranchise them and weaken their advocacy position. Speaking at the forum jointly sponsored by ISODEC and the Action on Disability and Development(ADD), she expressed regret that all too often policies are crafted with little or no thought to their impact on people with disability. Touching specifically on the theme for this year's celebration: "Accessibility and persons with disabilities - challenges", Ms. Horner-Sam lamented how access to official buildings and the built environment is designed with only the physically fit in mind. She conceded that this year's theme is indeed a wake-up call to government to take-up the accessibility issue as a challenge, within the broad framework of a national policy on people with disability.

Explaining the importance of the theme for this year's celebration of what a decade ago the U.N., at its special plenary session (October 1992) declared as a day marking the end of a decade (1983 - 92) during which all nations were required to work assiduously at integrating and enhancing the life chances of people with disabilities, the president of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Charles Appiagyei, pointed out that accessibility is a fundamental human right, that is capable of facilitating the integration, participation and socio-economic development of persons with disabilities, and that it must be seen as a social justice, equity and human right issue. He listed lack of access to the built environment, communication, information, recreation, employment, education, housing, transportation etc. as some of the many accessibility barriers they encounter on daily basis. He said, "buildings, right from the Castle (the seat of government), through parliament, ministries, departments and agencies of government, the courts, banks, markets to the hut of the ordinary man in the hamlet are inaccessible to people with moving difficulties, particularly wheelchair users". Noting that negative societal attitudes do not create the barrier-free environment to accommodate the diversity of needs of all, he asked when a brailed newspaper would be published in this country and an inset of sign language interpreter employed in our news broadcast. He rhetorically also asked whether the government's policy of mass transportation for the people takes on board those with disability too.

Delivering the keynote address, the Deputy Minister for Manpower Development and Employment, Jabaah John Bennam, observed that the day calls for soul searching and evaluation of actions on previous expressions of commitment and pledges. He said, "the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment is highly dissatisfied with the continuous neglect by our colleagues in the other sectors who constantly create architectural barriers and impediments for persons with disabilities".

Acknowledging the lead role required of his ministry in addressing the issues thrown up by this year's theme he called on planners, architects and those who design our built environment to critically consider the existence of disabilities as they design and plan the built environment. He identified information and mass communication as another area of accessibility denial, particularly for the hearing and the visually impaired. He saw as painful and sad, the situation were programmes that could benefit the hearing impaired, through the use of sub-titles in our news and other important national information dissemination work are simply ignored.

The deputy minister disclosed that work on the National Disability Policy document is far advanced. The document, he said, is awaiting the legislative instrument that will give it the necessary backing, following which it will be placed before cabinet.

Meanwhile he said, the ministry has registered about 350 disabled beggars, who are soon to undergo training and rehabilitation.

Conceding the enormity of the challenge to create an enabling environment for people with disabilities, he called on NGO's and Ghana's development partners to work together with government for the desired results. Enough action must go into demonstrating government's commitment not only to dissuade people with disability groups from boycotting the next elections, but perhaps more importantly in order not to reduce the International Day of the Disabled to an annual ritual of empty political pronouncements.