Deaf Women Included (DWI) has called on government to consider them when making new policies as they suffer the double jeopardy of being marginalised for being both women and disabled.
Addressing journalists on 13 December, WDI member Samantha Sibanda said people with disabilities were marginalised as they lacked access to information because documents by government and women organisations were not presented in a format they could read.
“People with disabilities are the most marginalised group in the society as they lack access to information. The documents by the government and women organisations are not written in a form that specifically cater for the needs of the disabled, there is, therefore, a need for the government to make documents in braile and to have sign language to cater for the inabilities,” she said.
Disability rights activist, Abraham Mateta said the Constitution acknowledges that disabilities issues are human rights and national development issues, but the law needs to be modified to fit the human rights approach to disability.
“Women with disabilities face double marginalisation. The Constitution states that the disability issues are human rights and national development issues, but this is being eroded by gender-based violence and its failure to get adequate attention when it happens to a women with disabilities, hence there is need for the law to be amended to fit within the human right approach to disability,” he said.
Hope Resurrect Trust founder, Florence Mudzingwa, also urged the government to relook the transport sector in favour of the disabled as they are being abused in trying to access transport.
“Women with disabilities are often taken advantage of by men, especially those using wheelchairs when they need to be carried onto the bus and they have to endure the. Usually, we have to pay for three sits for every trip in a kombi as one has to pay for their assistant, the wheelchair and yourself which is way too expensive for an ordinary and disabled person, the government should address the transport sector to meet the disabled’s requirements,” she said.
WDI calls for the government to include the disabled in their police making as the note with concern the absence of any funding towards the disabled in the 2020 budget.
