Banks are sacking disabled employees because the entrance is too narrow while the society believes people with disability don’t need reproductive health.
“Imagine waking up to realize you are now ‘physically impaired’. It costs me nothing less than N4000 to move about therefore if a program is not important, I don’t bother.”
Those were the words of one of the participants at the Capacity Development in Sexual Reproductive Health and Right of Women/Girls with Disabilities in Nigeria organized by Dr Toyin Aderemi with the support of Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (IFP) Alumni Award.
Miss A. O, a former staff of a major Nigerian commercial bank sustained spinal cord injury about six years ago when she was involved in a ghastly road accident shared her experience.
“It was a tragic live event and it took me four years to recover,” she said.
“I first lost my job at the bank as most of the bank’s environment are not ‘disabled enabled’. Starting from the doors, wheel chair cannot enter the entrance of the bank where I was a former employee, not to mention ramp to avoid stairs, everything was just wrong and we don’t think of making our facilities accessible to everyone including the ‘disables’ while planning most of our activities.”
According to news report, President Muhammadu Buhari claimed that he was yet to receive the Nigerian Disabilities Bill passed by the National Assembly on 18th December 2018, after more than 30 days that the bill was transmitted to the President.
It is well documented that an individual with a disability will be able to exercise his or her basic rights when the barriers created by the society are removed. These barriers include access to public areas such as public buildings, banks, hospitals and restaurants.
These can be done by installing elevators, automatic doors, wide doors and corridors, transit lifts, wheelchair ramps, curb cuts, and the elimination of unnecessary steps where ramps and elevators are not available, allowing people in wheelchairs and with other mobility disabilities to use public sidewalks and public transit more easily and safely.
Reproductive health care
Reproductive health care is not accessible to people living with disabilities, ‘everyone’ tends to think you are or should be asexual and without feeling.
Dr Aderemi
According to her, the society expects people living with disabilities should have no sexual desires, no love life, no spouse therefore no children. If they happen to see them with sexual partner, they wonder if that’s what is next in their lives, she continued.
“Making healthcare accessible to people living with disability is achievable and will reduce unacceptable health disparities,” she said.
In her remains, Dr Victoria Adepoju, Executive Director of African Development and Empowerment foundation and the Oyo state coordinator of International Youth Alliance for Family Planning (IYAFP), people living with disabilities should be included in all advocacy programs, giving them the opportunity to learn about their sexuality is the least we can do to protect them from all form of sexual abuse and gender violence. This will also help to reduce suicide rate in the society.
The National Population Commission of Nigeria (NPC) has estimated that no fewer than 19 million Nigerians are living with disabilities, these group get turned back at the health facilities because of communication barrier and other factors, thereby removing health, just like other rights from their list of basic human right.
“If you cannot hire an interpreter by yourself, you should not bother going,” said one of the participants.
I’ve been at a conference where the co-facilitator could not enter the conference hall because the door was not wide enough for her wheelchair said another participant, an HIV/AIDS expert.
Deaf students can do well in school if given the opportunity, according to another participant.
“In my class, the hearing teachers refuse to train the deaf students because of the assumption that they cannot learn, even when other teachers are giving them extra attention, they discourage them openly, I had to relocate to another school to be able to compete intellectually,” she said using sign language.
Other participants at the event included representatives of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Oyo State Chapter; National Association of the Blind, Oyo State Wing; Nigerian National Association of the Deaf, Oyo State, and individual women with disabilities, AIDS Preventive initiative of Nigeria.
A much needed law
Despite the fact that the Nigerian Disability Bill is yet to be assented to by President Buhari, some states have taken the initiative to have Disability laws. The states include Lagos, Jigawa, and Ekiti.
When the National Disability Bill get signed into law, most barriers are expected to be removed. Furthermore, education, healthcare, employment opportunity and other necessary support will be accessible to people living with disability.
“The plight of people with impairments is a lot, they don’t need us to sympathize with them but to provide basic amenities that will avail them the opportunity to function independently in the society.”