Policies must favour Persons with Disability - Dr Edusei

By Kwamina Tandoh
Accra, April 30, GNA - Members of the metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) have been trained to mainstream disability issues in their development planning to ensure that Persons with Disability (PWDs) are incorporated in local governance.

Speaking at a workshop for the MMDAs, Dr Anthony Kwaku Edusei, a Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said Ghana must demonstrate the deep commitment to the promotions of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of PWDs as well as the Disability Act, 715, 2006.

He said the Government must initiate institutional reforms at the national level which must be translated at the MMDAs level with the mainstreaming of disability issues into the assembly's planning.

Ghana ratified the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD) in 2012.

With this Ghana, among other things, is obliged to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all PWDs and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

The workshop was attended by civil society organisations, academia, development partners, National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPA) and the media.

Dr Edusei, who is also the Head of the School of Medical Sciences, Community Health at KNUST, recommended that the assemblies should include disability advocates in the planning of all MMDAs to achieve a better course.

He said regular reference to the standards and guidelines in the construction of MMDA structures must be favourable to PWDs.

Mr Kwamena Dadzie-Dennis, the NCPD Acting Executive Secretary, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said institutional buildings must be made accessible to PWDs.

He said programmes and documents for public consumption must also be in the same line just as Ghana Television did when presenting news with an insert of a sign language interpreter.

He pleaded with the stakeholders to ensure that sign language interpreters were recruited for hospitals to help doctors attend to PWDs.

GNA