Yesterday I was at a network meeting where the topic of discussion was around children and disability. As the various presenters spoke and questions were asked, I was transported back to my first year at University where we were told that people with disabilities were only disabled because of their environments. The fact is that the environment or the community are the disabling factors and not the person's functional difficulties.
As the meeting progressed I was shocked to hear what little in roads had been made in a city in terms of removing these barriers as opposed to those that have been made over the past 7 years in the Umzinyathi District in Kwazulu-Natal. After being told that the Department of Education did not see a need for special schools in Umzinyathi District, there is now a registered special school in Msinga and an informal special school in Umvoti who are in the process of registering. In some areas people have successfully advocated for taxi owners to stop charging double fare for people in wheelchairs and therapists and parents alike have been able to quote Educations White Paper 6 back at the schools to enable children to access mainstream schooling, despite their difficulties.
So the question I pose to myself and others is this....Have we become complacent in advocating for the rights of these children and families or are we persevering through some difficult processes to ensure that more and more children in South Africa have access to the opportunities that every child deserves?
No comments:
Post a Comment