End discrimination against people with disabilities

On Wednesday, the Egypt Academy awarded job opportunities to three persons with disabilities who graduated from its vocational institute in Juba that day. Thirty-six of them graduated from various fields such as tailoring, computer, and electronics. 

In a 2009 study published in the “Journal of Applied Rehabilitative Counseling,” researchers found that managers and recruiters held a negative bias toward people with disabilities, believing them to be less productive, socially immature, and lacking in relationship skills. And, because of discrimination, people with disabilities have fewer employment opportunities and earn less on average than people without disabilities.

Today, despite their qualification and skills, most of these people have ended up on the streets begging to earn a living to support their families. So, thanks to the Egypt Academy for employing the three graduates that no institution has ever made an offer to and are yet to consider fresh graduates. In most cases, the graduates often walk home with a huge task ahead to look for jobs and some spend over five years on streets without a job. Therefore, when it comes to the unemployment rate, people with disabilities are most affected besides other discriminations they face. Unlike countries, in South Sudan, people with disabilities face several challenges some of which affect abled persons.

Transportation and inaccessibility to public facilities such as offices seem to be the daily challenges facing people with impaired mobility, aural and visual impairment. The most affected are those with visual impairment and the lame. These people often find it difficult when accessing public facilities such as classrooms, government institutions, and transportation. The facilities we have in the country such as the buildings and transport system are too discriminative against the visually impaired and lame people. Most buildings in the country including government offices, schools, and hotels are constructed without considering the existence of the people living with disabilities in our society. This has brought a tug of war for them to access the facilities. 

Both public and private offices were supposed to be installed with mobility features to make it easy for people with mobility impairment to access the facilities. For instance, in most countries such as Japan and the United States, the authorities have set a series of accessible design requirements for the construction of hotels and other facilities including schools and sports facilities. But in South Sudan, it takes a person with mobility-impaired hours to access the office of a minister or a director-general because they are unable to scale the stairs of the building. Some of the offices are located on the fourth floor of the building and do not have to support mobility features.  

Apart from other rights for people with disabilities, we should ensure that these people are embraced amidst us in society by making life easy for them. There is a need to advocate for an equal society where every human being has equal access to the supporting facilities that are necessary for their lives like sports facilities, transport systems, or schools.