Living with disability in the digital age

Unique PWD needs

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which is also the first international human rights treaty requires that ICT tools and systems should be accessible. This is a necessary condition for PWDs to fully enjoy their fundamental rights without discrimination.

Member states are required to ensure that the private sector service providers, including through the internet, provide information and services in accessible and usable formats for persons with disabilities.

Uganda ratified the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in September 2008 and has gone on to make laws and policies aimed at increasing digital accessibility.

Uganda also passed the Persons with Disabilities Act in 2006, which defines disability as ‘a substantial functional limitation of daily life activities caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment and environmental barriers resulting in limited participation.”

Section 21 of the Persons with Disability Act, for instance, mandates the government to develop and use sign language, tactile, and sign language interpreters in all public institutions and at public functions; and to braille public information such as government documents and government newspapers.

However, many challenges remain when it comes to accessing and using ICTs by persons with disability. As a result, millions of persons with disability remain poor.

Jonathan Tusubira, a researcher on digital rights for persons with disability in Uganda says the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which sets standards and advocates for ICTs for communities that are underserved defines accessibility as “what the user requires to gain functional access to ICTs.”

“When it comes to coping with ICTs, we are all struggling but the people struggling more are people with disability,” says Oscar Wakholi, also a researcher on digital rights for PWDs.

Wakholi said a person with normal vision can be in position to have a computer but not know how to operate it. But for a person with visual impairment, it is double jeopardy because not only does that person not know how to use that machine but he or she also cannot effectively understand and use all the relevant software on the computer.

Dr. Wairagala Wakabi, the executive director of CIPESA agrees. He says PWDs have unique needs which mean that merely making ICT available does not mean that they are able to use that ICT.

“In an increasingly digitized world, technologies are critical to how we learn, how we work and how we interact with other individuals,” he says, “That means that communities that do not have easy access to ICTs will suffer handicaps in how they associate and how they earn their livelihoods.”

A November 2019 brief by CIPESA noted that the East African region has experienced considerable growth in the use of information and communications technologies (ICT). For instance, as of December 2018, Uganda had a mobile telephone penetration rate of 63% and 37% of internet subscribers.

But the report also highlighted the challenges that PWDs encounter in accessing information as well as in using ICTs; including the internet.

It showed that despite this growth and internet penetration, PWDs are often among the least likely to access ICT services because either the ICT equipment lack the necessary accessibility features or because assistive software remains unaffordable.

CIPESA has noted that the lack of comprehensive disaggregated data on PWDs, including the specific challenges that they face in accessing information and using ICT has negatively impacted on the design and implementation of interventions that would improve their access.

In turn, technologies that could assist them are out of reach for large numbers of PWDs. Accordingly, concerted efforts are needed by the government ministries, communication regulators, telecom operators and other ICT companies, among others to meaningfully improve usage of ICT for this community.

Going forward, Wakabi says the government should come up with a deliberate mechanism to collect data periodically that breaks down the types of disabilities and their respective challenges when it comes to accessing ICTs.

Vincent Bagiire, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance said the government is taking many services online but most of them are not easily accessible for people living with disability in the country.

“I must confess they are not disability sensitive,” Bagiire said, “They are for you and I, who can see visibly, who can use their hands and those who can hear.”

“We have a lot of work to do to ensure that the services that we take online indeed do accommodate people with disabilities.”

Bagiire said the ICT ministry is already talking to the finance ministry to remove taxes on assistive technology devices that PWDs find useful in their daily lives.

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