Let’s have compassion on People with Disabilities

By Helena Selby

Physical disability is not the destiny of any human being. It as well not the criteria for measuring one’s prospects in life. If people with disability (PWD) are given the right opportunity by society, to be like any other human in society, then the dreams of PWD will be a reality. Everyday PWDs, apart from going through the pain associated with their physical being have to contend with heavy hearts full of pain, depression, anguish and oppression over the way they are treated by society. Society ought to put in mind that being physically challenged was not the idea of the victims, and that it came by accident. The same can happen to anyone, besides, sometimes no matter how careful one is, accidents are bound to occur. It is true some of these PWDs take advantage of their situation and beg for alms on the streets, but society must try its possible best to be of help to those who have decided not to be a burden, but rather make themselves useful. If society would only have a little bit of compassion, consideration and patience for people in this state, not only will it help the people but the society and the nation as a whole.

The Ghanaian society and people with disability
Ghana, one of the countries which is considered worldwide to have the virtue of hospitality, is not so when it comes to being hospitable to PWDs. One might associate it with the level of superstition that the people have about PWDs. The majority of the population, literates or illiterates, have the notion that physical disability is as a result of being unlucky in life or being cursed, and are scared that the curse might be passed on to them, or might affect their prospects in life. However, Madam Doris Ekuba, a teacher who does not associate physical disability with wizardry or a curse, sees helping PWDs as a sign of mockery. She said she used to have extreme pity for them until she heard in the news about a cripple raping a little girl, or a fellow cripple, sometime stabbing someone with a knife over some trivialities, and doing other unimaginable things.

As if that was not enough, she once witnessed two cripples in a wheelchair fighting in a such bloody way, just because one was owing the other some few coins. According to her, the manner of the fight put fright into the people around, so much that no one ventured to separate them, with the fear that they might be hurt. Looking at the whole scenario, if PWDs are able to kill, steal, and above all rape, then they need no compassion, she added. Nevertheless, in as much as these attitudes are found in a minority of PWDs, it should not prevent society from giving a helping hand to the majority who earnestly need help. Society should note that disability is either a result of an accident, disease, or even old age which could cause loss of sight. Blindness through old age should not give society the opportunity to trample on the right of the victim.

A true story
Nana O. Akowuah is an 87 year old blind man who was a veteran of the second World War. He is a resident of a flat at Number 32 Mukose Street Tesano. According to him, he has been a resident of the house for the past 25 years, however, during the course of his stay, the owner of the house, Mr. B. K. Asare, passed away, willing the house to one Mr. Yaw Addo Asare.

According to Nana, there have been several instances where he pleaded with Mr. Addo Asare, the present landlord, to sell the house to him, but Mr. Asare refused. Not long ago, one Mr. Yaw Tawiah Bio introduced himself as the new owner of the other half of the twin house. As time went on, Mr. Tawiah made a fence wall which took away his manhole and part of the land he is occupying, with the consent of the land lord, without consulting him. However, when he confronted them, they did not take him serious but rather ignored him. When Nana took the case to the police, he was told he had no right whatsoever over the house or land, as the landlord, Mr. Addo Asare, had the absolute right to do whatever pleases him. To Nana, all that he is interested in is for the land lord to grant him the same chance like he did for Mr. Tawiah, so that he could also buy the house, and renovate it. Nana does not understand why the land lord has deprived him of his right to be the rightful owner of the manhole and the land, which the new tenant has forcibly taken away.In a petition to a Police Commander, he made it clear that what
Mr. Yaw Addo Asare and Mr. Tawiah Bio were into was definitely in breach of natural justice, and as a breach of the provision under the rent control act concerning an inducement to eject a tenant, and that this matter was a clear case of conspiracy and abetment of inducement to eject him from the house.

PWDs and the law
PWDs have been discriminated against for too long a time, and it is a good thing that the United Nations (UN), governments and organisational bodies have come to empathize with PWDs to free them from their plight. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 aims to end the discrimination that many disabled people face. This Act has been significantly extended, including the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. It now gives disabled people rights in the areas of employment, education, access to goods, facilities and services, including larger private clubs, and land-based transport services, buying or renting land or property, including making it easier for disabled people to rent property, and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations, functions of public bodies, for example issuing of licenses.

The Act requires public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. It also allows the government to set minimum standards, so that disabled people can use public transport easily. Furthermore, it prevents any form of harassment in employment, education, and in terms of goods and services. In Ghana, this act has been in existence, but its implementation has always been the issue. According to the President of the Ghana Federation of Disabled (GFD), Mr. Samuel Kwesi Asare, three years after the promulgation of this act, its implementation is yet to be effected. He made this known at the celebration of this year’s National Disability Day, with its theme, “Call to action: implementation of the National Disability Act,” which he believes is a reflection of the state of affairs. According to him, what the GFD requires most is the political willingness on the part of the state to ensure the implementation of the National Disability Act. The GFD has the conviction that further delay in the implementation of the act, would serve as an obstacle to the agenda of mainstreaming disability concerns to national development.

Conclusion
There is the need for society to know that PWDs are entitled to the same laws and rights they are entitled to. Equal rights and the rule of law is what society always cry for, why then does society not try to implement the human rights laws the country has now for PWDs. The cry of the PWDs to implement the long time act is not in the hands of the government only, but mostly in the hands of the society. The society should try and give PWDs the same chances given to other people in life, so that they will as well be proud of their existence in life, and also be able to reach their dreams and aspirations. If society is not willing to help PWDs, what would be the essence of the implementation of the act?