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KAMPALA - Beginning today (Wednesday October 19, 2022), New Vision will publish stories highlighting the plight of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and compliance of public facilities with laws governing this disadvantaged group in Uganda. 

In the first of a daily series that will run through to October 30, 2022, Carol Kasujja delves into the hostile environment for this category of people in Kampala city and the practical options to make public spaces friendly to PWDs.

A walk in Kyebando on the Northern Bypass reveals a neglected area where poverty reigns. Some residents have no piped water and buy it from vendors at sh200 per 20-litre jerrycan. 

The inner roads have never been graded and some people have to jump over dirty water channels to access their homes. 

This is where most Kampala beggars with disability reside. It is 8:00am during the rush hour when most people are going to work, and the people with disability are also preparing themselves to get ready to go to the city to look for something to eat. 

It has been raining for the past few days so the area looks flooded. A few metres from the water channel, a physically handicapped man in his late 50s wants to get a taxi. We decide to move with him to see how he gets to his destination. 

The first taxi we stop is full so we get another one. It stops and the conductor helps James (not real name) in by carrying him. At exactly 8:45am, we arrive at Watoto Church on Bombo Road and the conductor carries him out.

“I come to Kampala everyday, unless it rains, because then I cannot crawl in the mud,” James explains. 

He confesses that using the city roads is a nightmare. He is not alone. Millions of persons with disabilities (PWDs) find it tedious to traverse Uganda’s roads. 

This has not only limited their mobility, but has also denied them opportunities to work in distant places. 

Victor Locoro, the head of the disability department at Kyambogo University, notes that lack of scientific information, coupled with negative attitude, has contributed to difficulty in the movement of people with disability.

“Every road and bridge should have a passage for people with disability, but most do not. Those that do are normally slippery during the rainy season and are a danger to people using crutches,” Locoro says. 

He observes that often, taxi drivers and bodaboda riders are reckless on the road. One wonders what they are always chasing. 

They do not care who is on the road, even when they see you with the white cane, a symbol that one has poor vision, they do not stop. 

He calls upon the Government to continue sensitising the public about showing respect to people with disability on the road. 

In the city, there are barriers on the side walks, a state that makes movement for PWDs difficult.

“I usually ask a bodaboda rider to take me to town because then, I am sure he will drop me at the bank where I beg from,” Opio who is a beggar on Kampala streets, says.

Opio says they do not have designated walkways. 

“You can easily be hit by a bodaboda or a vehicle. Most bodaboda riders do not recognise PWDs as road users. Our friends who have hearing impairment and depend on their eyes, find it hard to cross some roads because there are no signs,” Opio says. 

He adds that PWDs are viewed as a burden to society, thus creating a barrier in the efforts to attain social equality. 

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“I always tell young people with disability to learn to live with their disability. A woman with disability asked for help to cross a road in Wandegeya and most people ignored her. Some thought she was pretending so she could rob them. It took a while for a Good Samaritan who finally helped her cross the road, to come by,” Opio narrates. 

Jackie Namisango, a third-year student of agriculture at Makerere University, who is visually impaired, says moving around in bad weather is her biggest challenge. 

She says: “When it rains, I end up stepping in dirty water. But when I am at the university, I usually get students to help, although sometimes it is a bother to them. It breaks my heart that there are still many people who believe that people living with physical impairment can’t make it in life or can’t make anything good of themselves.”

Her social life, too, has been affected greatly, with limitations in movement. After graduation, she hopes to set up an organisation that fights for the rights of people with disability.

“There is no discrimination at Makerere, but in the community, children with disability often don’t get proper care because the people they live with are not equipped with the necessary information to assist them. 

The Government should set up a company that makes wheelchairs and white canes, so that inclusive development will be achieved. People will also be able to move around,” she notes.

Best practices While the rights of PWDs are acknowledged, some of the guidelines provided to realise them do not meet the standards expected by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and, as a result, PWDs have suffered disproportionately. 

Article 9 of the convention provides that helping PWDs move at ease will help them live independently. 

Article 9(1) states: “To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas.”

“The measures, which shall include the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility, shall apply to, inter alia; buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces.” 

Article 20 echoes the issue of personal mobility to ensure independence of PWDs. Article 20(a) says the measures shall include “Facilitating the personal mobility of persons with disabilities in the manner and at the time of their choice, and at an affordable cost”. 

This means that a country must ensure roads have zebra crossings and clear signs, as well as walking lanes for those who use wheelchairs.

However, in Uganda, even the few available lanes have manholes.

KCCA Law According to the Kampala Capital City Authority’s Building control (accessibility for persons with disabilities, 2019), a building is supposed to be designed and fitted in such a way that a person with disabilities is able to use it safely, comfortably and conveniently both in terms of the mechanism used for its operation and the force required to operate it. 

“A door handle fitted to a door leaf within an accessible route shall be of the lever type, with a lever at least 150mm long and shall be installed at a height that does not exceed one thousand millimetres above floor level,” it states. 

The World Health Organisation estimates that one in every six people, mainly in developing countries, lives in isolation and despair, because of disability, and the environment around them is not accessible. Uganda is not any different from these. 

Ministries say  

To accelerate movement of people with disability, the gender ministry plans to start a campaign to sensitise the public about the new act they have just reviewed. 

Frank Mugabi, the ministry’s communications officer, acknowledges that many engineers across the country do not adequately advise building owners to have lifts or ramps to make life easy for PWDs. 

He called upon the Uganda Police to constantly remind their traffic officers to always look out for PWDs. 

According to the KCCA Building Control Accessibility standard for PWDs 2019, building owners are required to provide safe and accessible urinals and bathrooms for people with disability, especially those using wheelchairs.

“A person with disability shall not be required to travel a distance of more than 45 metres on the same floor, or 25 metres where horizontal and vertical distances are combined, in order to reach a toilet accessible to him or her, regardless of the number of toilets available to them. A door into an accessible toilet shall have a clear opening of at least 900mm.”

According to the Act, all buildings should have safe and well-dimensioned staircases, ramps, adequate rails and well-dimensioned elevators, which serve all floors normally reached by the public, among others. Accordingly, bathrooms should be wide enough with non-slippery floor tiles. 

Speaking to New Vision, Simon Kasyate, the head of public and corporate affairs at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), noted that all buildings with more than three floors must have a lift. 

He said KCCA would not issue a building permit to any prospective builder without showing proof of the provision of the above. 

“The building control (Accessibility standards for PWDs) code 2019 is clear. Any building that is not a one family unit must have access for PWDs, which include a ramp and rails, marked parking spaces for PWDs, as well as a conspicuously marked and fully dedicated toilet facility for them. All public buildings must have friendly access,” Kasyate said.

Five months imprisonment 

Emily Ajiambo, the Assistant Commissioner for Disability and Elderly Affairs at the gender ministry, noted that the transport ministry should put strict guidelines for people on the road, so that they observe respect for PWDs. 

She quotes the Traffic Act 2020, which directs a person who commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding 25 currency points or a term of imprisonment not exceeding five months, or both.

Implementation challenges 

“We have good regulations and laws, but the implementation is poor. The environment is hard to access. Some structures are built by people who do not know how to design the exact walkways that can ease movement for people using wheelchairs and crutches,” a source says. 

Rose Achayo Obol, the chairperson of the National Union of women with disabilities in Uganda, says they have trouble using the wheelchairs they receive as donations from abroad. 

“Most of the wheelchairs we get from abroad are not compatible with our roads. When it rains, it becomes hard to push them through the muddy roads and, since the tyres of the wheels are not made for such roads, they get spoilt easily. 

When the tyres get spoilt, it is hard to replace them because we do not have a company here that adjusts or repairs them. On the other hand, factories that manufacture wheelchairs in Uganda make them in such a way that you cannot fold them when you are going to use a taxi.

This means you will always need someone to push you around,” Obol explains. He adds that the white canes used by people with physical disability and visual impairment to detect obstacles are expensive because they are imported. 

They also do not have reflectors to warn drivers at night of a PWD nearby.

“What we have here that is considered as the white cane is a stick. This makes mobility a challenge. Since the wheelchairs are costly, most people cannot afford them, they have to crawl to get around. This exposes them to infections, especially from public toilets. We are also making a call for clean public bathrooms,” Obol states. 

Not many buildings in Uganda have a reservation for PWDs. There are not enough schools that accommodate them. 

They demand that the Government and society pay more attention to their plight with investments in infrastructure that eases their mobility.

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This article was produced with support from WAN-IFRA Women in News, Social Impact Reporting Initiative grant. However, the views are those of the writers and not of WAN-IFRA Women in News.