By Steven Enatu
SOROTI
Media practitioners and society at large has been urged to use friendly language while communicating to persons with disability.
The call was raised by Sarah Aguti, the program Assistant National Union of Women with Disability in Uganda (NUWODU) during a two day training of journalists across Teso on Disability Inclusion.
She said many times people call persons with disabilities names that offend them like lame, crippled while referring to persons with physical disabilities and blind instead of using friendly words like visually impaired, and hard of hearing or a person with hearing impairment.
Juliet Agonyo, the Speaker Soroti city council, said the training opened her mind as a leader on how negatively the society treats the persons with disabilities from denying them their right to access to public places because of the nature of most of the traditional buildings without provision of ramps.
She said that NUWODU should continue empowering the Persons With Disabilities on their rights especially those who represent them at leadership level.
“I felt it in my sight that for sure these people we have left them behind, when you look at the buildings in public places, most of them are inaccessible for them,” she said.
Vivian Isaet, the NUWODU program assistant Amuria who also doubles as the councilor representing Persons With Disability in Soroti City Council said most often persons with forms of disability like hearing impairment or hard of hearing are excluded for example in workshops or trainings in the sense that they are invited but in budget allocation, their interpreters are not considered.
“Some people can organize a workshop in a place with a storied building and no lift or ramp. One time I was invited for a workshop at some hotel within Soroti town here but upon reaching there, the deputy speaker of Soroti District by then who is now the councilor and a speaker of Soroti district because of his physical disability couldn’t go,” she noted.
