Living with disabilities means several things to different people. Faustina Urassa, Programme Officer at the Kilimanjaro Association of Spinal Cord Injury (KASI), Tanzania, sees it as an opportunity to help others who have lost their ability to walk.
Urassa trains people who have suffered from spinal cord injury how to use wheelchairs. Using a wheelchair herself, she says, “if you have the appropriate wheelchair that meets your needs and suits you, you’ll forget about your disability.”
For young South African, Gift Moloke, living with disabilities means a difficult schooling process. Moloke, who has down syndrome, was rejected by several schools his mother applied to.
According to the United Nations (UN), 80 million people live with disabilities in Africa. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) puts the number of people living with disabilities at 300 million.
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While the numbers might be inaccurate, the story of Urassa and young Moloke are not the only ones on the continent. While it is already difficult to live with these disabilities, society makes it even more difficult.
The UN also affirms that most Africans living with disabilities are excluded from school and work opportunities.
In 1992, the UN proclaimed December 3 as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in a bid to “promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights, and well-being of persons living with disabilities.”
From people living with learning disabilities to stuttering and being deaf, we have explored what living is like for people with disabilities and the role of technology in making life easier.
Notably, Techpoint Africa has, at different times, covered tech tools that can ease life and work for people living with specific forms of disabilities like stuttering, deafness, Dyslexia, and Dyscalculia, among other learning disabilities.
In celebration of the International Day of the Disabled, we are looking at four tech innovations that could help people living with disabilities globally.
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