Africa

SOUTH AFRICA: The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has brought forward the payment of social grants for the elderly and persons with disabilities for the month of April in an effort to lower the risk of Covid-19 infection by reducing congestion at retailers and banks. In a statement, Sassa said it had been inundated with… Continue Reading »

NIGERIA: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has tasked member states on specific budgetary provisions to promote education accessibility and inclusiveness of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees, returnees and stateless persons. Mr Emmanuel Okorodudu, Head of Division, Democracy and Good Governance, Department of Political Affairs and Regional Security… Continue Reading »

United Nations arm in charge of global telecommunication development, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has charged member countries on inclusive information and communications technology (ICT) growth. Specifically, ITU said members, including developing countries such as Nigeria, should focus attention on the role of emerging technologies in promoting ICT accessibility. The body, which was founded May… Continue Reading »

ZIMBABWE: Marking the International Day of Persons with Disability, CBM launches a new Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (iDRR) application (www.cbm.org/i-drr) and releases a new version of its Humanitarian Hands-On Tool (HHoT). The CBM Humanitarian Hands-On Tool (HHoT) (www.cbm.org/hhot), providing step-by-step practical guidance on inclusive humanitarian field work, first went live at the end of 2017. Since then,… Continue Reading »

GAMBIA: Permanent Secretary of the ministry of women and children affairs have resounded Gambia government continued commitment in addressing the challenges and concerns in the inclusion of women, youth and persons with disabilities in national development process. Addressing a two-day advocacy seminar for National Assembly Members on inclusion, participation and representation of women, youth and people… Continue Reading »

EGYPT: Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has signed a MoU with Japan’s Assistive Technology Development Organisation (ATDO) to carry out projects to improve the lives of disabled people. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan’s Assistive Technology Development Organisation (ATDO) to work together for the… Continue Reading »

SEYCHELLES: The hearing-impaired community in Seychelles has its own sign language dictionary for the first time. The dictionary was launched last Saturday after 10 years of work in a ceremony held at the Citizenship Engagement Platform (CEPS) in Victoria, the capital. When presenting the dictionary, Annie Risler from the University of Lille, said that “it is… Continue Reading »

SOUTH AFRICA: For visually impaired people educational resources don’t come by easy. Learning to read braille is essential but costly and not always effective (it may take up to three times as long as other students to read a text), while assistive technology, such as closed-circuit TV, screen-magnification or screen-reading software, could help them to read… Continue Reading »

ZIMBABWE: People living with disability in Harare are calling on the government to provide an all-inclusive public transport system that supports their special needs. As a result of a high- cost of living, the government introduced a fleet of buses under the Zimbabwe Passenger Company (Zupco), at a subsidized fare aimed at lessening the burden on… Continue Reading »

EGYPT: The Ministry of Social Solidarity on Sunday has launched an initiative to employ people with disabilities, in cooperation with a private company. The initiative, dubbed “Hayah”, comes as part of national efforts to expand the social protection umbrella for people with special needs, including providing monthly cash assistance or through providing them with job opportunities.… Continue Reading »