General overview of disability

2. WHAT IS DISABILITY
 US-a PLWD is someone with a health or disability problem
which limits work as a result of:
 Hearing Disability (all ages): Is this person deaf or does
he/she have serious difficulty hearing?
 Visual Disability (all ages): Is this person blind or does
he/she have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing
glasses?
 Cognitive Disability (ages 5 or older): Because of a
physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person
have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or
making decisions?

3.  Ambulatory Disability (ages 5 or older): Does
this person have serious difficulty walking or
climbing stairs?
 Self-care Disability (ages 5 or older): Does this
person have difficulty dressing or bathing?
 Independent Living Disability (ages 15 or older):
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional
condition, does this person have difficulty doing
errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or
shopping?

4.  Disability involves the classification of people on the
basis of observed or inferred characteristics
 Historically, “disability” has been used either as a
synonym for “inability” or as a reference to legally
imposed limitations on rights and powers

5. DISABILITY DEFINED
 The International Convention on the Rights of People
with Disabilities adopts a social model and defines
disability as .....
 those who have long term physical, mental,
intellectual or sensory impairments which in
interaction with various barriers may hinder their
full and effective participation in society on an
equal basis with others.

6.  The Disabled Persons Act Chapter 17:01 defines a
disabled person as;
 A person with a physical, mental or sensory
disability, including a visual, hearing or speech
functional disability, which gives rise to physical,
cultural or social barriers inhibiting him from
participating at an equal level with other
members of the society in activities, undertakings
or fields of employment that are open to other
members of society.

7. 3 ASPECTS IN THE FIELD OF
DISABILITY
 There is reduced performance of activities when one is
impaired. One can not perform what is expected by
the society.
 The so called normal person start to stigmatize the
people with disabilities.
 There is no cut off point between a person with a
disability and a person without a disability. It is a
continuum.

8. CLASSIFICATION OF DISABILITY

9. Physical and motor problems
 loss of movement in the lower part of the body. eg
paraplegia
 Wheelchair bound

10. Sensory problems
 Loss of functioning of the ears, eyes,
e.g deafness, blindness

11. Psychiatric illness
 Problems that affect the proper functioning of the
mind e. g schizophrenia
 Intellectual impairments e.g Down’s syndrome

12. Multiple disability
 a combination of disabilities
 Often with mental and physical disabilities
combination, e.g. grandmal epilepsy.

13. CHARACTERISTICS OF DISABILITY
Life threatening (progressive)
 Eg, epilepsy, quadriplegia (loss of all the sensory parts
of the body except for the head.)
 Some life threatening disability can be temporary or
permanent.
Non life threatening disabilities
 E.g loss of limbs, visual impairment
 These are subject to an individual

14.  Can be categorized as follows:
 Traumatic e.g due to accidents, injuries
 Congenital e.g related to birth defects
 Genetical –though the prevalence is low
 Unknown causes

15. INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL LEGISLATION

16. ILO and Disability
 One out of every seven people in the world—or some 1
billion people—are living with a disability.
 Between 785 and 975 million of them are estimated to
be of working age , but most do not work.
 While many are successfully employed and fully
integrated into society, as a group, persons with
disabilities often face discrimination at the workplace.

17. ILO’s Perspective
 According to ILO (2013) a person with a disability
means an individual whose prospects of securing,
retaining (remain in the position) and advancing
in suitable employment are substantially reduced as a
result of a duly recognised physical or mental
impairment.

18.  Decent work is the ILO's primary goal for everyone,
including persons with disabilities.
 http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

19. ILO strategies
 promoting labour standards
o equal treatment
o equal opportunity
o mainstreaming into vocational rehabilitation and
employment services programmes and
o community involvement
 advocacy,
 knowledge-building on the training and employment
of people with disabilities

20. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
ORGANISATION STATUTES
 R111 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)
Recommendation, 1958 (No. 111)
 Recommendation concerning Discrimination in
Respect of Employment and Occupation
 Adoption: Geneva, 42nd ILC session (25 Jun 1958) -
Status: Up-to-date instrument.

21.  The ILO/UN came up with Standard Rules on the
Equalization of Opportunities for persons with
disabilities.
 Rules not legally binding for any nation but only act as
a practical benchmark of non discriminatory society.
 The fact that these ILO/UN standard rules on the
equalization of opportunities are not legally binding is
a serious loophole that puts the lives of people with
disabilities at risk of corrupt and uncaring
governments particularly in Africa

22. Main principles
Awareness-raising
 States should take action to raise awareness in society about people with disabilities, their
rights, their needs, their potential and their contribution.
Medical care
 States should ensure the provision of effective medical care to people with disabilities.
Rehabilitation
 States should ensure the provision of rehabilitation services to people with disabilities in
order for them to reach and sustain their optimum level of independence and
functioning.
Support services as preconditions for equal participation
 States should ensure the development and supply of support services, including assistive
devices and technologies, to assist people with disabilities to increase their level of
independence in their daily living and to exercise their rights.
Personnel training
 States are responsible for ensuring the adequate training of personnel, at all levels,
involved in the planning and provision of programmes and services concerning people
with disabilities.

23. ZIMBABWE AND DISABILITY

24. Zimbabwe Legislation and policies
 Zimbabwe ratified the Convention on the rights of
people with Disabilities (CRPD) and is one of the first
countries to ratify in Southern Africa.
 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
Article 23 (1) affirms that everyone has the right to
work, have free choice in employment and to be
protected from unemployment.

25. ACTS
 Employment Act (1980), the minimum wages
regulations Act (1981), and the Labour Relations Act No
16 (1985). The Disabled Persons Act (1992), which
deals exclusively with disability matters.

26. legislation
 Other acts and policies that address issues pertaining
to people with disabilities include the Electoral Act
which gave birth to two Senators with disabilities,
Social Welfare Assistance Act, Child Protection Act,
Public Health Act, Education Act and the new
Constitution of Zimbabwe recognises disability Rights
but does not compel the Zimbabwe government to
provide services.

27.  Disabled Persons Act (DPA) has mostly enabled
people with disabilities to access education
 The DPA has no provision for positive discrimination
or affirmative action for disabled persons with regards
to employment.

28.  The Disabled Persons Act, originally adopted in 1992,
was revised in 1996 states clearly that no employer
shall discriminate against any person with a disability
in relation to; the advertisement of employment, or
the recruitment for employment

29. Implementation
 The Act’s provision for setting up the Disability Board
is commendable; however the board is seen as
partisan and not independent
 The Act does not provide a clear cut criteria and
strategy of how it will cater for people with disabilities
 Worse still, the Act does not provide strategies for
ensuring conformity and compliance by stakeholders.
 The Act as a whole does not provide for the promotion
of employment of people with disabilities

30. Implementation
 Disability issues in Zimbabwe continue to be a
preserve of the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare and the Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare – a clear indication that Zimbabwe still
subscribes to the charity and medical approach to
disability issues
 Has yet to embrace the human rights-based approach
to disability.

31. Implementation
 As a result the government approach continues to be a
mixture of the charity and medical approach and
persons with disability continue to face the following
pillars of disability discrimination.
 Major types of discrimination experienced by people
with disabilities in Zimbabwe as;
 Attitudinal Discrimination- donor, employers
 Environmental Discrimination- the physical
structures not sensitive to the needs of people with
disabilities

32. Implementation
Overall there are considerable obstacles to
employment by people with disabilities in Zimbabwe.
Environmental barriers the majority of public
buildings
Negative attitudes and the turbulent socio-political
landscape in Zimbabwe removed disability from the
national agenda.
The national development agenda has shifted many
resources to other areas such the HIV and AIDS and
land reform arena and now climate change.

33. Implementation
 Despite the existence of the legislation on people with
disabilities (Disabled Persons Act 1992), specifically
designed to protect and promote the status and well
being of persons with disabilities, more than twenty
years after the legislation was promulgated nothing
has changed in the lives of people with disabilities.
 Therefore, more needs to be done to translate it into
concrete action especially with regard to people with
disabilities equal access to employment.

34. Role of Government -Mainstreaming
disability
A process of reviewing several pieces of legislation
pertaining to disability was initiated, including the
Disability Act and the Mental Health Act to align them
with the CRPD but taking very long
It rarely gets a meaningful budget to implement its
mandate
In spite of limited resources the Ministry has introduced
a disability loan fund to support income generating
projects by people with disabilities.

35. Mainstreaming
 The Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic
empowerment empresses’ disability in both its youth
and indigenisation programmes and
 Representatives of people with disabilities sit in the
Youth Council and the National Indigenization and
Economic Fund (NIEF) Board. Youth with disability
access youth funds
 Disability is allocated 10% (on average) of the
community share ownership funds.
 These two programmes are relatively new and it might
be too early to talk of their impact

36. While legislation exists on paper the recent economic
crisis has rendered the legislation nearly useless.
The government of Zimbabwe is fully aware of the dire
situation of unemployment among people with
disabilities but there are not enough resources.

37.  PWDs can use their numerical advantage- to influence
national events – influence political parties;
 To gain disability mileage e.g 20 councilors in
Zimbabwe, 12 PWDs in Boards & Commissions;
Nomination to parliament- 2 people; 2 senators

38. Recommendation
 The Minister must appoint a director of Disability Board
according to the DPA;
 The government must use the Gender Budget instrument
to enhance social inclusion of PWDs;
 Revise the current Disabled Persons Act (1996)
 The domestication of the CRP which started a few year
back should be speeded up
 Provide meaningful resources to disability employment
 Funders should also give priority to disability employment