Officials from the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) have participated in a three-day workshop aimed at improving the quality of service delivery for people with disabilities.
The recently held training workshop – funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – covered the concepts of equality, disability inclusiveness, frameworks, planning and budgeting policy, legislation and frameworks, planning and budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, universal design and access, reasonable accommodation and self-representation at work.
The workshop was held in Pretoria and it hosted government officials from planning, finance and other key strategic areas of government from all nine provinces, representative of national, provincial and local levels.
“This capacity-building workshop formed part of the commitments made by Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, during Disability Rights Awareness Month 2022.
“This activity formed part of the department’s 365-Day Campaign towards disability awareness, and to break negative attitudes towards disability.
“This is in keeping with the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (WPRPD 2015:49) Pillar 1 – Removing Barriers to Access and Participation, which states that the creation of barrier-free environments requires collective and concurrent action by law and policy makers, service providers, regulatory bodies, the private sector as well as organisations of and for persons with disabilities,” the department said on Friday.
The department said accessibility lies at the heart of the right to human dignity, “being able to live as an equal resident in one’s community, being accorded respect for your personal space, having the right to equal opportunities and negotiating one’s life unhindered by manmade barriers”.
The White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2015) focuses on the following six dimensions in order to remove barriers to access and participation: changing attitudes and behaviour; access to the built environment; access to transport; access to information and communication; universal design and access, and reasonable accommodation measures.
The workshop is in line with the theme for last year’s Disability Rights Awareness Month, which was ‘Empowering Persons with Disabilities through resourceful, sustainable and safe environments’.
“Government has a responsibility to ensure that officials are capacitated to be able to better serve persons with disabilities, particularly in areas of planning and budget allocation,” the department said. – SAnews.gov.za
