People With Disabilities Lag Behind in Accessing Information

By Paidashe Mandivengerei


People with disabilities in Zimbabwe continue to face challenges in accessing information from entities despite the gazzeting of the Freedom of Information Act in July last year.


The bill which has been hailed by various quarters of society repealed and replaced the long-criticised Access to Information Privacy Protection Act (AIPPA).


The Freedom of Information Act states that anyone can request information from public, commercial and private entities which has to be availed to them in 48 hours.


However for people with disabilities like the visually impaired and deaf this information is packaged in forms they do not understand with very little effort from authorities to rectify this.


Speaking to Bustop TV, Disability Amalgamation Community Trust (DACT) director, Henry Chivhanga said in very few instances have they found information packaged in braille or accompanied by a sign language interpreter.


“Information is rarely packaged in Braille and Sign language.


“Go to any public institution, hospitals, courts, Registrar’s office, police, schools, Immigration and many others, you will never find instructions or information is such formats let alone people who can sign.”


Chivhanga added that due to this challenge people with disabilities have been excluded from developmental issues.


“This has affected PwDs in that they are left out in developmental issues, and information on social, economic and political rights.


“The constitution of Zimbabwe and various Acts of Parliament are not in formats accessible to the visually impaired and those that sign,” he said.