Ugandan Law: Persons With Disabilities Act and Education

There are specific laws in Uganda that protect the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs). These laws are derived from conventions like for instance the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This blog post will discuss the Persons With Disabilities Act 2006 (PWDA), and look at what it means to education in Uganda.

Paul Emong in his 2014 thesis, The Realisation of Human Rights for Disabled People in Higher Education in Uganda: A Critical Analysis Drawing on the UNConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, offers an interesting discussion on the PWDA. It is useful to understand how PWDs are provided for in Ugandan law:

The PWDA largely draws together the meanings of those provisions on disability in other Acts with a view of bringing the Uganda disability legislation from the status of only requiring preferential treatment for disabled people through affirmative action to a status of conferring an equality of opportunity approach.

In education, this is indicated by an obligation on the State to promote educational development of disabled people and duties conferred on bodies such as higher education institutions to eliminate barriers to accessibility. This appears to be capable of increasing meaningful inclusion of disabled people at higher education.

The Act‘s objectives provide a broad scope of protection and are indicating that the Act‘s provisions can attain the goal of equality of opportunity for disabled people if those provisions are effectively implemented. The first three objectives concern fundamental aspects of human rights and how they can be achieved. The next three objectives state aspirations for the prevention of discrimination against disabled people. On fundamental aspects of human rights, the PWDA provides for the promotion of disabled people‘s dignity and equal opportunities as well as their participation in all aspects of life as equal citizens of Uganda. The PWDA aims to encourage the people, community and all sectors of government to recognise, respect and accept difference and disability as part of humanity and human diversity. The PWDA aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination of persons with disabilities on grounds of their disabilities by encouraging the government and community to promote and include disability issues in all economic, political and social development policies and programmes and by promoting a positive attitude and an image of persons with disabilities as capable and contributing members of society, sharing the same rights and freedoms as other members of society.
To realise those objectives in education, Part II of the PWDA guarantees disabled people a right to quality education. To fulfil that, it confers an obligation on government to promote educational development of persons with disabilities and prohibits discrimination against disabled people by educational services. This includes private educational service providers as the PWDA provides protection against violation of rights of disabled people by both government and private sectors. Part IV of the PWDA imposes duties on bodies including institutions of higher education to eliminate barriers to accessibility. Part V prohibits discrimination in the provisions of goods, services and facilities of which higher education is a provider. 

There are many problems defining disability. The definition in the PWDA relies heavily on the medical model (see Education and Disability: An Alternative Report to the UNCRPD). The medical model sees disability as something that belongs to the individual with the disability. It is not an issue for anyone other than the person affected. For instance, a wheelchair using student cannot get into a building because of steps, the medical model suggests it is because the wheelchair, not the steps that are the problem. In contrast, the social model sees the steps as a disabling barrier (see The social and medical model of disability). Paul Emong has some interesting comments about the Uganda legal definition of disability:

The aim of meaning of disability in a disability discrimination law like the PWDA is of determining the scope of those who deserve to be protected against discrimination based on their disability. In that respect, such meaning should not impose a challenge to those claiming discrimination against because of their disability to prove that they have a disability.

The PWDA defines disability as 'a substantial functional limitation of daily life activities caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment and environment barriers resulting in limited participation.' And a person with disability as 'a person having physical, intellectual, sensory or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of that person'.

Judging the Act‘s meaning of disability based on its main attributes, notably, 'substantial functional limitation,' 'daily living activities' and 'limited participation,' it can be stated that, its meaning can be restrictive and knotty for a claimant to prove a disability. Restrictive in the sense that it has the potential of locking out those facing discrimination arising from their impairments when the impairments are not considered substantially limiting. Couple to this challenge is the fact that the PWDA does not provide definition of what substantial or daily living means. The Act simply seeks the medical doctor to determine what that entails based on the disability coding provided for in schedule 1 of the Act. In this coding, disability is perceived to be largely medical rather than a social issue and is classified according to its cause: amputation,  general diseases, diseases of the respiratory system, skin diseases, ear and eye defects, common injuries,  mental disorders,  organic nervous diseases, tuberculosis and others.

While it can be argued that the codes provide a comprehensive and exhaustive list of impairments with wide scope to capture any impairment associated with injuries, illness and congenital conditions, one has to prove that they are substantial, long term and affect daily living activities to qualify to be protected by the Act. Also, because of it largely leaning on medical perspective of disability, in litigation, it can draw attention more to the particularities of claimants' bodily functions rather than onto the behaviour of defendants on discrimination claim. As such, it may not send out a clear message that '[n]on-discrimination is a guarantee of equality' and 'not a special service reserved for a select few'. Even the Disability Policy 2006, is not helpful in remedying the restrictive challenge of meaning of disability in the Act, as also the Policy does not define these terms. The Policy simply states that its focus is on people who have: difficulty in hearing; difficulty in speaking and conveying a message; difficulty in moving around using body parts; difficulty in seeing; strange behaviour; epilepsy; difficulty in learning; leprosy; loss of feeling; multiple disabilities.

It can therefore be stated that, the meaning of disability as stated in the Act can render the overall intent of the Act ineffective to those facing disability discrimination and yet they cannot prove having a disability within the context of meaning of the Act as discussed on direct discrimination in the blog post, Human Rights: Education and Discrimination in Uganda.

In Uganda, the meaning of disability has not yet been subjected to judicial interpretation due to the limited litigation related to disability in the country. This adds to the critical challenges facing the meaning of disability in Ugandan law. This means, controversies surrounding the meaning of disability, with a potential of presenting the opportunities for improving the PWDA‘s meaning of disability is not yet explored.

The PWDA protects the rights of PWDs in many areas, it prohibits discrimination against PWDs in education, employment and provision of goods services and facilities. It does not provide a comprehensive definition of discrimination. Emong offers the following summary of the situation:

The PWDA 2006 through its provisions on discrimination of disabled people in educational services, making the educational environment accessible and promotion of educational development of disabled brings Uganda disability legal framework broadly into line with the CRPD on education. However, the challenge is that the language used in the Act makes it challenging to enforce. 

The PWDA requires the government to promote educational development, the government is required to:

i. Encourage inclusive education. It also provides for the establishment of special schools and units, with curricula designed for different disability conditions. However, the Act itself does not provide guidance on what is possible or not possible in inclusive education practice. This appears to be left to the discretion of the relevant educational authority.

ii. Ensure relevant personnel in inclusive education by training of special teachers and in service training for current teachers in mainstream schools. Also to enforce recruitment and retention of special education teachers in all schools and institutions.

iii. Formulate and design educational policies and programmes that devote attention to the special needs and the requirements of persons with disabilities in educational facilities, paying particular attention to girls and those in the rural areas.

iv. Provide structural and other adaptations in all educational institutions appropriate for the needs of persons with disabilities and promote specialised institutions that facilitate research and development of their educational needs.

v. Commit not less than 10% of all educational expenditure to the educational needs of persons with disabilities. This is a great provision as it safeguards the budgets for disabled people. However, it is not clear whether this provision applies to the government or to institutions themselves... 

vi. Provide during examinations assistive devices suitable for students with special needs including giving extra time. This provision mandates the institutions to comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions in the CRPD and will strengthen the meaning of discrimination as discussed in section of meaning of discrimination above. 

The PWDA provides a duty to bodies, including institutions of higher education to eliminate all forms of barriers arising from physical features:

• Access to buildings - all areas open to the public should be accessible to anyone.
• Access to information - for instance providing braille copies of documents for the blind.
• Inaccessible features should be removed - alternative means of access should be given to areas not accessible.
• Provide auxiliary aid or services - like a sign language interpreter or braille materials (see PWDA 2006).

Emong concludes his discussion:

It can be stated that the PWDA's provisions on accessibility indicate that Uganda law on accessibility is wide enough to bring about disabled people‘s access to premises, buildings, information, and removal of inaccessible physical features as well as requiring the provision of auxiliary aids or services and support services. Despite such robustness of the accessibility requirements, in Uganda there is a wide gap between what the accessibility law requires and the reality in complying with the accessibility requirements. This is attributed to the constraints relating to costs, attitudes and ignorance of economic benefits. It is noted that small-scale investors and local governments often do not meet accessibility requirements due to their narrow income base. It is further observed that the law enforcers perceive that ensuring compliance with accessibility requirements would discourage such small-scale investors.  Coupled with that, it is noted there is also a perception among some business communities that disabled people are few, so it is not economically beneficial to the business to increase production costs by providing adjustments. There is also a widespread lack of knowledge and skills on how to meet the access needs of disabled people...

Give a S#!T! for Accessible Toilets!

This 2014 article When information is hard to get highlights many of the problems identified by Paul Emong above in areas other than education. Access affects people in many ways, each disability has its own unique requirements. With sensitivity to the issues of PWDs it would be possible to provide access. In this regard the PWDA 2006 is an essential tool:

When he was only six months old, Alexander Barugahare accidently touched a reed plant, (orubingo) which harmed his eyes. The 25-year-old says he was taken to Kasese Hospital for an optical surgery operation after the incident but it was too late for doctors to save his sight. In 2001, Barugahare says he was operated on for the second time in Mbarara and managed to recover little visual ability though it is not enough for him to see like others with normal eyesight.

Currently a first year student at Kyambogo University, in the Faculty of Special Needs and Rehabilitation, Barugahare is one among many persons with disabilities (PWDs) struggling to access information and public transport in the country.

“I only access government programmes through radio but to access television content, I have to listen attentively because I cannot watch the pictures,” he says.

He adds that voice command software used in computers cost about Shs1m, which is expensive for many PWDs.

“The major challenge is accessing written information from my colleagues and also them accessing mine basing on that fact that I use braille to communicate,” says Barugahare as he holds the braille machine, which his hand can locate with ease in his room at the North Hall.

A study conducted by Africa Media Barometer (AMB) in 2012 in Uganda, indicated that PWDs have been neglected in terms of access to Information Communication Technology (ICT). This is, however, contrary to the fundamental human rights as provided for in the fourth chapter of the Constitution of Uganda.

Article 29 of the Constitution provides for freedom of expression and press for all citizens. It also says, under Article 41 that every citizen has a right to access information in the State’s possession. The National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) executive director, Ambrose Murangira, also says it is a challenge for PWDs to access information.

“Most government programmes are communicated through radio channels. 90 per cent of the blind and deaf did not go to school which makes it hard for them to access communication in the newspapers,” says Murangira. As the government builds telecentres around the country through The National Information Technology Authority (NITA), people like Barugahare want it to allocate spaces for the disabled and also cut on the cost for the voice command software together with other accessories for PWDs.

Uganda happens to be a state party to the United Nations Convention on persons with disabilities. Uganda also adopted the treaty in 2008 and doubles as a member of the implementing committee of the Convention of persons with disabilities. With the AMB report citing little consideration that has been given to the needs of blind and deaf people in both the policy and the application of ICTs, UNAD is calling upon the government to implement the UN treaty on the rights of PWDs after it was signed to be implemented as a domestic law.

“I think that as PWDs, we get less than 10 per cent of the information from government about its programmes. For instance, it’s only Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) out of the television stations which has a sign-language interpreter for news but not all progammes,” says Murangira, adding that NBS Television also has one programme for the Week news reviews that happens only once at the weekend. NTV Uganda also has an interpreter only for the news review on Sunday (Seven Days) as well. However, a sign-language interpreter should be viewed on all the programmes as required by broadcast guidelines issued by the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC).

Doreen Ndeezi, the TV manager at UBC, says they have a sign language interpreter to enable the hearing-impaired access all the news programmes and other national events for example, the State-of-the-Nation Address and Budget reading day coverage. However, she says, recorded television programmes are a challenge in terms of human resource and time, saying that the station has few sign language interpreters.

For Barugahare, he would like the newspapers to appreciate that the blind cannot access print copies and should consider having stories put in braille in some sections of the news.

Hellen Atuhaire, 22, who has total visual impairment, says her wish is to fully participate in government programmes but some such as the electoral process, do not engage PWDs very well. Atuhaire says through the Electoral Commission, the government should develop ballot papers that allow the blind to vote candidates of their choice.

“Sometimes our guides use the opportunity to tick candidates who meet their own interests, not for us the blind,” says Atuhaire, a student of Guidance and Counselling at Kyambogo University.

Although the cost of hiring a guide to the visually impaired persons is high, Kyambogo University hires a guide for every blind student admitted to the institution. Leonard Ssewaje, a guide to Barugahare, says the university pays him Shs10,000 per day to help him go about his day-to-day activities. 

According to Murangira, the association of the deaf together with other activist groups have been trying to push for the amendment of the Person with Disabilities Act 2006 in vain. 

Uganda enacted the Persons with Disabilities Act in 2006, in fulfillment of the constitutional imperative under Article 35 (2) which states: “Parliament shall enact laws appropriate for the protection of persons with disabilities.”

“Unfortunately, in many instances this Act was drafted in vague and imprecise language, which failed to clearly articulate the agencies or persons bound to fulfill a number of the guarantees therein,” reads a memorandum of understanding signed between the Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Development, and a rights group, Disability Rights Coalition.

At the end of the day, PWDs have as much right to access public services. Such initiatives as that which Kyambogo University has, should be the norm and not done only by a few institutions.

The difficulty with using public transport

In a wheel chair acting as his office chair, Gabriel Nixon Okeny, the Warden of North Hall at Kyambogo University, says the wheel chair is always seen by public transport operators in Kampala as a hindrance and an inconvenience.

“My colleague was told to pay both his transport fare and for the wheelchair,” says Okeny, adding that the friend wheeled himself up to town after being asked to pay double.

The Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) executive director Ambrose Murangira explains that it is a big challenge for a deaf or blind person to identify a bus plying their route with the current transport system.

“For example when you board a bus how can a deaf or dumb person tell the bus driver to stop when they want to alight to their final destination?” asked Murangira. “You normally hear passengers telling the driver maasaowo (loosely translated to mean, ‘I shall be getting out there) but how can a PWD as him to stop?” asks Murangira.

He adds that it’s only the defunct Pioneer buses that were numbered to enable the deaf identify the buses for their routes. “It’s in Switzerland to be specific Zurich where buses are well numbered and can easily favour the PWDs.”

Alexander Barugahare, who has a vision impairment, says that taxi drivers sometimes charge him a lot of money once he is moving alone in Kampala.

“I prefer using boda boada because they help me reach my final destination and also help act as my guides at times,” says Barugahare. When alone, Barugahare uses the white chain as his path finder. The walking chain is a foldable walking tool for people who are visually impaired. It costs about Shs70,000.

Okeny says that town navigation on a wheel chair is not easy for PWDs due to lack of supportive infrastructure and the government should come up with laws that compel those in the public transport system to help the disabled.

However, according to the National Road Safety Council under the Ministry of Works and Transport, there is lack of an existent policy towards enabling access for PWDs.

Nathan Tumushabe, the secretary National Road Safety Council, says one of the problems is that the current vehicles like taxis were designed as goods carriers but are now being used as passenger transport, making it hard to accommodate a PWD.

Tumushabe also says that the possibility of incorporating facilities that can enable PWDs have easy access is limited due to the manufacturing design which does not provide space for the wheel chair in instances of crippled persons. To make matters worse, “Matatus normally encroach on the pedestrian walk-ways due to limited road space and same applies to high raised road-side pavements which make it difficult for wheel chairs to roll onto the road,” he says.

The blame, Tumushabe insists, should be taken collectively by every citizen due to limited awareness on needs of the PWDs. He also faults the physical planning authorities that continue to design roads with limited space for the various groups of people.

According to the proposed amendments to the law, Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) should ensure that all goods and products manufactured or imported into the country are to an extent reasonably possible of a universal design, and are designed in such a manner that they can reasonably and easily be modified for the use by persons with disabilities.

“Provisions shall not exclude the manufacture or importation of assistive devices and technologies specifically designed for use by persons with disabilities,” it adds.

But there is hope, with the proposed road Transport Safety Policy and the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. Under the policy and the BRT systems, operators will be required to import vehicles that are designed to cater for the needs of PWDs.

“The now defunct pioneer busses had a provision for PWDs, the same should be adopted for the new public transport system, implying that for any Passenger Service Van (PSV) to be licensed, it must meet all requirements,” says Tumushabe.

John Ndyomugyenyi, the national chairman, Uganda Transport Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA), says that there are some efforts to ensure that the PWDs access the taxis. “Although the current mode of transport does not favour the disabled, the newly constructed taxi park has provisions for PWDs and also, our touts are advised to give them first priority seats behind the driver’s seat,” says Ndyomugyenyi.

According Ndyomugyenyi, the priority seat enables the PWDs to enter and exit the vehicle with ease. He adds that with modern transport systems in modern economies, the transport modes provide special slots for PWDs in terms of space and while boarding and disembarking from the vehicle.

However, when we visited the New Taxi Park, there were no signs of special treatment extended to PWDs in terms of accessing the facility and or even assistance being rendered to them while boarding the vehicles. Brian, as he chose to be identified, is blind and he came walking with his white chain following the voice of a taxi tout shouting “Nansana stage” in the New Taxi Park. Brian had to find his way into the vehicle without any assistance.

“We make it on our own to the park because no one seems to have time for us,” Brain said softly, when asked about how his experience in the taxi park.

Unlike road transport which operates under no policy favouring PWDs, air transport is doing better with regulation by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Sandra Munduru, an air transport officer at the Works ministry, says: “According to Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPs), annex nine talks about facilitation and handling of people with disabilities. In practice, at the airport, we use ambu-lifts. Ambu-lifts are used by ground handling agents to help PWDs disembark from the aircraft into the wheelchairs.

Okeny testifies to this: “I was helped onto the aircraft at Entebbe airport when I was travelling to Romania,” Okeny observed adding that airports have systems that favour PWDs.

Because Uganda has pledged to ensure the rights of PWDs are met, it is upon the government to enforce the laws so that people like Barugahare and Okeny can easily do what everyone else does.

PWDs have a right to access public services

On June 6, 2014, Disability Rights Coalition presented its proposed amendments regarding the Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 to the Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Development.

Part three of the Memorandum of Understanding, between the rights group suggests many amendments, including : right to education, right to healthcare, access to public services and facilities, affirmative action in favour of persons with disabilities, prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and participation in public life, among others.

The Act defines accessibility as the possibility of a person with a disability to reach a place and manoeuvre within it, use a service, receive information issued by a public place or service, and to participate in the activities provided by a public place or service, on an equal basis with others, with dignity, independence, and safety.

Section 38(1) of the Act states: “Persons with disabilities have a right to access public services, facilities, and public building and not to be discriminated against in exercising this right.”

It adds, under (2): “The facilities referred to in sub-section (1) above include but are not limited to all places of public resort, including health care facilities, public offices, places of worship, recreational and sports facilities, judicial and law enforcement facilities, including police stations and courts of law, public transport facilities, schools and institutions of learning, public roads and pedestrian pathways and walkways.”

In summary, the PWDA draws together all the strands of laws relating to PWDs in one overarching framework. The PWDA obliges the state to uphold and protect the rights of PWDs. Perhaps the greatest weakness of the PWDA is its definition of disability that still relies on the medical model. A further weakness of the PWDA is its definition of discrimination. However, the PWDA follows the spirit of the CRPD. Uganda is providing a good legal framework for the implementation of the CRPD.