In addition to the human rights laws in the Constitution of Uganda there are several other rights granted to persons with disabilities (PWDs). These rights are given by law in the Persons With Disabilities Act 2006 (PWDA) which is modeled on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Whether you are a PWD or not, these laws apply to you.
Section 27 of the PWDA says that it is the duty of anyone running a service to provide support or additional services for PWDs. Support or additional services are more than sign language interpreters and braille documents. The list below has examples of support and additional services, also known as auxiliary aids and services (see National Disability Navigator Resource Collaborative: Auxiliary Aids and Services):- qualified interpreters
- note takers
- screen readers
- Computer Aided Real-Time Transcription (CART)
- written materials
- telephone handset amplifiers
- assistive listening devices
- hearing aid compatible telephones
- text telephones
- open or closed captioning
- video interpreting services
- text messaging
- qualified readers
- taped texts
- audio recordings
- Braille materials
- large print materials
- material in electronic formats
If you are a PWD, you are entitled to support or additional services from a service provider if you will benefit from them. If you have a brain injury for instance you may need someone to explain what is going on more slowly or in a simplified language. If you are blind and you cannot read braille you may ask for an audio recording.
This law is written like this in section 27 of the Persons With Disabilities Act 2006:
27. Provision of auxiliary aid or services
It shall be the duty of the provider of a service to provide auxiliary aid or service where it enables or facilitates persons with disabilities to make use of a service.
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