Disability Rights 20: Discriminatory advertising

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 31 of the PWDA says it is illegal to place an advertisement that contradicts this Act.

What is discriminatory advertising? The following examples from employment interviews illustrate the point very clearly.

In this first example from a 2014 Ugandan paper Challenges in the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of PWDs, information is omitted from an advertisement:

Government jobs adverts attest to the reluctance to employ PWDs and reflect disability insensitivity, because they lack statements such as ‘Qualified PWDS are encouraged to apply’ and instead promote sentiments such as ‘Previous work experience and ability to drive,’ so to say –qualities most PWDS do not have.

In this next case education services are not allowed to discriminate against PWDs by law. This experience is from a 2016 paper My story, my rights: how individual stories of people with disabilities can contribute to knowledge development for UNCRPD monitoring:

‘Negative attitudes of others’ was once again considered the most significant barrier to work and employment by persons with disabilities in Uganda, in the stories that related to this theme. Storytellers said that they are often perceived as ‘incapable of doing a job’, as the following story quotes reveal:

- One day I went to search for a job… It was about teaching. When I got there, people told me that they could not give me a job because of my disability...

Finally, this job was advertised as open to PWDs, but the interviewee faced discrimination during his interview. This comes from a 2012 newspaper article Patrick Obure: Physically impaired, but an able painter:

“I was once shortlisted and when I came for the interview, the way the head of the panel asked me questions suggested the job wasn’t for people of disabilities. I was asked to leave. I was harassed. Yet in the advert they had indicated they had equal opportunities.”

If you are a person with a disability you should understand that failure to state that a job is open to PWDs in an advert is discriminatory because information is missed out. Missing out information is just as discriminatory as advertising a job as open to PWDs and discriminating in the interview. Both are against the law.

Discriminatory advertising shouldn't prevent anyone from getting a job.

This law is written like this in section 31 of the Persons With Disabilities Act 2006:

31. Advertisements implying discrimination

(1) No person shall, publish, display, circulate cause or permit to be published, circulated or displayed, an advertisement or notice that indicates, or could reasonably be understood to indicate, an intention to do an act that is unlawful under the provisions of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1),"advertisement "includes all forms of publicity-

(a) in newspapers, television or radio;

(b) by display of notices, signs, labels, show cards or goods;

(c) by circulation of samples, catalogues pricelists, leaflets, handbills or any other form of circular;

(d) by exhibition of pictures, models, photographs, films or any other form of exhibition.