Public encouraged to seek awareness of disabilities

“With knowledge comes understanding and with understanding comes the power to change lives,” says Andrea C. Reed, a post-doctoral therapist. Knowledge and understanding can result in a change in perspective and behaviour towards matters like disabilities, where people can be seen as equals and embraced for their differences.

South Africa commemorates National Disability Rights Awareness Month annually between 3 November and 3 December. This year’s international theme is “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all.”

A disability can be defined as a physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment that a person can be born with, or which may develop during the course of life. These could include vision impairment, deafness, cerebral palsy, amputation, dwarfism, multiple sclerosis and many more.

According to SA News, this month is an opportunity to remove any barrier and improve the standard of living for people with disabilities through action.

Maki Mtayi, the manager of Tshwaraganang Disability Centre, says one of the first steps to creating awareness is to educate the public. That is why she believes the awareness month is crucial as it focuses on disability education. According to her, many parents and the broader community still need to learn the various types of disabilities and how to treat persons with disabilities.

Before she started as a cook at the centre in 2009, she didn’t know much about disabilities. However, the more she worked with the children, the more knowledge she gained. Throughout her journey at the centre, she took courses to learn more about how to treat and teach persons with disabilities. Her compassion towards the children continued to develop, and now she has a personal relationship with them.

Although the impairments of people with disabilities may hinder their full and effective participation in society, Mtayi says they should be loved and treated with the same respect as anyone else because we are all human beings.

She says each person has a gift and God-given purpose, which are unique to every individual. There- fore, everyone should be appreciated, respected and embraced, despite their impairments. From her experience, she has come to learn that all children and adults with disabilities need love and to be treated as equals.

She advises people to take the initiative and learn more about various conditions. She says doing research, attending workshops and learning to accept persons with disabilities are some of the things people should engage in. With the knowledge people will gain, they will see that people with disabilities do the same things as everyone else but use different methods. Like Robert M. Hensel said, “I don’t have a disability, I have a different ability”.