By Regis Che in Buea
For the first time, Persons with Disabilities, PWDs in Africa will soon have a standard policy to regulate digital accessibility in the continent.
For two days, over 200 delegates from across the world converged on Nairobi, Kenya to begin laying the framework for the realisation of a standard policy.
Persons with disabilities in Africa have not had access to assistive technology which could enable them improve on their socio-economic and political status; a barrier which the Inclusive African Conference, IAC seeks to eradicate.
InABLE, a non profit making organization, based in Nairobi and Washington DC, is gradually filling this lacuna.
The said organization invited the over 200 delegates from across the world, including 20 disability youth leaders from Africa who took part in the Inclusive African Conference on Digital Accessibility in Nairobi, May 25 and 26, 2022.
After representing Cameroon in the just ended convention, the Founder and Chief Executive Director of the Foundation for the Inclusion and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Kesah Princely has now presented what would serve as a road map of digital accessibility in Cameroon.
The Journalist com Disability Rights Advocate, upon his arrival in Cameroon from the Nairobi conference, spoke to TWIF NEWS.
The disability leader; himself a person with visual impairment said it was about time heads of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, OPD in Cameroon united to militate for the inclusion of his peers both offline and online.
He intimated that inclusive education, ICT, Transport and livelihood skills are being prioritized by his organization to make the world accessible for all.
“The Nairobi experience needs to be extended to Cameroon as soon as now,” the young disability leader intimated, adding that Cameroon too can be like Kenya if OPD leaders work collectively to change the narrative.
While in Nairobi, Kesah Princely participated in a panel discussion on the future of assistive technology to persons with disabilities in Africa.
There, he unequivocally disclosed that the current generation of young Africans with Disabilities now have the opportunity to become engineers or whatever dream they want to pursue.
Barriers to inclusion are gradually being eradicated, Kesah iterate.
“Ignorance is what has been precluding African governments from making the right investments to include persons with disabilities, but with much awareness, persons with disabilities can completely change the status quo,” Kesah stated.
He stressed that thanks to the Nairobi IAC, his foundation is brazing up to start a robust physical and digital campaign for persons with disabilities in Cameroon in particular and Africa as a whole.
For physical and digital accessibility to be realized in Cameroon, the Disability Rights Advocate entreated Non-Government Organizations, business establishments, individuals, and the government to support initiatives geared towards fast tracking inclusive practices.
