by Loveth Obiora
Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on Thursday 3rd June 2021 in Abuja organized a stakeholders’ consultation on strengthening the implementation of the Disability Act for Accessibility of Services for persons with disabilities under her DATA 360 project supported by FORD FOUNDATION.
The Executive Director, DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick Ogbogu in her opening remarks while welcoming the participants, said that the meeting is to initiate actions for the implementation of the disability act by strengthening the capacity of relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“The recently signed Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) act 2018, came as a breath of fresh air for persons with disabilities, and shortly after that, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities was established, which is aimed at increasing the wellbeing of PWDs for protection and promotion of their rights. But there is still a lot of challenges with the implementation of the Act. Therefore, the meeting will look at the Disability Act and discuss how to strengthen its implementation”, she explained.
Though the implementation has started but the work cannot be left for National Commission for Persons with Disabilities to be implemented alone, there are lots of responsibilities from the Ministries, Departments, Agencies at all level of Government, specifically in the access to physical environment, such as public building, access to transportation, access to wide range of services health, education etc.
Speaking further, Dr. Irene stated that the meeting is for participants to build consensus and provide a framework / guide to MDAs, CSOs, etc on how to strengthen the implementation of the Act and sensitize those who do not know their roles and responsibilities on implementation of the Act.
Lawrence Idemudia, on behalf of the Executive Secretary, NCPWD, Mr. James Lalu, in his goodwill message appreciated participants, and urged the different ministries present to articulate the participation of persons with disabilities in different sectors especially in achieving accessible and inclusive environment in different MDAs.
DRAC program officer at gave an Overview of the DATA 360 Project, highlighting its aim and objectives. Similarly, the Lead Consultant gave a review of Accessibility Audits of services conducted by various organisations – DRAC, CCD, NAB-FCT and also gave a brief of availability of disability friendly policies. He used this session to highlight the level of access to public infrastructure and services to persons with disabilities which the findings showed it was very low.
Chris Kaka also in his presentation gave an overview of the Disability Act looking at its structure and area of concern in terms of access to physical structure, road transportation, seaports, railways and airports facilities, health, and education for PWDs
 Experience sharing by PWDs was one of the highpoints of the meetings as they highlighted the different types of discrimination and marginalisation they have experienced in accessing services. These experience also provided opportunities for the MDAs to understand what the issues are. Participants were then put into groups to build consensus on the rationale and principles of the framework and develop its goals and objectives which will further be developed by a technical working group.
As part of next steps, a technical working group was formed comprising of lead agencies that have key role to play in implementation of the selected sessions of the Disability Act.
The meeting came to a close with a closing remark from DRAC Executive Director urging participants to take forward learnings from this meeting to ensure they improve their services for PWDs.
