Gov't tasked to promote inclusive Policies for people with disabilities

Civil Society Organizations advocating for children’s rights tasked the government to promote inclusive Policies that will be used to address the rights of children living with disabilities.

Speaking at the African Disability Summit on assistive technology, Florence Namaganda the Founder of the  Mukisa Foundation noted that the government should consider and waive taxes on adaptive and rehabilitative devices such as wheelchairs used by persons with disabilities.

She added that the continued limitation to having children with disabilities get access to the said devices in question is bound to affect such communities.

“Government should also support organizations and companies manufacturing these assistive devices so that they make them in plenty and sell them at a lower price, this will enable every differently-abled person most especially children to easily access them”, Namaganda said.

While giving a keynote address at the same event, Dr. Samuel Ssekajja Senior lecturer at Makerere University Business School said that parents and government should similarly invest in the differently abled children the way they do to other children.

He warned that as the community adopts the use of Artificial intelligence such critical gaps in technology must be addressed

“Wheelchair spare parts are taxed, there are taxes on diapers yet there are children who have to use them for the whole of their life which is costly therefore there is an urgent to comprehensive policies on legislation that prioritizes the rights of children with disabilities”, Ssekajja explained.

Currently, it's estimated that in Uganda 5.8% of the Ugandans are estimated to be children with disabilities and this translates to over 2 million children with disabilities.