People with disabilities integration with focus on ICT & Communications: Department of Social Development briefing

Meeting report

Forthcoming meetings

The Chairperson advised Members of the dates and agendas for forthcoming meetings:

Next week, there would be the short-listing of candidates for the SABC board and adoption of budgets.

On 26 May, there would be interviews of candidates for the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) councillors who had been short-listed by the sub-committee earlier that day.

On 2 June, the Committee would be briefed by the Minister of Communications on the state of digital migration.

On 9 June, there would be a briefing by the Minister on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Memorandum of Incorporation and Governance Charter

Department Of Social Development (DSD) briefing

Mr Mzolisi Toni, Deputy Director General, DSD, said that persons with disability faced significant barriers that limited access to key public services such as public health, education and information. With information communication technology (ICT) increasingly integrated into every aspect of the modern world, these technologies had become a positive force of transformation and a crucial element of any personal development/empowerment and institutional framework. ICT could be an enabler of the social inclusion of persons with disabilities in addressing the remaining barriers still limiting their inclusion in national and international development agendas. Available, affordable and accessible ICT significantly improved the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society. Information barriers left people with disabilities without the use of essential educational materials.

Reflections on the Baseline Country Report to the UN

Article 8: Awareness

The Department of Basic Education, in collaboration with the Government Communication and Information Service, had produced and broadcast awareness programmes on national television and subsequently distributed DVDs on the rights of children with disabilities to attend schools in communities in which they lived.

Article 9: Accessibility

While universal access had been mainstreamed across communications legislation, insufficient attention had been paid to minimum norms and standards that would guarantee universal access for people with visual, hearing and intellectual impairments. ICASA 2009 Code on Persons with Disabilities provides and regulates key aspects of access of ICT service providers to comply with its requirements. The Department of Communication was currently finalising a sector strategy for people with disabilities, in consultation with organisations of persons with disabilities, experts, manufacturers of ICT equipment, regulators and standard-generating bodies. A disability portal had been launched in 2009 but the initiative had not progressed as planned and was currently under review.

Article 16: Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse

Information on any form of public assistance, support services or facilities provided by a government department was very difficult for persons with disabilities, or families of children with disabilities, to access.

Article 20: Personal Mobility

Provisioning of assistive devices had been prioritised on rehabilitation budgets, although the waiting periods between the date of application and date of issue remained a challenge. Accurate and updated statistics were not available, but attention was being paid to include the issuing of assistive devices on the district health information system.

Article 21: Freedom of expression and opinion and access of information

Persons with disabilities do not have access to equal access to information intended for the general public in accessible formats because of the barriers discussed in article 6 and 7.

Article 22: Respect for privacy

Persons with various disabilities enjoy the right to privacy of personal, health and rehabilitation information on an equal basis with others.

Article 24: Education

The learner Unit Record Information Tracking System had been introduced in 2008 to track individual learners, but quality data was not always reliable and up to date.

Article 25: Health

Accessibility at health facilities for persons with disabilities remained a challenge because of the physical environment and a lack of information in accessible formats. Disability-based organisations had, over the past ten years, raised awareness about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among persons with disabilities. There was a challenge in accessing preventative information and effective treatment as a result of attitudinal and communication barriers.

Article 30: Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport

The South African National Parks had been progressively working with disability organisations on improving accessibility for tourists with physical and visual disabilities.

Article 7: children with disabilities

South Africa’s children with disabilities remained extremely vulnerable to exclusion, abuse and inequality, particularly in impoverished areas. This was because of failures in the service delivery system, persistent harmful traditional beliefs, lack of access to relevant information, and the failure of the judicial system to protect them, among many other challenges.

Disability mainstreaming

Government and other stakeholders must ensure that persons with disabilities equally participate with others in activities and services intended for the public, such as education, health, employment and social services. Barriers to participation needed to be identified and removed, possibly requiring changes to laws, policies, institutions and environments. Disability mainstreaming required a commitment at all levels and needed to be considered across all sectors and built into the new and existing legislation, standards, strategies and plans. Adopting a universal design and implementing reasonable accommodation were two important strategies.

Disability mainstreaming had been conducted in all nine provinces with approximately 600 delegates, including state departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local municipalities and persons with disabilities. Training had included electronic signage, physical access, transport, communication, adaptive accessible technology, buildings and information through alternative adaptive formats. The DSD had funded the development of promotional materials to promote communication and awareness. The DSD had provided training and provision of adaptive technology and software to people with disabilities to promote inclusion and integration. It had made accessible vehicles available to all provinces through the support of the Japanese government. The DSD endeavoured to create a better life for the poor, the vulnerable and excluded people in society.

 Discussion

Ms S van Schalkwyk (ANC), who was visiting from the Portfolio Committee on Labour,  asked if the DSD had monitoring tools in the public and private sector to monitor the implementation of South African legislation to ensure that the interests of disabled people were advanced.

Ms V van Dyk (DA) asked how DVDs were distributed per province and asked how Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) printed material for disabled people. She wanted to know more about the Sponge Project – a new SMS information service for disabled people. She asked who monitored the Blind SA organisation on how it spends its money. How many disabled people had been delegates and how many Japanese vehicles had been distributed per province?

Mr R Tseli (ANC) said the 2% disability target was not being achieved in government, and asked how the DSD could make departments and parastatals comply with the target. How could departments ring-fence budgets which targeted people living with disabilities? He asked about the progress made in helping people with disabilities to retain their privacy in voting. How much was the grant allocated to Blind SA for a year.

Ms D Tsotetsi (ANC) asked if there were any special learning programmes for children with disabilities, as some parents were sending their children to schools where there were no disability facilities. She asked how much had been spent on the abandoned disability portal. She asked about the race and gender of those at the centres were disabled people were trained.

Mr Toni said he appreciated the interrogative nature of the questions, and some of the questions which needed precise information would be responded to in writing.

The movement of responsibility for people with disabilities from the Department of Women to the DSD had delayed targets -- for example, the draft national Disability Rights Policy. In 1997, the government had developed a disability integrative policy and by 2007, South Africa had obligated itself to the UN Convention on disability rights, and the rights policy set the standards for disabled people. The policy involved a tool for monitoring legislation. He would appreciate a second invitation to the Committee by the end of June, as the report on mainstreaming on disability and civil society would be ready.

Government and the private sector had less one percent of disabled people as employees. The Department was working with Stats SA on the prevalence of disabled people in a district or municipality, which in turn would drive the DVD distribution. It was working with the Department of Science and Technology to revive the disability portal. The funding for it had come from outside, and when the funding had dried up, there had been no ready plans to sustain it. The Minister had been trying to clarify the Department’s mandate with disability as a cross cutting mandate, not just for the DSD. The ten Japanese vehicles had been distributed as one per province, and would be increased to assist the disabled with mobility to reach certain places, especially for wheelchair users.

Mr Tseli asked how the DSD assisted companies that helped disabled people, to get favourable economic opportunities -- for example, getting a tender.

Mr Toni replied that disabled people had formed a Disability Concern Trust, which targeted opportunities for disabled people. It was working with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to prepare disabled people to access funds, but it was difficult because the IDC set expectations that were too high. In the Free State, there was a driving school helping disabled people to drive.

The Chairperson said that in constituencies, mothers with disabled children often failed to get places at schools, and there were also parents who kept their children out of school. The awareness programmes needed to be vibrant, otherwise talking about e-Learning was farfetched for disabled people. The 2% target was a target the government has set for itself and had failed to meet. There was a need for a tracking system to trace disabled people. Some of them employed by the public service left their jobs and reasons were still unknown -- whether it was transport, or they were just bored. At the Busile School for the Blind, it had taken 18 months for them to put out a Braille book which was unacceptable, given that an academic year would have ended.

Mr Toni replied that the Department of Social Development had been vocal about improving the welfare of disabled people. The UN Convention required the government to establish a body to facilitate disability mainstreaming. The Presidency was to establish a working group on disability within the Presidency. The DSD was going to use a rights-based approach to elevate the rights of the disabled. A laboratory had been set up at Busile to speed up access to textbooks. The DSD would share the UN report with the Committee. The awareness campaign was for all South Africans. The Department was currently doing a study on the economics of disability with disability organisations, domestically and internationally, together with the UN, to address the under-budgeting of disability programmes.

The meeting was adjourned.