Persons with disability (PWD’s) in the Bongo district of the Upper East region have threatened legal actions against public institutions that are breaching section 6 of the Disability Act.
[contextly_sidebar id=”yA2AULF0xgT6T1yAgb9YdKleNpXs6pQ4″]They say some public institutions are not accessible to persons with disability.
The threat was issued at an accessibility forum organized by PWD’s in Bongo on Friday with support from DANIDA Ghana.
Speaking at the forum, the Chairman of Ghana Federation of the Disabled for Bongo Mr. Akalga Samuel said majority of public buildings in Bongo such as the district assembly, the NHIS office, Ghana education service, the district hospital among others that render services for the public are not accessible to persons with disability.
He appealed to the tender board of Bongo district to make provision for ramps in their building projects and ensure that is built to standard to enable easy access.
The Bongo Secretary of Ghana federation of the Disabled, Rev. James Amurugo said the time has come for persons with disability in Bongo to test the Disability Act 2006(Act 715) in court with the help of Legal Aid Ghana and we will this year ” drag public institutions like the Bongo assembly, Ghana education service, Ghana health service , NHIS among others to court for breaching the law”.
The Disability Act 2006(Act 715) section 6, requires owners or occupiers of public structures to provide appropriate facilities to make them easily accessible by persons with disability.
According to Mr. Amurugo, after inspecting all public and private structures including schools, health centers, government structures among others within the district, about 90% of them including new structures are not accessible to persons with disability.
“Contractors put up something to represent a ramp and no one insist on standards unconvincing our movement “.
Mr. Amurugo said PWD’s have on several occasions appealed to authorities and government to provide sign language interpreters’ to all health centers to aid the hearing impaired because some have died because of wrong drugs prescriptions due to the language barrier.
“We will take the lead to sue some public institutions in court for a proper interpretation of section 6 and 7 of the Disability Act 2006(Act 715) because it is long over that person with disability have be taken for granted”. Mr. Amurugo stressed.
The violation of the provision constitutes an offence under section 8 and the offender is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 50 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both.
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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana