I think one of the biggest issues around disability as an experience is acceptance. I am myself a person with a disability and honestly, I have observed that oftentimes people with disabilities are confronted with prejudices about their condition.
I have myself experienced the same.
The main challenges faced by persons with disabilities that were most documented include
-
A lack of access
for both men and women and or children with disabilities to potable water and
hygiene products. This, in turn, can be closely examined using two specific
cases. That is, slightly affluent people may be in better positions to
afford those facilities; whilst others are falling behind no matter how much
they try to save. These disparities somehow continue to nurture unhealthy and
precarious conditions for these groups of people. To cater to this, it might
be advisable to increase the availability of potable water, free of cost, and a
subsidy on hygiene products. At the same time, strict measures could be put
forward against pollution such that irresponsible acts of throwing garbage everywhere
and anywhere are discouraged.
- Restart or renew a series of activities to reduce the stressful impact Covid-19 had had on individuals and their families. Studies have shown and explained that despite the telemedicine strategy brought to provide healthcare services, many PWDs and their families could not benefit from it or access those facilities. Moreover, these platforms where customer complaints were recorded, were believed to lag behind on accessibility features for persons who were deaf or blind for instance. This is where assistive technologies gained a pivotal ground and showed an important role in the inclusion process. Many more people have been able to benefit from a platform to voice out their personal experiences, and most people have been bullied at least once in their lives.
- Most telemedicine platforms do not have custom
features to ease healthcare communications for persons who are deaf or blind or
for persons with cognitive disabilities. Furthermore, there is a dearth of
patient education materials for persons with language and literacy challenges.
Providers who are utilizing telemedicine may not understand and be able to
address the accessibility issues with their patients even if the system is
designed correctly. Web accessibility standards that accommodate persons with
disabilities need to be enforced on telemedicine platforms.8
