HIV guidelines translated to braille

The Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) has launched translated material of the national stigma and discrimination guidelines into braille for the visually impaired and sign language for those with hearing impairment.

The bid is intended to enable people with hearing and visual impairment to have access to information on HIV/Aids, according to Dr Vincent Bagambe, the director of planning and strategic information at UAC. He said people with disabilities are vulnerable to HIV infections.

In 2021, the Uganda Aids Commission launched the National Policy Guidelines on Ending Stigma and Discrimination against persons living with HIV/Aids. The policy provides for privacy and confidentiality of people living with HIV.

Justification

“We realised that although we are making good progress in the fight against HIV/Aids, the progress is not uniform, there are some people being left behind and unfortunately, people with disabilities are among the groups that are vulnerable to acquiring new HIV infections and even those living with HIV are behind in accessing care and treatment,” Dr Bagambe said.

He added: “Persons with disabilities who are living with HIV are stigmatised by community members, health workers . Some of these people even fear accessing treatment and care. So to fight all this stigma and improve access to care, we have come up with these guidelines in braille and sign language form.”

Dr Bagambe said UAC has in the past lacked funds to translate the materials.

“Translating is a costly exercise, you need special material. You must use experts to translate the content into the braille, engage the community so that when the guidelines are translated, they are actually communicating the correct message,” Dr Bagambe said.

Mr Charles Byekwaso, the acting executive director of Uganda National Association of the Blind, decried difficulties in accessing information, including on health matters..

“All the work that agencies and government do, they put it in print very well knowing that for us we don’t see so you cannot read print unless someone endeavours to read it to you, which is tiresome. So we have no independence in accessing information,” Mr Byekwaso said.

He added : “So we are very happy that Uganda Aids Commission has come up to support the production of the stigma and discrimination document into braille and we believe it will also be produced into other formats like the human narration, large print for those who partly see, audio, machine reading for you.”