GFD requests government to resuscitate board

The Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) has called on the government to resuscitate the Board of National Council on Persons with Disability (PWD) to be able to effectively offer policy directions.

The Federation said the redundancy of the board is undermining the successful enforcement of the National Disability Act, to protect the interest of members of GFD.

Mr Yaw Ofori-Debrah, President of the Federation, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, was commenting on the enforcement of provisions of Persons With Disability Act (Act 715) passed in June 23, 2006.

He said the accessibility clause, which requires public structures or places existing before the passage of the act, to be redesigned or structured, has not been enforced.

Mr Ofori-Debrah expressed regret that three years to the expiry of the moratorium of the Act, “we don’t see any effort being made to facilitate persons with clutches or wheel chairs to access such public facilities.”

He lamented that persons who use wheel chairs or clutches or suffer a disability in one form, could not access a number of offices of ministries, some hospitals, schools or cross major roads.

Mr Ofori-Debrah said since the term of office of members of the Board of National Council on PWD expired in March 2012, there has not been any attempt to reconstitute it, and that is seriously affecting the implementation of policy guidelines.

He said the situation had become worse since the council was understaffed and under resourced.

Mr Ofori-Debrah appealed to the government to immediately reconstitute the council and staff it with relevant persons, and also provide adequate logistics to enable it to function properly.

He also asked the government to grant the council substantial autonomy to manage its budget allocations as well as ensure agencies and departments responsible for addressing disability issues live up to expectation.