The Government of Ghana, through the National Council on Persons with Disability has launched two policy documents aimed at facilitating the inclusion of persons with disabilities into mainstream society.
At the second National Disability Inclusion Summit held in Accra on Wednesday February 22, 2023, a policy by the Driver and Vehicle Lincensing Authority (DVLA) for testing and training drivers with Disabilities was launched.
This is aimed at granting equal access to facilities and services provided by the DVLA.
It provides a comprehensive framework for training, testing and licensing of drivers with disabilities.
The second document launched was an Inclusion Disaster Risk Management Guidelines.
These guidelines emphasise the need for persons with disabilities and their representative organisations to be actively involved in the development of disaster risk response policies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
It provides concise steps for disaster response organisations to guide their operations across the preparedness and mitigation phase to the response and recovery phases.
The unique needs of persons with various forms of disabilities and appropriate reasonable accommodation provisions that must be made are highlighted in the guidelines.
The National Council on Persons with Disabilities, the state agency for disability matters and systemic inclusion of persons with disabilities in the country was instrumental in the development of the policy documents which are expected to greatly contribute to efforts to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind in any aspect of society.
The second Disability Inclusion Summit which was under the theme “Achieving a sustainable dignified life for persons with disabilities: the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders”, brought together state agencies, civil society and United Nations organisations.
It was to give policy implementers the platform to share progress made towards the achievement of Ghana’s commitments at the 2022 Global Disability Summit, to inform and update persons with disabilities and stakeholders on contributions made and being made towards the sustainable dignified lives of persons with disabilities, among other things.